Neoliberal Micro-Psychology vs Communist Macro-Psychology

From Flatland to Spaceland Part II

by Bruce Lerro / March 14th, 2025

Author Bruce Lerro, Co-Founder and Co-Organizer for Socialist Planning Beyond Capitalism

Summary of Part I

In Part I of this article I contrasted sixteen ways in which communist macro-psychology differs from liberal micro-psychology as it is practiced in the United States. I described communist psychology in action in the field of eating habits and the impact of advertising on the public’s emotional life. I discussed the reasons why my readers might have a difficult time appreciating what communist psychology has to offer and I used the science fiction book Flatland as an analogy to show that using communist psychological concepts is like living in the third dimension of a two-dimensional world of capitalist micro-psychology.

In Part II of my article, I will describe how even when communist psychology books are translated from Russian into English, they are unconsciously or consciously distorted or censored by those Ratner calls neoliberal psychologists to fit better with the structure and dynamics of capitalism. As an example of macro-cultural psychology in this article I will also use an example of how capitalism is connected to mental illnesses, specifically in schizophrenia and the pressure to be thin.

What is Neoliberal Activity Theory?
As many of you know, neoliberalism in the field of economics and politics hit the United States and England full-force with the election of Reagan and Thatcher. It was characterized by economic policies designed to hollow out of the technological infrastructure, attack unions and the wages of workers. Neoliberalism is also connected to the rise of transnational, financial capitalism. It would appear that these conditions would breed a kind of pessimistic psychology with individuals seen as more or less determined by socio-structural forces. But that did not happen in the field of psychological activity theory in the United States. In fact the opposite happened.

It was in early 1980s that Vygotsky’s work was brought to the United States thanks to the educational psychologist Michael Cole. But Cole’s presentation of Vygotsky’s work played down the fact that Vygotsky was a communist set on building a Marxist psychology. Instead, Vygotsky’s interest in learning, education and his work on “defectology” (social education of blind and deaf children) was emphasized. The main problem is that neoliberal psychologists want to eclectically use Vygotsky’s work in education while either intentionally or unintentionally leaving out the fact that Vygotsky and his colleagues were trying to build a communist psychology. Ratner writes that this is akin to writing about Darwin and holding conferences about his ideas yet never exploring his concept of evolution. As American psychologist Carl Ratner writes:

Eighty years later, under much less social pressure, and with many more resources, contemporary activity theorists have generally regressed from the limited concrete emphasis in Vygotsky, Luria and Leontiev’s theories. (Page 240)

In addition, almost as a reaction formation to the hard neoliberal economic times, these psychologists emphasized the active nature of individuals in relation to social structure (with a romantic conception of individuals as free as birds – see image at beginning of article). For example, they selected peer group cooperative learning as opposed to learning through an individual instructor. They emphasized language and conversations in cooperation as opposed to Leontiev’s emphasis on collective tool use. Neoliberal Vygotskians were more interested in the cooperative settings of school and play and less in work settings. Some of them caught the postmodern bug and questioned scientific objectivity as the ultimate aspiration of psychologists.

The Fear of Macro-Cultural Psychology
Ratner points out that in world neoliberal psychology the subjects of consumer capitalism, commodification, alienation, exploitation and ideology are never mentioned in their leading journals on culture. For example, he tells us these subjects are not mentioned in the 17-year history of Michael Cole’s journal Mind, Culture and Activity, supposedly sympathetic to Vygotskyan work. Neither did these subjects ever appear in the Journal of Cross-cultural Psychology over a period of forty years. The Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology mentions the word capitalism twice in 850 pages. Ratner explains that the most famous social psychology text ever, The Social Animal, never once mentions social class. There is a neglect of macro social factors involved in mental illness – for example the link between psychological depression and capitalist economic instabilities (to be covered shortly). Why is this? Drug companies want patients to use their products and not question the economic system that might be ultimately the reason these patients have these problems. Ratner says that every one of the authors of DSM manual’s  sections on mood disorders and schizophrenia had financial ties to drug companies

Qualifications About Micro Neoliberal Psychology
These journals and books fail to discuss in detail exploitation, alienation, commodification, ideology, mystification, hegemony or social class. Social class is rarely mentioned, yet research proves that it affects mortality, diseases, opportunities, privileges, health care, literacy, vocabulary and working memory. Neoliberal psychology admits that the micro-level reflects effects of these macro events, but it does not reveal the power and depth of macro cultural factors in their full complexity which go beyond the level of face-to-face interaction. Neoliberal psychologists sometimes acknowledge the effect of exploitation – poverty, stress, anxiety, prejudice – but they attribute them to factors other than an exploitive political economy. For example, instead of blaming the political economy of capitalism we hear of the “corruption of individuals”, “rotten apples”, “rogue criminals”, “greedy businessmen” or “disturbed individuals”. These are all vices of individuals. Structures get away scot-free. Lastly, it is not enough that cross-cultural psychologists point out that most Americans have more individualistic self-concept and North Koreans have a collectivist orientation. It is necessary to analyze the political character of the individualistic self-concept.

Macro-Cultural vs Micro-Cultural Activity Theory

Socio-historical activity theory says it is a collectivist, mediated and object-oriented activity system which is the prime unit of analysis. Secondly, the activity system is always a community, not a dyad or triad. Thirdly, contradiction has a central role as sources of change and development. In other words, conflict in real objective systems is the mother of change. Fourthly, these activity systems get transformed over long periods of historical time – centuries.  Lastly, it is collective-creative activity such as new inventions like the printing press, the telescope and the microscope, qualitative changes that drive psychological changes in the individual. An example is the need for merchants to develop insurance policies for their ships that led  to the emergence of formal operational thinking among 17^th century merchants and scientists.

In the case of neoliberal theorists of Vygotsky it is the local group, not the collective  which is the mediated form of activity. The collective institutional framework in which activity takes place – whether the society is feudal, capitalist or socialist – is ignored. Secondly, the places where Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development takes place are usually among peers. If teachers are involved, they are teaching in a permissive way and less in a way wherein the teacher takes the lead. Thirdly, liberal Vygotskians usually don’t pay much attention to the changing historical contexts in which activity takes place. In the macro activity case, Luria conducted studies shortly after the Russian Revolution about how peasant life psychologically changed as peasants were introduced to the industrialization process. He tracked how peasants’ sense of perception, cognition and personality were transformed. Neoliberal activity theorist rarely delve into the history of activity in their own country. Fourthly, in liberal theory contradictions are not usually understood as opportunities for transformation. They are seen as problems that need to be worked out to re-achieve stability. They might also be dismissed as the products of faulty reasoning. Lastly, activity theory is not often presented as having undergone major changes due to the phases of capitalism, the invention of the telescope, microscope or changes in industry. Rather, activity engagements might be contrasted to before or after the internet, Facebook, texting or Twitter.

Micro Cultural Activity Theory reduces the activity process to simple, small, personal, casual, apolitical and spontaneous interactions. But as Ratner says, whole societies are not re-formed on the model of someone helping a neighbor turn off the gas. The telecommunications industry does not operate by individuals broadcasting from their home radios. The macro conditions of the Wall Street 2008 crash and what bankers got away with cannot be understood by a cooperative meeting between an individual client and their financial planner.

Individuals do not spontaneously categorize artifacts with personal meanings. If they did there would be no commonality to individuals’ psychology. Each would imbue artifacts with different idiosyncratic meanings. Terms like “cultural factors” and “cultural context” are lifeless abstractions that exclude the political and economic driving forces that design and maintain these factors in the face of competing intersections for other classes. The term “context” obscures the active way capitalists and their politicians create context and make and structure our behavior in the service of their political interests. Without these macro institutions, Ratner points out that there would be tremendous slippage in micro interactions from the first dyad to the last – as studies of rumor transmission document. Macro-institutions already inform any micro social interactions and hold them together.

