Political Rhetoric Archives - Page 6 of 6 - Assertive Spirituality

picture of torn words symbolizing Nancy Pelosi's protest at the State of the Union

When Demonization Is Elevated and a Woman Tears It Up: The Religio-Political Rhetoric of the SOTU

February 9, 2020 DS Leiter Comments 5 comments

It was hard to choose what to write about this week. Since this project focuses on the contexts around the religio-political landscape and I’ve been talking about god terms (things we see as “all good” and defend at all costs) and devil terms (things we see as “all bad” and fight at all costs, I ultimately zeroed in on two highly symbolic gestures at the State of the Union. That’s right, we’ll be talking about and contrasting Rush Limbaugh (whose…

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rhetoric and policies too often silence the voices of justice--this image highlights that with an image of a barbed-wire fence

MLK, “Nice,” the 81%, and the Silencing of Voices for Justice

January 18, 2020 DS Leiter Comments 4 comments

NOTE: This piece was originally published in January 2020. That means it was published before the pandemic, before the 2020 election, before 1/6, and before the switch to the Biden administration. It is startling to me, looking back from my current vantage point in 2022 after all those events, to see how relevant all of this still is, as is “Letters from Birmingham Jail.” May we continue the struggle against white supremacy and fascism and for justice and healthier communities…

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Image depicting the harm that comes from demonization and warmongering--the article gives tips to speak back.

How to Push Back Against Demonization and Warmongering

January 11, 2020 DS Leiter Comments 2 comments

As I pointed out last week, 2020’s been really religio-politically intense so far. What with war being threatened between the US and Iran and Australia burning, it feels like the world is bating its breath to see what’s going to happen. Meanwhile, rhetoric from the current US administration is turning real humans into seeming cartoons, continuing to demonize and dehumanize the Other—especially the progressive/liberal other and the Middle Eastern other (not to mention other brown-skinned immigrant others). It’s important to…

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Scientists reaching consensus (perhaps on climate change).

Climate Change Rhetoric, Hope, and the “Brainwashing of Children”

December 1, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 1 comment

So a few weeks ago, when I posted the article about Greta Thunberg and the complexities of (self-)censorship, we got a whole bunch of trolls popping in on that article when I advertised it on Facebook. The next week I published a response from an AS follower to some of those trolls’ views. This week I’m finally getting around to analyzing some of the troll rhetoric myself. In this blog post I’ll look at the ways in which the themes…

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Why None of Us Can Be “Perfectly Woke” or Safe

November 9, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 1 comment

Well, friends, we’re here. Friday was the 3rd anniversary of the 2016 election. And everywhere I look I see the signs that we’re all pretty tired. And as I said a couple of weeks ago, one of the phenomena that pops up when we’re all as exhausted as we are (for good reason) is the “eating one’s own” phenomenon, especially within what’s often referred to as “call out culture.” Often this phenomena comes out in expectations of perfection that each…

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child plants flower; sustainable agriculture

Open Letter to Climate Change Naysayers at Assertive Spirituality

September 28, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 4 comments

Editor’s Note: This week’s blog post is a guest piece from someone who was following last week’s piece and had both experience and expertise in science and sustainable agriculture to respond to the climate change naysayers responding to the article, yet wished to remain anonymous. I offer it here in a very lightly edited version as an excellent example of #AssertiveSpirituality. Go team! May we all continue to do what we can where we are with what we’ve got to…

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Two Rams Locking Horns--Illustrating a Spirituality of Competition

Unwrapping a Healthy Spirituality of Competition; Or, Why I’m Not Working to Persuade Conservatives

September 8, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 9 comments

I’ve been hearing it a lot lately, these cautions from the “reasonable people.” “Well, if you want the conservatives to actually hear you, you should tone down the language there.” “Well, that comparison doesn’t apply to ALL the conservatives. Shouldn’t you be more inclusive?” In this article, I plan to follow up on my previous article about “Jesus and the Limits of Listening” as well as other blog posts I’ll link throughout by discussing why I don’t think It’s always…

