A special collection of recent writing on Black Lives Matter that I’ve been reading North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, always happy to sacrifice the welfare and rights of his state’s residents to the prejudices of the powerful, has decided that North Carolina’s police don’t have to share body camera footage with the public unless compelled... Continue Reading →
Reading Round Up, September 23, 2016
Most of my reading this week has focused on Black Lives Matter, police brutality, and protests. I’m working on a special Reading Round Up just on those topics. For now, though, here’s the rest of what I’ve been reading this week. Chelsea Fagan blogs about her experience with money at The Financial Diet (a title... Continue Reading →
The 2016 Republican Platform is Deplorable
I’ve been thinking a lot about Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment, made last week at a fundraiser in New York, for a number of reasons. The Republican faux-outrage at the comment dramatically highlights that party’s silence around the racist, Islamphobic, and sexist words of their own candidate. Clinton calls racists racists and Mike Pence... Continue Reading →
Hell, Coffee, and Bees
I shared last week some good-natured teasing that local companies in Utah use in marketing in a region heavily populated by members of the Latter Day Saints, Jack Mormon Coffee Co. being my current favorite. A few folks asked for more details, and the religion scholar in me couldn’t resist tracking down the answers. So,... Continue Reading →
Reading Round Up, September 16, 2016
A brief list of what I've been reading this week, mostly about religion, politics, sex, and hate groups, but with a little bit of celebrity parody thrown in. Goshen College doesn’t play the national anthem, and it’s just fine. Stories matter, and we need to give more attention to the ones we tell our children.... Continue Reading →
Beer, Coffee, and Religious Demography
Our family recently moved to Ogden, Utah, whose history as a railroad depot, racial and ethnic diversity, artsy vibe, seedy pockets, and relatively smaller Latter Day Saint population (about 60%, as opposed to parts of Utah were more than 80% of the population is Mormon) has given rise to the motto “Keep Ogden Sketchy.” Unlike... Continue Reading →
Reading Round Up, September 9, 2016
I’m trying out a new feature on this blog—a record of what I’m reading this week, specifically news items, peer-reviewed articles, books, and reports that address my interests in hate and extremism, sex, women and gender, politics, religion, family life, and higher ed. Small amounts of celebrity gossip thrown in. If you have an item... Continue Reading →
Acing Unplanned Pregnancy Prevention at College
The state of Arkansas has asked its universities to help discourage unplanned pregnancy among women in college. Universities, taking a variety of approaches to the task, are already at work. There is no funding built into the mandate. Thankfully, the state of Colorado has already figured out how to dramatically reduce unplanned pregnancies—with a cost... Continue Reading →
Who’s Going to Help Arkansas’ Young Women Avoid Unplanned Pregnancy?
Answer: Without funding for this state mandate, the work is going to fall mostly to women. In spring 2015, the Arkansas State legislature officially called upon the state’s public universities to address unplanned pregnancy in higher education. While teen pregnancy rates have been falling for a long time nationwide, Arkansas continues to have among the... Continue Reading →
Religion Dispatches: 10 Questions on _God Hates_
Religion Dispatches' 10 Questions series long been one of my favorite columns. It has let me see what the authors of some of my favorite books were thinking about as they researched and wrote. I often share the columns with students as they read those books in the classes I teach, and it's fun to... Continue Reading →
Rebecca Barrett-Fox 