Micro-cultural psychologists treat verbal language and symbolic culture as at least equal to the material culture of work. In macro-cultural psychology work is the center of human activity and symbols and language were first used to assist the work process. Language and symbols do not arise spontaneously. Lastly, micro-cultural psychologists do not pay enough attention to the existence of the core, periphery and semi-periphery nations in the world-capitalist system. Countries in each of their zones had unique political economic institutions that produced a unique psychology. Grouping these societies as individualist or collectivist tells us nothing about their political economy. Collectivist societies can be tribal or agricultural and this kind of collectivism is very different from the collectivism of socialist societies. So too, there were some individualist selves in the commercial civilizations of the Minoans, Phoenicians and Carthaginians. But this proto-individualism is a far cry from the individualism of industrial capitalist societies.

Examples of Neoliberal Micro Cultural Psychology in the Workplace
Ratner argues that Barbara Rogoff redefines society in novel, abstract terms such as a list of scattered, abstract “community routines”. There are no exploitation, alienation, market forces, profit motives, commodification, bureaucracy or ideology at all here. Here “culture” is a surface mix of bedtime stories, trips to school, and show-and-tell narratives. Rather than mention social class she called them depoliticized terms like “participation status”. So the only difference between the president from Exxon Mobil and a migrant peasant are positions in a conversation. Life imprisonment, coal mining, working in a slaughterhouse, and the obliteration of one’s country by an invading army is a no more than a “format”.

Jann Valsiner engaged in a conceptual watering down of social reality by re-naming “cultural factors” to “social suggestions”. So being terminated from your job, having your country invaded, being imprisoned, having your pension cancelled are “social suggestions”. Ratner adds we cannot remake the Federal Reserve Bank by altering a few words. Neither can the institution of slavery be abolished by changing a word such as calling it “racism”. There need to be workers’ self-organization and strikes to have a chance for a deep change. Valsiner and Litvinovich claim that individuals continuously changed culture through the simple act of dialoguing. It takes a lot more than conversations to do that.

Another problem for these neoliberal micro-psychologists is that subjectivity and psychology are treated as dichotomous to culture rather than dialectically related with macro culture as the leading edge. Culture is treated as a tool that an individual decides how and when to use. The current purposes of the participants always seem to trump established macro cultural structures. Micro-cultural psychologists define social life in whatever area seems to be within our personal control as individuals. Ratner says this is like looking for a lost key under wherever the streetlight is. Micro-cultural psychologists “zoom in” on individuals so much that they lose sight of mega social conditions that inform them.  Consequently, the individual appears to be acting on his or her own because these larger conditions have been cut out of the picture.

For example, in the case of Abu Ghraib the torturers seem to be acting on their own and the state of military elites are only too happy to blame working class soldiers. However, Ratner tells us, when we zoom out we see that entire chain of command encouraged the guards. Six hundred military and Blackwater personal were on hand to abuse 460 Iraqi detainees. This was a spontaneous eruption by the personal decision of 600 six hundred soldiers. The neoliberal micro-psychologists theory would seem to think so.

Lastly,  any attempt at objectivity is looked upon skeptically by many micro-cultural psychologists who insist on glorifying their subject’s subjective experience as the subject matter of psychology. Any objective interpretation that superseded theirs and critically evaluates subjective experience as possibly being due to illusions, short-sightedness or narcissism is condemned as elitist and coercive because it does not emanate from the individuals themselves. Ironically, a denial of objectivity traps people more because it tells them that nothing outside of them is really going on.

See the table at the end of the article below to view the contrasts between macro-cultural activity theory and micro-cultural liberal theory.

Example of Macro-Cultural Psychology Regarding Mental Illness
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia has been defined as the disorganization of thinking processes, emotional states and the inability to plan and carry out actions. But for macro-cultural psychology this state is not separate from the conditions of modern life. Ratner quotes T.S. Eliot as saying that in modern life there is also a separation between thought, emotion and sensation and a failure to reach what he calls a “unity of sensibility”. The symptoms of schizophrenia – withdrawal, highly idiosyncratic and abstract patterns of thinking and behaving and a preoccupation with hidden meanings – bare an unmistakable congruence with the broad social relations and concepts of capitalism (individualism, privacy and privatized meaning).

Ratner points out that catatonia was not described until after 1850. Even more telling is the absence of schizophrenia, at least of the chronic, autistic form, either in medical books or general literature prior to the 19^th century. Detachment, being naïve, cynicism, subjectivism and other psychological mechanisms of mental illness were not spontaneously constructed by mental patients. Psychological constructs emerge from macro-level forces that are widely known in a population. They were reported on by novelists and in painting styles of the time.

Ratner says that the experience of the individual feeling worthless is also historically recent. It used to be in the past that under Christianity an individual felt guilty from a sense of sinfulness. But with the relative decline of religion in the 19^thcentury, personal inadequacies were less hinged to religion and more simply a personal problem, a self divided against itself.

But this “divided self” emerged only in the late 19^th century in conjunction with the increased number of roles the individual was expected to play. In earlier times individuals might be conflicted between the soul and the body, but the individual was still pulled in only two directions. The 19^th century marked a new conception of different selves or personalities within one individual. The extreme case of this is  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), but there were also reports of multiple personalities within a single individual.  Psychological processes generally have followed changes in the history of capitalism. In the activist 1960s the psychic disorders were linked to social factors like poverty and migration. In the lean and mean times of neoliberalism these social factors disappear and the social environment shrinks to the nuclear or extended family, which is blamed for almost everything.

Tyranny of bodily slenderness
In the worst case scenario it appears that disorders like anorexia or bulimia are simply sudden eruptions of pathology that don’t have any social rhyme or reason. More socially oriented psychologists might say these disorders have something to do with advertising or movies that want women to be thin. Evolutionary psychologists will point out that a desire to be thin goes against evolutionary psychology principles and tell us that convincing adult women to be thin will sell a lot more products than showing voluptuous women on the cover of magazines. This is because after a couple of children, most woman naturally become voluptuous and there are more limits on the products that advertisers can sell them. Evolutionary psychologists call the intervention of advertising into Darwinian sexual selection “evolutionary mismatches”. All these points have some merit but they still ignore capitalism.

Here is what Ratner has to say about this:

Slenderness is represented in sleek thin light consumer products such as cell phones, flat panel televisions and thin, lightweight laptop computers. It is reflected in architecture that emphasizes sleek lines and sharp angles… Slenderness symbolized as agility and the ability to move and change directions quickly, free of encumbrances, independently. These attributes are important to modern capitalist society.

What kind of capitalism is this? Why, it’s finance capitalism, liquid capital. Ratner continues:

The investor is nimble in shifting his capital to maximized profit. The employer is nimble in anticipating production demands and increasing or decreasing his or her labor supply to prepare. The manager is nimble in shifting work to low wage areas and shifting suppliers to lower costs.

Sleekness and slimness represent nimble capital. They represent finance capital on a psychological plane. Anorexia or bulimia is like a crisis in finance capital visited upon psychological disorders. On the other hand, overweight or even voluptuousness is antithetical to these sleek qualities. Ratner says it is slow, ponderous, inertial, regulated and weighted down. Hence it is looked down upon. There certainly are Darwinian reasons for rejecting corpulence, but that is not the end of the story. What does full body or voluptuousness represent in the field of capitalism – industrial capitalism – in which capitalists invest in infrastructure, repair, goods and services? It is heavy capitalism.
So:

Sleekness = finance capital

Voluptuousness or chubbiness = industrial capital

Since we are living in the heyday of neoliberal finance capital it would make complete sense that being overweight is looked down upon just as investing in industry is something neoliberal capitalists in Yankeedom don’t want to do.

Ratner concludes:

Sleekness does not require waiting, preparing, thinking or training. It is always moving to a new location, getting away, diversifying, expanding horizons and novelty… The tyranny of slenderness that defines the female body is an element of the general lightness of being…This is the cultural root of eating disorders.

