(1) Official Who Fined Bakery Over Gay Cake Loses Election |The Daily Caller
… Avakian, on the other hand, vowed to turn the office into a vehicle for progressive politics, saying he would use the post to fight climate change, promote abortion rights, investigate private companies, and champion certain candidates and political causes (despite the office’s electoral monitoring role). Avakian’s ambition alienated many, and despite traditionally endorsing Democrats, several newspapers in the state backed Richardson.
The defeat doesn’t mean Avakian is out of the public sphere, though. He remains Oregon’s labor commissioner for the next two years.
(2) Two Concerns for the Religious Right Under President Trump, by Collin Hansen |The Gospel Coalition
… The Religious Right—much to my surprise—is once again ascendant, having delivered perhaps the most shocking presidential upset in American history. Republicans control governance of the most powerful nation on earth at nearly every level. I know many godly men and women overjoyed with this result that I never thought possible.
And history is not doomed to repeat itself. This Religious Right is not necessarily bound by the sins of its fathers, who contributed to the ongoing political split between white and black evangelicals. They were often blind to the ways their success excluded racial minorities. Perhaps President Trump, contrary to my expectations, will deliver justice and opportunity for all, held accountable by the white evangelicals who granted him power.
I’ve been wrong about so much already. And I’ve never before wanted so badly to be wrong again.
(3) The last hurrah of white Christian America, by Jacob Lupfer |RNS
***All we’ve heard for a year now is how dead the Evangelicals-as-voting-bloc thing is. Then, to quote Mark Twain, it turns out the death was greatly exaggerated. Better discernment in reading the news may require us to understand that when some people talk about what “is” they may actually be referring to what they “hope is.”
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