Posts From Bruce Ashford

Feeling Lonely? You’re not Alone

There is an epidemic that kills more people than obesity and has the same negative effect as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. Former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says it causes “an insidious type of stress” that can lead to chronic inflammation, heart disease, dementia, depression, and anxiety. This condition is no respecter of persons, afflicting [ Read More ]

An Open Letter to the Cartoonist Who Mocked Kavanaugh’s Daughter

A left-wing political cartoonist is facing criticism, and rightly so, for mocking Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s 10-year-old-daughter, Liza, in a cartoon published this past weekend. The cartoonist, Chris Britt, depicted the girl praying, “Dear God, please forgive my angry, lying, alcoholic father for sexually assaulting Dr. [Christine] Ford.” The context of the illustration is [ Read More ]

Christian Politics in a Secular Age

Recently, The Commonweal Project invited me to speak on “Christian Politics in a Secular Age” at their conference in Atlanta, GA. As it turned out, C-SPAN showed up to televise the talk and subsequent Q&A session. The televised talk is divided into roughly five segments: An introductory segment in which I draw upon sociologist Philip Rieff [ Read More ]

Marco Rubio’s Parental Leave Plan: Good for the Working Class and Good for the Nation

Last month, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) introduced the Economic Security for New Parents Act, a fiscally-responsible paid-parental-leave plan that is good not only for working-class families but for the nation as a whole. In the Rubio bill, parents of newborn babies or newly-adopted children are given the option of drawing upon Social Security to take [ Read More ]

The (Religious) Problem with Nationalism

Recently, I posted articles examining the rise and development of political liberalism and socialism in the United States, arguing that the former ideology makes an idol out of “individual autonomy” while the latter ideology makes an idol of “material equality.” In this article, we will examine the idolatrous nature of political nationalism. Before delving into [ Read More ]

What Should We Make of the Democratic Socialists of America?

A libertarian, a socialist, and a nationalist walk into a bar. I only know because they each told everyone within two minutes. That’s a joke. But jokes aside, socialism is one of several highly-energized and mobilized political movements—especially among Millennials—in the United States right now. The 2016 presidential primaries saw a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Bernie [ Read More ]