On the other hand:

In collectivist society life is slower, more integrated, more committed more encumbering with considerations for a large community. One sticks around, consults with others, sacrifices for others, accedes to others, supports others over the long hall.

This is why in collectivist societies there is little in the way of eating disorders except for perhaps within the upper middle classes. On the other hand, a hunter-gatherer may look at an anorexic person in the United States and wonder, “has there been a famine”?

Historical Underpinnings of Macro-Cultural Psychology

In reviewing the history of macro-cultural psychology Ratner says the first theorist was Abu Al-Biruni, a Muslim scholar who conducted an extensive ethnology of Indian psychology and mentality in 1017. In the west tenets of macro-cultural psychology originated in the cultural movement in Germany in the 1770s. They considered the texts of Moses, Homer and Plato not to be the wisdom of an individual sage but the expression of a nation’s achievement at a particular stage in its cultural development. They wanted to understand the collective development of the human mind in society, a process these scholars came to describe as culture. Herder and Vico were interested in this.

The term Völkerpsychologie was coined by Wilhelm Humboldt at the turn of the 19^th century. Its use was continued by Wilhelm Wundt in his cross-cultural psychology writing. Another cornerstone was the historical school known as Annales. It arose in France in the 1920s under the leadership of Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch. Febvre was interested in how the impact of the printing press affected sense ratios. Henri Corbin studied the history of smell (The Fowl and the Fragrant), hearing (Village Bells) and the impact of the sea on perception (The Lure of the Sea). Philippe Aries, as many of you know, studied the history of childhood.

Macro-cultural psychology has a promising history, but it was taken to new heights by communist psychologists in Russia in the 1920s and 1930. Vygotsky, Luria and Leontiev left us a rich legacy. It is up to us to keep Vygotskyan psychology communist and not let it become watered down and truncated by neoliberal micro-cultural psychologists, however well-intentioned they may be.

Macro-Cultural Communist Activity Theory vs Micro-Cultural Neoliberal Activity Theory

Macro-Cultural Activity Theory	Category of Comparison	Micro-Cultural Neoliberal Theory
A collective, macro artifact mediated and object oriented activity is the primary analysis in work. School and play are secondary. Class is emphasized	Scale of interaction	Limited to local interactionThe macro-framework is ignored The activity is limited to school and play Work and class relations are ignored
Authorities, then peers	Who drives new learning?	Anti-authoritarian emphasis of local interaction of peers They understate the hierarchical settings in which people work
Activity systems take shape and get transformed over lengthy periods of time	Temporal duration	The variations in activity over the long historical settings are ignored
The central role of contradictions as sources of change and development. In medicine the conflict between holistic and western medicine. played out in doctor vs patient fights over medications.	What is the place of contradiction?	Contradictions are seen as temporary problems to be smoothed over in a quest for equilibrium or understood as logical inconsistencies which are amended by formal logic
Activity moves through long cycles of qualitativetransformation including the printing press, telescope, microscope, capitalist boom and bust cycles or the rise of industry	Historical place of technology	They might contrast activity theory before the rise of the internet, Facebook, Instagram or text messaging but not usually before that
Collective work with tools is the central activity which makes us human. Symbols and language are derivative	Relationship between tools and verbal language	Symbolic culture and verbal language co-construct cooperative learning Importance of conversations
Is aware of how international  power hierarchy in the world system impact psychology	Place in the core, periphery or semi-periphery of the capitalist world system	Cross-cultural psychology is somewhat aware of it but not rooted in political economy “Individualism vs collectivism” is about it.
Agency is a biproduct of macro culture and sets the tone for both freedom and necessity	Structure and agency	Is afraid of structure Treats structure as automatically reifying Glorification of “agency” is independent and resisting structure
Ratner, Tulvistie	Theoreticians	Valsiner, Shweder, Rogoff, Gergen, Harré
Realism All psychologies are not equal Some explain more than others	Ranking of psychologies	Pluralistic Relativism Says there are many psychologies but they are not ranked—
Evolving, relative objectivity	Place of objectivity	Anti-objectivity Subjectivity
Scientific knowledge is superior to common sense knowledge of other groups	Place of science relative to other groups	The knowledge of scientists is not superior to the knowledge of other groups (Gergen)

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Bruce Lerro has taught for 25 years as an adjunct college professor of psychology at Golden Gate University, Dominican University and Diablo Valley College in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has applied a Vygotskian socio-historical perspective to his three books found on Amazon. He is a co-founder, organizer and writer for Socialist Planning Beyond Capitalism. Read other articles by Bruce, or visit Bruce's website.

Unification Church faces dissolution in Japan


By AFP
March 14, 2025

Natsuko FUKUE

The Unification Church has come under intense scrutiny in Japan since a former prime minister was assassinated, but it could soon fall even further from grace.

Authorities said in October 2023 they were seeking to dissolve the influential sect, founded in South Korea and nicknamed the “Moonies” after its late founder, Sun Myung Moon.

The church is accused of pressuring followers into making life-ruining donations, and blamed for child neglect among its members — although it has denied any wrongdoing.

Now a court order is expected to strip the group of legal recognition as early as this month, major Japanese media outlets reported.

The dissolution would remove the church’s tax-exempt status while branding the organisation a harmful entity.

Former prime minister Shinzo Abe — Japan’s longest-serving leader — was shot dead on the campaign trail in 2022, allegedly by a man who resented the Unification Church.

Investigations after Abe’s murder revealed close ties between the sect and many conservative ruling-party lawmakers, leading to the resignation of four ministers.

Even after its dissolution, the Unification Church could continue religious practices, said lawyer Katsuomi Abe.

But “its reputation will decline, and the number of followers will decrease”, said Abe, who represents former believers seeking compensation after making huge donations.

The amount donated by Japanese members over the decades has been estimated by some at hundreds of millions of US dollars or more.

Since 2023, nearly 200 people have demanded compensation of 5.7 billion yen ($38.5 million) in total, according to Abe and other lawyers.

“I don’t think any other organisation has caused such damage” to Japanese society, he told AFP.



– Calls for help –



It would be the third religious group ordered to disband in Japan — another being the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which released a deadly nerve agent on the Tokyo subway 30 years ago.

Aum eventually declared bankruptcy, but its two successor groups continue to operate in the country.

The Unification Church — officially the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification — was founded in 1954.

It rose to global prominence in the 1970s and 80s, becoming famous for mass weddings often held in stadiums.

Its affiliate groups have secured addresses from Donald Trump and Japan’s Abe, who was not a member of the church or its sub-groups but made a video speech at a 2021 event.

The man accused of killing Abe is 44-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, whose mother is said to have donated 100 million yen ($1 million at the time) to the Unification Church in total.

Yamagami, now in pre-trial detention, could face the death penalty if convicted.

He has reportedly attempted suicide in the past, while his brother took his own life.

Their uncle has described receiving calls for help from Yamagami when his mother left her children alone and without food to attend church.

Since Abe’s murder, the church has pledged to prevent “excessive” member donations.

– ‘Isolated’ –

Japan has long been a financial hub for the Unification Church, which tells members they must atone for the wartime occupation of Korea and sells expensive items to grant forgiveness from sins.

A man whose parents are members told a recent lawyers’ gathering that his family could not afford school equipment or even sometimes to run a bath.

He was told not to interact with “satanic” non-members and felt “lonely and isolated”. He said his brother took his own life last year after suffering mental health problems.

It could take up to a year for the dissolution order to be finalised if the church appeals.

Lawyers warn the group could transfer its financial assets elsewhere, partly due to a 2023 bill approved by the ruling party that critics say takes a light touch on financing.

“They’ve been sending tens of billions of yen every year to their South Korean headquarters,” said Abe.

He and other lawyers are calling for stronger legislation so that money can be returned to victims.

Liquidating the church’s assets will be a daunting job, Abe warned.

“There is a big question as to how many years the liquidation process will take… and whether it will go smoothly,” he said.

What goes on in a Christian Science reading room?

