Americans today are at another historic crossroads, deciding what kind of society they want. They are again hearing the voices of those excluded from the promise of freedom and equality. Workers battling low wages and job instability, African Americans facing poverty and mass incarceration, immigrants encountering nativism, and frustrated young people—all are experiencing a kind of unfreedom. More often than not, they are alienated from religion.
A disillusioned middle class feels threatened by the visibility of the long unrepresented. There doesn’t seem to be enough to go around. National politics appears to be unraveling, and the apparatus of government is suspected of colluding with those holding the majority of economic power as if by divine right. The neoliberal state is incapable of simultaneously fostering a new politic and preserving itself.
Once again, people of faith are dividing over the direction of the nation. The questions are familiar. What are the demands of justice? What does it mean to be free? What do we owe our fellow human beings?
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