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"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Roughly twohundred thirty two years ago, when Thomas Jefferson penned those immortal words, a significant number of people in the American colonies were comprised of indentured servants, black slaves, beleaguered Native Americans, immigrants, and millions of struggling poor. Years of tyrannical abuse, political corruption, stark gaps between the wealthy and impoverished, and a firm belief amongst Patriots in the "consent of the governed" provided the sustenance necessary…

Marginality is an in-between or liminal situation experienced by a marginal person or a marginal group of people because they are forced by the dominant group to exist on the edges or threshold of the accepted social norm. Liminal existence is marked by ambiguity, lack of structure, and lack of identity. It is a negative experience. And yet marginality opens up possibilities and hopes that cannot be seen by the dominant people in the center. The situation of marginality can…

Moderator Tom Brokaw on the December 7th edition of NBC's "Meet the Press" asked Barack Obama what changes he and wife Michelle planned to bring to the White House. Obama replied that the President's house would serve as a "bully pulpit." Such a phrase might be interpreted in a pejorative way unless we know its history. President Theodore Roosevelt wielded constructive power from his bully pulpit. To "bully" doesn't always mean verbally browbeating enemies. The British shout "bully" when a…

Twenty-five years ago in a predecessor of this magazine, The Reformed Journal, I asked a question that got me into a lot of trouble. The question was "Whatever Happened to Francis Schaeffer," a takeoff on one of Schaeffer's book titles. The RJ submitted the article for an award, which in due course it won; the essay was named "the best feature article in a religious magazine" for 1983. That got it some notoriety and the attention of the Schaeffers, who…

Christianity has often profited from listening to its severest critics. Voltaire, Feuerbach, Nietzsche, Freud, Camus--all have perceived and expressed uncomfortable truths about religion, truths that believers needed to hear even when they were combined with much that was unpalatable. On the evidence of this desultory and sophomoric diatribe, Christopher Hitchens will not be joining that select company of Christianity's benefactors. He will no doubt be relieved to hear it. Hitchens, the British-born American pundit, has always cultivated the image of…

"So...did you vote? " Normally, my response to that question would be a quick, "Yes, of course." Voting is a civic privilege and responsibility that I never take for granted. But since the question arose while I was sharing dessert with a particular group of ethically savvy individuals, I replied more slowly and carefully. It was last November, and I was out to dinner during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion. I knew that for the Catholic,…