NEW AGE RELIGION BEFORE THE NEW AGE

(RNS) — Unlike other Christian denominations, a Christian Scientist's pastor is not a flesh-and-blood human being. Instead, it is two books that guide their faith.

Mike Van Vleck, left, and Gail Dowdle talk while volunteering at the Christian Science Reading Room in downtown Overland Park, Kansas, Friday, March 14, 2025. (RNS photo/Kit Doyle)

Greta Gaffin
March 14, 2025

(RNS) — In nearly every major American city and in many small towns, Christian Science reading rooms are found mixed in with storefronts. Passersby may hardly notice them, but to those who stop to wonder what goes on inside, their purpose may seem inscrutable: a few shelves of books and some chairs and tables with pamphlets and other reading materials. It’s like a waiting room without a doctor.

Is it a church, and what does it have to do with science? Are they Scientologists?

Christian Science reading rooms are not churches — although they are run by one — and they’re not affiliated with Scientologists. They are a ministry of a homegrown American religious tradition, namely the Church of Christ, Scientist, founded in 1879 in Boston based on the thought of Mary Baker Eddy.

Unlike other Christian denominations, their pastor is not a flesh-and-blood human. Instead, their pastor is two books that guide their faith: the Bible and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” essentially the church’s textbook, authored by Eddy. It aims to provide an explanation of both the Bible and Christian Science theology, which has a special focus on healing through prayer and spirituality.

“The reading room is like a parsonage,” said Jasmine Holzworth, librarian of the Christian Science Reading Room at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, the tradition’s first congregation, known as the Mother Church. “We don’t have a personal pastor — we have the books. People can come and sit and read. They’re here for people to trust as a pastor and ask their questions.”

Operating a reading room, which also offers Christian Science literature for sale, is not an optional ministry for a Christian Science church. Some smaller churches may jointly operate one with another local church, or may only have one open for a few hours a week, but all must offer a reading room, Eddy wrote in her “Manual of the Mother Church.”


Copies of the “Holy Bible” and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” are available to read at the Christian Science Reading Room in downtown Overland Park, Kansas, Friday, March 14, 2025. (RNS photo/Kit Doyle)

Conversely, reading rooms are always connected to a church. While they may not always be directly next to the church, they are all maintained by one, often in separate storefronts. Christian Scientists see this as a good thing, Holzworth said.

“Someone may not always want to walk into a church building — there’s a hesitancy about religion today,” Holzworth said.

RELATED: Decline in American Christian observance has slowed, Pew study finds

At a Christian Science Sunday service, there is no homily. Instead, it includes readings from the Bible and “Science and Health,” tied to a particular subject that Eddy set for each week of the year. The 26 subjects that repeat twice a year range from topics like “love” and “sacrament,” to “ancient and modern necromancy, alias mesmerism and hypnotism, denounced” and “Is the universe, including man, evolved by atomic force?”

“‘Science and Health’ is a book that continually turns us back to our Bible,” said Alex Griffin, who is the Deputy Committee on Publication for the state of Massachusetts.

Mary Baker Eddy. (Photo courtesy Library of Congress/Creative Commons)

Eddy, who died in 1910, was concerned that people interested in Christian Science would not be able to find adequate or legitimate books about the faith at regular bookstores, leading to an emphasis on the reading rooms, Holzworth said. During Eddy’s lifetime, New Thought leader Ursula Newell Gestefeld and others reused Eddy’s writings in a non-Christian context, which Eddy saw as a problem that could cause confusion about the faith. And even today, Christian Science is confused by some with Scientology, hence the importance of the reading rooms as places where those interested in Christian Science can find literature authorized by the church.

“You have to have the heart driving it,” Holzworth said. “What’s driving it is that congregation’s love for the teachings of Christian Science. When you’re motivated by love, all things are possible.”

Like many American religious groups, Christian Science churches have struggled in recent decades to maintain older buildings with dwindling numbers of practitioners and teachers. About 1,220 Christian Science churches are located throughout the world, and about half are in the United States. The denomination does not report its number of congregants in accordance with the Manual of the Mother Church, which states, “According to the Scripture they shall turn away from personality and numbering the people.”

Some Christian Science churches have sold their buildings and moved into the reading rooms. In other cases, the reading room has moved in with the church.

The Christian Science church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, purchased its Harvard Square building during the Great Depression and now rents out parts of it. Other churches lease storefronts like any other commercial entities. While the churches sell religious books for children and adults to help cover costs, church sources declined to give further details about how storefront rents are funded.

However, San Francisco International Airport has a reading room that, according to an SFGATE report, has its “exorbitant” rent paid for, in part, by pledges from 10 area churches. And in Naples, Florida, a reading room lost its storefront to a gelato shop after its landlord decided not to continue its lease in 2017. The Naples reading room, which opened in the 1960s, had been paying $790 per month in an area where rents went as high as $3,000 per month for a similar-size space. The reading room had negotiated the rent with a former landlord and lost the space after the building was sold.

While they see the reading rooms as a way to spread their faith, the church doesn’t aggressively proselytize to newcomers.

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, known as the Mother Church. (Photo courtesy Wikimedia/Creative Comons)

“It’s a gift to the community. You can come in and ask questions. Everyone’s on their own spiritual path. We’re meant to be welcoming to everyone,” Holzworth said. “You’re not going to find someone trying to sign you up for anything. We’re doing this because we love God, but people don’t need to love God to come in here.”

The Mother Church’s reading room is located next to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and Holzworth said it has hosted Berklee students of other denominations seeking a place to pray and read their Bibles. Students of no religion who just want a quiet space to be are also invited.

But for those in the religion, reading the week’s Bible lessons is an important part of the practice, she said.

“Christian Scientists use reading rooms as a place to study and dig in,” Holzworth said.

The reading room of the Mother Church also hosts a weekly event where participants read The Christian Science Monitor and pray for those impacted by world events.

“It’s not just a Sunday faith,” Holzworth said. “It’s meant to be applied to the whole week, and not just our own life, but the world around us.”

At larger reading rooms, like the one operated by the Mother Church, staff are paid. At smaller churches, however, congregants volunteer.

“I figured I was going to be studying the Bible and Christian Science anyway, so I might as well be doing it in a way that serves the community,” said Teddy Crecelius, a tour guide at the Mother Church who has previously been involved in Christian Science branch churches. “It’s not a burden.”

US Supreme Court will take up state bans on conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children, in a Colorado case

WASHINGTON (AP) — Colorado is among roughly half the states that prohibit the practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling.

An American flag waves in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building, June 27, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Mark Sherman
March 10, 2025


WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Monday in a case from Colorado to decide whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.

The conservative-led court is taking up the case amid actions by President Donald Trump targeting transgender people, including a ban on military service and an end to federal funding for gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

The justices also have heard arguments in a Tennessee case over whether state bans on treating transgender minors violate the Constitution. But they have yet to issue a decision.

Colorado is among roughly half the states that prohibit the practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling.

The issue is whether the law violates the speech rights of counselors. Defenders of such laws argue that they regulate the conduct of professionals who are licensed by the state.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld the state law. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has struck down local local bans in Florida.

In 2023, the court had turned away a similar challenge, despite a split among federal appeals courts that had weighed state bans and come to differing decisions.

At the time, three justices, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas, said they would have taken on the issue. It takes four justices to grant review. The nine-member court does not typically reveal how justices vote at this stage of a case so it’s unclear who might have provided the fourth vote.

The case will be argued in the court’s new term, which begins in October. The appeal on behalf of Kaley Chiles, a counselor in Colorado Springs, was filed by Alliance Defending Freedom, the conservative legal organization that has appeared frequently at the court in recent years in cases involving high-profile social issues.


One of those cases was a 5-4 decision in 2018 in which the justices ruled that California could not force state-licensed anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to provide information about abortion.

