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When “Never Again” Meets the Ballot Box

Israel's election raises a troubling question about historical memory, political power, and the responsibility of those who have suffered. The results of Israel's parliamentary election offer a troubling juxtaposition. Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have retained the support of a clear majority of Jewish Israeli voters, according to Reuters, even as his political coalition falls short of a parliamentary majority. The election comes after years of war, the devastation of Gaza, and mounting international accusations that Israeli military operations have constituted genocide. The election raises questions about Netanyahu's political future. It also raises a question that reaches beyond Israeli electoral politics: Can a nation founded, in significant part, upon the determination that genocide must never happen again become responsible for genocide itself? The question is painful, not least because of the history that makes it possible to ask. The State of Israel emerged in 1948 ...
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Whose Christianity? Whose America?

Reflections on Christian Nationalism, Political Identity, and the Church There is something peculiar about the contemporary debate over Christian nationalism. Christians argue about whether America is, or ought to be, a Christian nation. Politicians invoke Christianity as a source of national identity. Religious leaders warn against the identification of the gospel with political power. And much of the argument unfolds not in churches, seminaries, or theological journals, but in electoral campaigns, legislative chambers, television studios, and social media. What, exactly, are we arguing about? One possibility is that Christian nationalism represents a theological controversy conducted through electoral politics. Christians disagree about the nature of Christianity, the meaning of Christian discipleship, and the proper relationship between the church and political authority. Those disagreements find expression in competing visions of American public life. Another possibility revers...
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