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Why “Christian Nice” Enables Covert Abuse and Authoritarian Politics

August 4, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 5 comments

So if you follow this space, you know that I grew up in a “moderate” religio-political space that followed the rules of “Christian Nice.” Under the surface, that often meant that the kind of “peace” that was spiritually elevated as a “god term”—that is, as I’ve said before, something to be defended at all costs, and, in this context, actually also seen as more godly—was too often associated with the suppression of confrontation. This meant “conflict” and “confrontation” were treated…

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How to Be a Moderate Ally in the US Today

July 27, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 3 comments

As I’ve explained before, I grew up in a denomination which many describe as falling *just* on the Evangelical side of what’s known as the Evangelical-Mainline divide among more conservative and more progressive churches in the US. That means I know many people in the US today who claim to be religio-politically moderate. Most of these are polling in the “independent” category on political surveys–but some are more independent than others. I’ll be frank—I believe the country has swung so…

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“Go Back Where You Came From,” White Evangelicals, and Territoriality: An Analysis

July 20, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 2 comments

This week the current head of the US administration told four congresswomen who were women of color, three of which were born in the US, to “go back where they came from” (if you want to find out more about that, Google will get you to lots of articles–or hold on, and I’ll be linking a few throughout this article). This article is an analysis of this statement using tools from the communication field, including the way the phrase is…

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Abortion Rhetoric, “Baby Killers,” and the Horns Effect (A Year of #AssertiveSpirituality Part 1)

May 25, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 9 comments

NOTE 9/4/2021: Since the blindingly restrictive Texas abortion law just passed, I’m reposting this article, most of which still holds. But please note that it was written during the last US presidential administration, so when it refers to the current head of the administration it is NOT referring to Biden but the former guy. It also refers to the specifics of some of the current abortion bills rather than the Texas one. But, yeah, all this stuff is sadly still…

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moral betrayal

Feeling Betrayed by My White Evangelical Peops

April 13, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 17 comments

I finally realized Passion week is forcing me to come to confront the idea of Judas as betrayer. See, I realized that I understand the challenges between Jesus and Judas much better since November 8, 2016. I don’t pretend to be Jesus. But it certainly feels like way too many of my peops became Judas on November 8, 2016, when they voted for the current head of the US executive branch. I know I’m not alone in still struggling with…

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“Get Behind Me, Satan!”: Jesus and the Limits of Listening (Devil Terms part 5)

March 30, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 0 Comment

In this–the latest in a series of posts on “god terms” and “devil terms” (see the previous installments of the series here, here, here, and here)–I talk about how Jesus did NOT treat “free speech,” neutrality, or “equal time to all perspectives” as “god terms” to be defended at all costs. In fact, according to the biblical narratives, he seems to have definitely taken the side of the poor, marginalized, and oppressed the large majority of the time. Also according…

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“Ashes to Ashes” and Death as a Devil Term (Devil Terms Part 4)

March 19, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 0 Comment

As I started writing this, it was Ash Wednesday, the day when many Christians and Christian churches soberly gather to remember their mortality. As I finish it a couple of weeks later, it’s still very much Lent—and feeling more intensely that way after last Friday’s mosque shooting in New Zealand, perpetrated by a white supremacist. In light of all this, I felt it was high time to continue this series reflecting on god and devil terms by talking about healthy…

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The Fear of Tyranny that Could Unite Us: The Politics of Devil Terms Part 2

February 23, 2019 DS Leiter Comments 3 comments

As a communication scholar, I found the social media reaction to last week’s article about socialism as a devil term fascinating (if also disturbing). This week’s article will dive into some—er, differences of opinion I hold with many of the commenters. But it will also get into some unexpected common ground I found in the comments section among those who support the current US administration and those who dissent from its rhetoric and policies: a fear of tyranny. NOTE: This…

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