Chiles’ lawyers leaned heavily on that decision in asking the court to take up her case. They wrote that Chiles doesn’t “seek to ‘cure’ clients of same-sex attractions or to ‘change’ clients’ sexual orientation.”

In arguing for the court to reject the appeal, lawyers for Colorado wrote that lawmakers acted to regulate professional conduct, “based on overwhelming evidence that efforts to change a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity are unsafe and ineffective.”

14 LGBTQ-affirming ministers lose credentials, more face investigation, over beliefs

(RNS) — An LGBTQ-inclusive congregation is also exiting the Anderson, Indiana-based Church of God movement.

(Photo by James A. Molnar/Unsplash/Creative Commons)

Kathryn Post
March 12, 2025


(RNS) — Grinning before a congregation on the outskirts of Indianapolis, a woman named Rhonda was baptized in a horse trough in 2014 as her girlfriend and kids looked on.

A decade later, the pastor who baptized her that day at the Southeast Project, a Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) congregation, presided over her funeral. “As I think about a word that described my friend Rhonda, I think of the word ‘all,’” the pastor, Ryan Carrell, said at the April 2024 service after she died by heart attack. “I looked back at the messages she and I had shared, and we talked about how church should be a place for all people. It should be a place where everyone can belong.”

Rhonda was part of what Carrell described as a “motley crew” of congregants, in a church he told RNS he founded “for my friends who gave up on church.”

Now, as he mourns the death of his friend, Carrell is also grieving his church’s pending departure from the Church of God (Anderson). In recent weeks, Carrell was told to leave and take his church with him, or face an investigation due to his LGBTQ-affirming theology and disbelief in a literal hell — beliefs he says led him to welcome Rhonda. On March 4, Southeast’s board voted to formally exit.

It’s the latest in a string clashes within Church of God (Anderson), which considers itself an anti-hierarchical movement, not a denomination, and is often mentioned in relation to the city where it’s headquartered to distinguish it from other groups. The home church of Christian musicians Bill and Gloria Gaither and Sandi Patty, CHOG has a history of championing anti-racism and women leaders and is known for being “anti-credal,” relying on the Bible alone as its belief statement. But as the historically decentralized movement formalizes its requirements for ministers — changes that have resulted in at least 14 LGBTQ-affirming Indiana ministers losing their credentials, and counting — some worry the movement is beginning to favor uniform theology over unity.

Although CHOG’s General Assembly, in 2014, defined marriage as between a man and a woman and characterized homosexuality as a sin, many viewed the actions of General Assembly as nonbinding for clergy, particularly when it came to theology. Still, when same-sex marriage was legalized in June 2015, Carrell and Southeast’s other pastors didn’t officiate Rhonda’s wedding; it was unclear whether there could be repercussions, and they were fearful of losing their ability to be voices of change within CHOG, concerns they say Rhonda shared.

Pastor Ryan Carrell speaks during a Southeast Project service in Indianapolis. (Photo by Amanda Duncan Photography)

Then, in 2017, the movement adopted a credentials manual for clergy that subjects ministers to counsel or discipline for “promulgating or espousing a teaching or practice contrary to the Word of God as commonly understood by the Church of God.” These changes, some CHOG members claim, signal a shift toward creedalism by allowing the General Assembly’s theological decisions, including its defining of homosexuality as a sin, to be enforced for clergy. Others, including general director the Rev. Jim Lyon, say the manual represents necessary guardrails for ensuring ministers are aligned with the governing body.

“No one should retreat from unpacking the Scripture to discern, by the Spirit’s light and in the company of other believers, its guardrails for human sexual conduct and righteous expression,” said Lyon in an email. “But as with gender equity in ministry — a long-held bedrock of Church of God biblical understanding — those seeking the shepherding and teaching office of the church are asked to defer to the larger Body’s understanding of biblical boundaries defining faith and practice.”

As CHOG’s nearly 50 jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada decide how to enforce these guardrails, its biggest one — Indiana Ministries — has investigated at least 17 ministers for signing a statement affirming LGTBQ inclusion. Of those, 10 ministers have had their credentials revoked, and another four relinquished their credentials before their investigations concluded. While Indiana Ministries has hundreds of credentialed ministers, the loss of clergy is making waves in the close-knit movement that claims just a million believers worldwide.

When CHOGAffirm, a group not endorsed by CHOG, released an LGBTQ-affirming statement in May 2023, it became a test case for how CHOG jurisdictions would interpret the credentials manual. Signed by over 850 people, including over 50 active and retired clergy, the statement says there’s a “strong biblical, theological, and ethical case for affirming same-sex partnerships, transgender identity and existence, and gender non-conformity.”

Jeff Matas, state pastor of Indiana Ministries, responded via a June 2023 statement saying Scripture consistently condemns “same-sex relations.”

“Moving from the orthodox biblical definition of sexual identity and marriage is a line we will never cross. Never,” he wrote. Last year, he told RNS that because the signers committed to “positive action” toward the statement’s fruition, “The issue goes beyond personal belief into the issue of advocacy.” Matas declined to speak to RNS for this story.


The Rev. Carma Wood, center, during a service at Park Place Church of God in Anderson, Indiana, prior to her retirement. (Courtesy photo)

One of the first investigated by Indiana Ministries was the Rev. Carma Wood, a retired CHOG minister and CHOGAffirm co-founder. In April 2024, she was told that her stance on homosexuality conflicted with the credentials manual and that her credentials had been rescinded.

The Rev. Jennie Prior, a hospital chaplain who completed the first step of an investigation after signing the CHOGAffirm statement, is transferring her credentials to a different denomination. She and Wood said it’s been heart-wrenching to watch the investigations unfold.

“I think they have lost a lot of really remarkable ministers, and people who were willing to do the work, lean into discomfort to hopefully build a better future,” said Prior.

More recently, the Rev. Sam Collins, a third-generation Church of God minister ordained in 1979 and retired in 2014, had his credentials revoked in January.

“I really did hope that it would be a step in the direction of our being able to talk about an issue that I think we’ve been really reluctant to talk about very honestly and openly,” said Collins about his decision to sign the statement. “The Church of God, for years, at our best, has allowed people to take stances according to freedom of conscience.”

CHOG ministers have historically been investigated for moral failings, not theological incongruity, according to CHOGAffirm co-founder Nicholas Stanton-Roark. But members of CHOGAffirm believe that’s changing. In recent months, Indiana Ministries updated its code of ethics, now requiring clergy to “affirm the Church of God’s theological position that God’s intent for marriage is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, reflecting God’s design that recognizes the intrinsic difference between male and female.” This, some CHOGAffirm members argue, makes theological expectations for Indiana Ministers even more explicit, and seems equivalent to a belief statement.

RELATED: 17 LGBTQ-affirming ministers face church investigations for signing belief statement

Though Carrell declined to sign the CHOGAffirm statement — he didn’t want to see CHOG create additional, enforceable guidelines on the issue, he told RNS — he vocally opposed the investigations, highlighting them as evidence that Indiana Ministries was straying from CHOG values.

Carrell told RNS it’s CHOG that’s changed, not Southeast.

“Our church has always had the same posture in ministry — we have always affirmed LGBTQ+ individuals through our actions and my teaching has always been clear that biblical texts are taken out of context and misused in rejecting LGBTQ+ people,” said Carrell, a fourth-generation Church of God pastor who is related to Matas.

The Southeast Project hosts an outdoor movie night in Indianapolis. (Courtesy photo)

In 2011, Indiana Ministries helped Carrell plant Southeast. Rhonda was baptized, Carrell said, with the support of the then-state pastor and of Matas, who was associate state pastor at the time.

In February 2024, it was Matas who delivered an ultimatum, according to Carrell, citing Carrell’s theological views and their expression at Southeast.

“He said, basically, you have a choice. You can either leave the Church of God and surrender your credentials, leave the Church of God and take your church with you, or face an investigation with the DMS (Department of Ministry Services). Either way, the results will be the same,” Carrell recalled.

