Overheard (October 2026)

You have the folks who believe this is a Christian nation, that if your family is not this set of European nations, that you should not be welcomed here.

Abdullah H. Hammoud, mayor of Dearborn, Mich., commenting on “Christian crusader” Jake Lang, who held a “Christian Crusade” rally in the majority Arab American city, billed online as a “pig roast.” Hundreds of supporters, including a group of neo-Nazis bearing a swastika flag, attended, along with counterprotesters.

New York Times, 8-23-26

There is one essential truth. There is no immortality.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who served on the Obama administration as a health policy adviser. He was quoting his Greek mother, Calliope Emanuel, who in turn was quoting a popular Greek song of the 1980s.

New York Times, 8-24-26

People aren’t objects, avatars or paper dolls. We are not just tools for a patriarchal agenda, either as breeders, soldiers or patriots. . . I like to imagine that one day, Charlie Kirk would have discovered his religious trauma, caused by grooming, objectification, a foreclosed future and the pressure to shine up the harsh realities of the idealism he was paid to promote. Maybe he would have deconstructed his previous beliefs and grown into a well-rounded human being after all, instead of living and dying as a paper poster boy for the patriarchy.

Tia Levings, author of “A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy” and “I Belong to Me: A Survivor’s Guide to Recovery and Hope after Religious Trauma,” in her column, “Sainting Charlie Kirk serves the MAGA movement. It doesn’t serve the girls who believe it.”

Religion News Service, 9-3-26

One of the reasons people favor secularism is because it actually protects all religions.

British-American broadcaster Mehdi Hasan, who hosted Doug Wilson, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s pastor, in a “Mehdi Unfiltered” interview to confront the pastor’s dangerous views.  Hasan was named FFRF Action Fund’s “Secularist of the Week” on Sept. 11.

YouTube, 9-3-26

This is not faith. This is blasphemy baptized in nationalism. . . If the government is acting as a Christian nationalist organization as opposed to one representing the Constitution and all Americans, there is a problem.

John Whitehead, in the article, “Why a lawyer who launched the Christian legal movement believes it’s gone astray.”

Washington Post, 9-14-26

I’m trying to protect our democracy. And I believe that the wall of separation between church and state is perhaps the most important pillar of protecting us from religious tyranny.

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., in an interview with Katherine Stewart as he promotes his new book “No Prophets: The Fight to Save Democracy from Christian Nationalism.”

Religion News Service, 8-19-26