Hoping to spare its members, Southeast’s board voted to formally separate from CHOG, though the resolution had not yet been formally submitted as of publication. It’s not yet clear whether Indiana Ministries will investigate Carrell.

Lyon, CHOG’s general director, said “It’s always sad when there is controversy within the body of Christ.” He clarified that the credentials manual is only binding for clergy, not laypeople, and that ministers who are no longer credentialed can still be part of the CHOG movement. Indiana Ministries, he said, is “trying to be faithful to their calling.”

But to some CHOG ministers, Indiana Ministries’ reaction to LGBTQ-affirming pastors is part of the broader political moment. Wood, the CHOGAffirm co-founder, said she believes some CHOG leaders have been emboldened by conservative evangelical culture to stand against what they perceive as a departure from traditional values.

“Evangelicalism has become a language that is very familiar to many Church of God pastors, so much so that it’s indistinguishable from what I think is more true and pure about our movement: That every blood-washed one is welcome at the table,” said Wood.

Why religious leaders are divided on transgender rights

WINFIELD, Kansas (NPR) — In February, Kansas became the 26th state to ban or otherwise limit gender-affirming medical care for teens. Those bans have been supported by some of the biggest religious groups in the U.S. — but not all faith leaders agree.

Pastor Charles McKinzie sings with the choir at Grace United Methodist Church in Winfield, Kansas. (Rose Conlon/NPR)

WINFIELD, Kansas (NPR) — On a recent Sunday morning in this small Kansas town, worshippers gathered for service at Grace United Methodist Church. Sunlight filtered in through stained glass windows depicting the life of Christ.

At the pulpit was Pastor Charles McKinzie.

“I use he/him pronouns,” he told congregants, “and I welcome you into this space.”


McKinzie, who calls himself a lifelong Republican, grew up in a Protestant church that taught that homosexuality and gender diversity are counter to Christian teachings. He says that prompted a crisis of faith when he came to believe that all humans, no matter their gender identity, are made in the image of God — a belief that has become personal for him.

“We all bear divine image,” he said in an interview.

“Just as there is a spectrum of light and dark because we have sunrises and sunsets — in the same way, I think that God’s creation is broad enough and beautiful enough and wide enough to include variations of what we have understood as a gender binary.”
Testifying against a state ban

Last month, Kansas became the 26th state to ban or otherwise limit gender-affirming medical care for minors, according to KFF. It’s the latest in a series of state laws restricting the rights of transgender Kansans, including their ability to change the gender marker on their driver’s licenses and play on sports teams that match their gender identity.

The laws reflect growing concern among conservatives about transgender issues and have been lauded by some faith leaders, including the Catholic Church and Southern Baptist Convention.

But not McKinzie. Earlier this year, he traveled to Topeka to testify against Senate Bill 63, which bans minors experiencing gender dysphoria from accessing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and other medical treatments.

In a packed legislative committee room, Bible in hand, he rose.

“I just want to take a page and a moment from this book that I hold dear and remind us of the words of the prophet Micah, who wrote in chapter six, verse eight: ‘What does the Lord require of you, Human, but to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly?’

“As I read the literature of this bill,” he added, “I see in it something that is terribly unkind.”

In an interview afterward, McKinzie says his faith compelled him to testify.

“Scripture points us towards the heart of God, and that desire has always been to look towards those who have been marginalized and cast out by normal and polite society,” he said. “Today, LGBTQ folks, poor folks, people of color and, right now, especially trans folks are being targeted in real, tangible and deeply unfair ways.”


Other faith leaders are speaking out, too. The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism condemned recent executive orders by the Trump administration limiting the federal recognition of gender to male and female, and banning transgender soldiers from military service. The center also organized a sign-on letter, joined by more than 100 Jewish organizations, urging Congress to reject a law that would have prevented transgender athletes from women and girls’ sports teams.

RAC director Rabbi Jonah Pesner says the Torah emphasizes compassion for people different from you.

“The Torah really focuses on love,” he said. “We were a people that experienced oppression and slavery in Egypt, and the Biblical text repeats 36 different times in 36 different ways, because you were enslaved in Egypt as strangers, you should love the stranger.”

Pesner says that love means allowing people to get the medical care they determine that they need.

“It’s not just the Torah itself, but centuries of rabbinic literature and interpretation of those books that lead us to a place where one’s health and safety is paramount,” he said. “Our tradition teaches that these decisions are to be between the person and the health care provider.”

‘Love doesn’t mean always mean affirmation’

Other religious leaders come to very different conclusions.

The Vatican says gender-affirming care violates human dignity, and the Kansas Catholic Conference lobbied for the state’s ban. Lucretia Nold, the group’s public policy specialist, told state lawmakers that the Catholic Church urges compassion for all people — just as it supports prohibiting minors from receiving gender-affirming care.


“Kids are innocent,” she said during the January hearing. “They’re just trying to figure out the world and who they are in it.”

“It is our responsibility as adults to help show [children] the truth, beauty and goodness that is out there — and who they are and who God created them to be — and not affirm them in a lie,” she said.

She and other supporters of the ban prevailed last month, when Republican lawmakers overrode a veto of the bill by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly.

Many evangelical Christians also oppose the care. In 2023, the Southern Baptist Convention issued a resolution opposing gender transition interventions as “a direct assault on God’s created order.” Last year, its Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission filed a Supreme Court amicus brief in support of Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

The commission’s vice president, Miles Mullin, says love does not always mean affirmation.

“True love and compassion has to start with the reality of a situation,” he said in an interview, “and it’s not truly loving or compassionate to help people live out a delusion.”

Mullin says Christians have a duty to advocate against allowing minors to receive medical care that they believe will cause lasting harm.


“It’s appropriate for believers to step in and to say that the state has a role in protecting vulnerable people,” he said. “We see this as the proper role of the state in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2.”

The religious divides on transgender rights are reflected in new polling by the Public Religion Research Institute. A majority of Unitarians, Jewish Americans, Hindus, Buddhists and people with no religious affiliation said they oppose bans on gender-affirming care for minors.

Catholics and mainline Protestants were relatively evenly divided on the issue, while a majority of Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, white evangelical Protestants and Latter-day Saints said they support the bans.
Faith and family


Pastor Charles McKinzie in his office at Grace United Methodist Church in Winfield, Kansas. (Rose Conlon/NPR)

McKinzie’s office at Grace United Methodist Church is decorated with rainbow flags. A banner behind his desk proclaims: “you are loved.”

Like many Americans, his perspective on gender identity is shaped by his personal relationships. In his case, being the dad of a gender-fl

“The experience of parenthood should lean us towards empathy,” he said. “My children have, in many ways, made me a much better version of who I am.”

His child, Cambria, is 17 and uses they/them pronouns. They’re grateful for faith leaders like their dad who stick up for the queer community.

“I can look at him and I can know that there is somebody with a voice — somebody who is the epitome of what people will listen to — who is out there, standing for me and for others,” they said.

Cambria says, as political debates over trans rights continue, having an accepting church community makes a world of difference.

This story originally appeared on NPR.org and as an audio feature on All Things Considered and is republished as part of a collaboration between NPR and RNS.

Opinion

Trump 'slurred' Schumer as a Palestinian. In most parts of the world, it's a compliment.

(RNS) — Palestinians' nobility grows even as the American political arena abandons all decency.

Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., left, and President Donald Trump. (AP Photos)
Omar Suleiman
March 14, 2025



(RNS) — Last year, as I arrived in Ireland, the airport customs officer asked me where I was originally from. I told her, “Palestine.” She looked at me, smiled, and said, “Every true Irish person is Palestinian at heart as well.” And with that, she stamped my passport and let me in.

On Wednesday (March 12) in Washington, President Donald Trump, sitting beside Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin in the Oval Office, used the word “Palestinian” as a slur to talk down Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“Schumer is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned. He’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian,” Trump said, responding to a reporter’s question about Schumer’s views on corporate taxes.

The contrast is striking. The Irish, a people who understand colonialism and occupation in their bones, see Palestinians as their kin. The American political class treats “Palestinian” as something shameful.

The Irish aren’t the only ones who talk about Palestinians with respect. This week, meeting with a displaced Gazan family, Mohammad Tahir, the Iraqi doctor who spent seven months in Gaza saving lives while the world looked away, turned to the refugees with tears in his eyes and said, “My heart is Palestinian.”

I have heard this sentiment echoed over and over again. A doctor from Pakistan who had just returned from Gaza looked at me and said, “I am from Pakistan, but my blood is Palestinian.” In almost every part of the Muslim world, in refugee camps, in war zones, in gatherings of activists and scholars, I have heard, “Anaa damee Falasteeni” — “My blood is Palestinian.”


As the sun sets, Palestinians sit at a large table surrounded by the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings as they gather for iftar, the fast-breaking meal, on the first day of Ramadan in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Saturday, March 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Beyond the Muslim world, too, Palestine is a rallying cry for justice, a cause embraced by people who recognize the struggle against oppression as universal. Latin Americans, who have fought their own battles against imperialism, proudly wave the Palestinian flag. South Africans, who lived under apartheid, see their struggle mirrored in Palestine and have lodged formal complaints against the conduct of the war in Gaza in the International Court of Justice. Indigenous peoples of North America, whose lands were stolen and history erased, march with Palestinians because they know what it means to survive colonial violence.

Outside of America, it is a source of pride, a badge of honor, a reflection of resilience in the face of one of the most brutal and documented injustices of our time.

But to be Palestinian in the eyes of Trump, and in the eyes of much of the American political establishment, is to be something lesser. It is to be cast as an enemy, a threat, a people whose very existence is seen as suspect. In America, to say “I am Palestinian” is to invite suspicion, hostility and punishment. Students are blacklisted for supporting Palestine. Workers are fired for posting about it. Mosques are attacked for standing in solidarity.

And now, critiquing Israel on behalf of Palestinians can land you in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency detention center. Trump’s insult comes as civil liberties organizations, Muslim, Jewish and secular, are expressing outrage over the federal government’s abduction of Mahmoud Khalil after he regularly protested Israel during campus demonstrations at Columbia University.

Khalil is married to an American citizen who is eight months pregnant, holds a green card, or Permanent Resident Card. Yet that did not stop ICE from targeting him outside his home and wreaking horror on an expecting mother. It is stunning that this happened under a so-called “America First” president, who claims to reject foreign influence yet bends over backward to punish anyone who criticizes Israel.


Protesters gather for a demonstration in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, Monday, March 10, 2025, outside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

This is the reality of being Palestinian in America: your very existence is a political liability, and your right to speak can be stripped away in an instant. People can speak of you in the most dehumanizing of ways with zero political consequence.

Imagine that Trump had instead dismissed Schumer on Wednesday by calling him a Jew. The outrage would be swift, bipartisan and absolute. But Islamophobia has long been normalized in America, and anti-Palestinian bigotry is its most acceptable form.

The reason Trump can throw out “Palestinian” as a slur without consequence is because Palestinians have already been dehumanized to the extent that their oppression is all but invisible to the elites in Washington, their suffering dismissed and their very existence questioned. This is how the American government enables a genocide while pretending to be neutral. This is how tens of thousands of Palestinian children can be slaughtered with American bombs, and the political class barely blinks.

But here is what Trump, and those who share his bigotry, do not understand: To be Palestinian is not an insult. It is an honor. It is to be the child who stands in the rubble of his home and still finds the strength to smile. It is to be the mother who fasts in Ramadan, not knowing if she will have food to break her fast. It is to be the people who are not supposed to exist, yet continue to survive.

Palestinians do not need America’s approval to exist. The world has already chosen. The world has already embraced Palestine. More importantly, Palestinians themselves have embraced themselves and refused to stop being Palestinians in their land despite all the odds. Their resilience is putting the world to shame, and Palestinians’ nobility grows even as the American political arena abandons all decency.

Evangelical groups hold vigil against Trump and Musk's foreign aid cuts

WASHINGTON (RNS) — The hope, said one faith leader, was to dispute the idea that Christians, 'including those that come from more conservative or evangelical leanings,' support cuts to USAID.

“Prayer Vigil for Foreign Aid" event attendees gather outside Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

Jack Jenkins
March 11, 2025


WASHINGTON (RNS) — Evangelical Christian groups are calling on Congress to reinstate foreign aid programs shuttered by President Donald Trump’s administration, arguing the government’s actions will hurt millions of people around the world.

Addressing a crowd of around three dozen largely evangelical Christians assembled at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church on Tuesday morning (March 11) for a “Prayer Vigil for Foreign Aid,” the Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of the group Bread for the World, denounced the “broad, un-targeted cuts” recently implemented at the U.S. Agency for International Development as an assault on vulnerable populations all over the globe.

“These indiscriminate cuts are not just a policy failure,” said Cho, standing in a sanctuary dotted with candles. “For us, especially, as followers of Christ, as uncomfortable as it may be, we must clearly … but prophetically, say: it is also a moral failure.”



The unusual vigil, featuring an array of evangelical organizations such as World Relief and the Accord Network publicly criticizing the federal government, came a day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared on social media that the government will cancel 83% of programs at USAID. The announcement followed weeks of chaos at the agency involving work stoppages, ongoing legal battles and mass layoffs led by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.

In an email on Monday, Matthew Soerens, vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief, the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, told Religion News Service the group’s contracts were among those canceled. Although he celebrated the fact that four of World Relief’s grants in Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were unexpectedly reinstated, he noted two of those grants are “scheduled to be completed this month,” and the organization has not received “any information on proposals for renewal.”

The Rev. Eugene Cho, president and CEO of Bread for the World, addresses attendees at the “Prayer Vigil for Foreign Aid” event at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

Meanwhile, he said, the group’s work in Haiti remains in limbo, with World Relief having received a “stop work” order in January but no formal cancellation. What’s more, World Relief still hasn’t received any reimbursements for work already done.

“It’s very difficult to operate until we’re confident we will be reimbursed,” Soerens wrote.

In addition, a representative for Catholic Relief Services, the single largest recipient of USAID funds in recent years, according to Forbes, confirmed to RNS on Tuesday their contracts were also among those canceled, although they were unable to clarify precisely how many.

During Tuesday’s vigil, several speakers highlighted the human toll of the cuts. Kombo Choga, senior director for program design at Compassion International, pointed out that his organization currently does not receive government funds, but said they “are witnessing how the withdraw of aid is devastating” populations they work with — including children.


“It’s causing harm now, and into the future,” he told the crowd, which included evangelical Christian USAID staffers who were laid off during recent cuts. Several held signs emblazoned with slogans such as “Hunger won’t wait” and “Aid strengthens American national security.”

Choga argued that while the government has a responsibility to assess the proper use of taxpayer funds, the Bible offers “very clear guidance.”

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord,” he said, citing Proverbs 19:17.

Kombo Choga speaks during the “Prayer Vigil for Foreign Aid” at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

Carol Bremer-Bennett, executive director of World Renew, expressed a similar sentiment during her prayer at the event.

“We lament the choices of those in power who have turned away from the suffering of your children,” she said, adding that funding “has been withdrawn from clinics where babies take their first breaths, from hospitals where mothers fight to survive childbirth, from communities where clean water and medicine once flowed.”


The cuts, Bremer-Bennett said, are “not just numbers on a page,” but “real lives lost.”

Cho and others expressed frustration at the administration’s actions but also highlighted the potential role of Congress, arguing lawmakers have the power to reinstate the programs.

“We are here today to urge the administration and Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, to do all that they can,” Cho said. “It’s not too late to protect critical international aid that supports tens of millions of people suffering alone right now.”

Carol Bremer-Bennett, executive director of World Renew, speaks during the “Prayer Vigil for Foreign Aid” at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

In a separate interview with RNS, Cho said he was aware of “conversations that are happening behind the scenes” in the halls of Congress regarding aid, but that he and others feel compelled by their faith to publicly voice their concerns with the Trump administration and lawmakers.

“We pray for the administration, but we also are urging our elected members of Congress to do their responsibility — and to do their duty — to follow through on the allocation of those resources,” he said.


Cho was echoed by Lanre Williams-Ayedun, a senior vice president of international programs at World Relief. Speaking at the vigil, she insisted that when leaders “neglect the vulnerable,” including those who benefit from foreign aid, it amounts to “turning away from God.”

In addition, James Standish of ADRA, the global humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, was one of many speakers who noted that foreign aid makes up less than 1% of the federal budget.

“We sing that song: ‘God bless America.’ Well, folks, God has blessed America,” Standish said, arguing the Bible instructs believers to share their blessings with others.

James Standish speaks at the “Prayer Vigil for Foreign Aid” at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (RNS photo/Jack Jenkins)

Multiple speakers made clear that while they believed the foreign aid system has issues, drastically reducing programs was not the answer. Randy Tift, senior adviser at the Accord Network, raised concerns that a cycle of grievance was driving many of the Trump administration’s actions.

“People involved in these recent decisions on all sides, some in current leadership, were grievously mistreated in the past,” Tift said. “I fear grievance is driving a lot of the new team’s decisions; dedicated and faithful USAID staff, including former staff — some of whom are here today — have now been treated with cruelty by some who were aggrieved in the past.”


Other speakers included Gillian Foster Wilkinson, director of strategic alliances at Hope International, and the Rev. Jessica Moerman, president and CEO of the Evangelical Environmental Network.

After the vigil, Cho told RNS the event was originally planned to be held in front of Congress but had to be moved for scheduling reasons. The hope, he said, was to dispute the idea that Christians, “including those that come from more conservative or evangelical leanings,” are in support of USAID’s cuts.

Cho acknowledged that it may take time to turn hearts in Congress but said that his group was prepared for a long fight.

“We’re not interested in putting on one-time events,” he said.

Opinion

Defunded evangelical aid groups are reaping what the religious right sowed

(RNS) — Trump wooed them with his promises of the cultural domination they had been seeking since the late 1970s, but the honeymoon may be over.

President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, March 4, 2025, as Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., listen. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Marci A. Hamilton
March 10, 2025



(RNS) — In a meeting at the White House on Wednesday (March 5), white evangelical Christians, who have for decades enjoyed billions in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development for their overseas missions, were told by Trump administration officials not to expect a reopening of the flow of funds, The Washington Post reported the following day.

The Post said the administration officials passed the turn of events off as a positive for their faith. “’Do you want the country to get credit for foreign aid, or do you want the Creator to get the credit?’ asked Albert Gombis, a State Department political appointee,” according to the story.

The leaders in the room were flabbergasted. “‘Some of us looked at each other in disbelief,’” the paper quoted one attendee saying.


The fact that these groups got an audience to explain the cuts is testimony to their unflagging support for Trump in both his campaigns for the nation’s highest office. They have no one but themselves to blame for the political path they have chosen. They are merely reaping what they have sown for more than four decades.

RELATED: As White House considers abandoning foreign aid, faith groups say they can’t do it alone

It was in the 1970s that white evangelical Christians began to drift from their belief that interacting with the government and taking government funds would corrupt the faith. In 1979, Virginia televangelist the Rev. Jerry Falwell formed the Moral Majority to politically mobilize conservative Christians in partnership with the Republican Party. Falwell’s “traditional family values” coalition opposed the Civil Rights Movement, feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment, divorce, LGBTQ+, the teaching of evolution and abortion.

Abortion had been added to that list by Catholic political activist and Heritage Foundation founder Paul Weyrich, who brokered their union with small government conservatives in the GOP. It had not been their issue before, but Weyrich convinced them it was the price of becoming more politically active and powerful. They were also persuaded to abandon their longtime distrust of government, and its funding.

Sinking ever deeper into politics, white evangelicals and their conservative Catholic partners have fought after every election to install their people in government, to bend the law to their worldview and to access as much government funding as they can. To fulfill this aspiration, the religious right had to dismantle the separation of church and state, which would open a sluiceway of government money.

The alliance with the GOP was not just about money. Yes, they wanted to allow taxpayer funds to pay for their Christian schools, but they also wanted to control the government’s treatment of LGBTQ+ people, women, and children. Unable to win the culture war by example or argument, they sought to do it by co-opting the government. And so instead of becoming a religious adjunct to the Republican Party, they transformed the party from a small-government, deficit-minded party to one controlled by far-right religious interests.

Central to this campaign was destroying the U.S. Supreme Court’s establishment clause doctrine, which holds that taxpayer funds can’t be paid directly to religious institutions. This is nearly accomplished: This term, the court is set to decide whether a public charter school can be Catholic, a case that would have been unimaginable even 10 years ago.


The white evangelicals dismantled this rule by claiming it was “unfair” and “discriminatory” to give tax dollars to secular organizations delivering government functions, but not religious organizations. This is a categorical mistake that treats religion as though it is like any other group.

To clear the way for government’s direct support of religious mission, law professor Michael McConnell argued before the Supreme Court in 1995, in Rosenberger v. Rectors of the University of Virginia, that the public university could not deny student activity funds to a proselytizing group as along as groups like the chess club received funds. At the time, McConnell liked to shame anyone who used the (purely descriptive) phrase “proselytizer” as anti-religious — his way of trying to soften the brazenly religious use of publicly collected tax dollars.

New York Times columnist David French, writing recently about the evangelical discord over the USAID shutdown, made clear he was proud of his own role in opening the floodgates of government funds, saying that he had worked hard to ensure that religious entities get government funds. His argument? “Treat religious groups exactly the same as any other group. Don’t favor them, but don’t discriminate against them, either.”

But French misses the forest for the trees. In a country of religious liberty and diversity, redirecting funds from the government directly to religious mission means that taxpayers are being co-opted into supporting religious ideals they wouldn’t otherwise support.

In order to get their hands on government funding, the religious right also had to alter their own constitutions to permit the church to take government funds. “The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work,” the Baptist Faith & Message states. “The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends.”

Framer James Madison similarly warned, when Virginia considered tax support for Christian education, that it would corrupt religion as well as the state. He also predicted that government-subsidized religion would be drawn to tyrannical establishments.



But when President George W. Bush formed the Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives in the White House through executive order in 2001, Falwell was at the front of the line, arguing, “it is high time that faith-based institutions in our nation to be given a chance to reenter the public square through the cooperation of our government,” and boosting support among his fellow evangelicals by pointing out that “the usual suspects on the left” opposed it. Those “suspects” were standing up for the separation of church and state.

The white evangelicals are learning to be careful what you wish for. When religious groups obtain the right to receive taxpayer dollars for their missions, they also insert themselves into a pipeline that can be turned on and off at will. Having loyally argued for low taxes and small government for more than a generation, having deconstructed the separation of church and state laid out in the First Amendment, they now find themselves on the short end of their bargain with the GOP.

More embarrassing, perhaps, having supported Trump despite evidence of his philandering and his civil sexual assault conviction, his mocking of the disabled and ill treatment of immigrants, they find themselves vainly trying to draw the line when he cuts off their funding.

RELATED: Whose Christianity do Christian nationalists want?

Showing their fiscal appetite is unabated, despite their political scars, two days after the White House meeting about aid, congressional Republicans introduced a bill supported by the White House that would deliver a 100% tax credit for private schools and home-schooling at a cost to federal taxpayers of $5 to $10 billion per year. As the federal Education Department, which serves the 90% of American students in public schools, is dismantled, this new funding for their schools would fulfill a long-held political dream, or nightmare.

(Marci A. Hamilton is a constitutional law professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of “God vs. the Gavel: The Perils of Extreme Religious Liberty.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)