Journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. Follow me on Twitter at @mtracey.
The groundbreaking marijuana legalization initiative that passed this month in Colorado won a majority of the vote even in El Paso county, home to Colorado Springs — the “Mecca” of Evangelical Christianity. There is a large military presence there as well, of course, but this county is reliably conservative. Romney won it by over 21 points. Read more
Though the logic of same-sex marriage today seems obvious, this was certainly not the case ten (or even five) years ago. To almost everyone back then, that same-sex marriage could possibly be so widely embraced across the United States (as it is in 2012) was a far-fetched, almost frivolous idea. Read more
It’s easy to sit back and snark at the many hoary Thanksgiving Day traditions venerated across America — presidential turkey-pardoning ceremonies, depraved Black Friday madness, gluttonous indulgences. The Christian Right regularly attempts to arrogate Thanksgiving unto themselves, imbuing it with a kind of vaguely divine significance. I can recall attending Thanksgiving “services” at my hometown “Our Lady of the Suburbs” Catholic parish in northern New Jersey. Read more
Conspiracy theories have always been popular in America to one degree or another. Way back when, they proliferated by word of mouth. Fast-forward to the late 20th century and the preferred mode of dissemination became fax machines. Today, the Internet. Scanning the post-election comment threads at Breitbart.com has been instructive. The mindset of hateful conspiracy theorists who flood that site on a regular basis (its influence continues to expand) is worthwhile for the skeptically-minded to grok, because they provide insight into how the fundamentalist religious mind functions. (Many of these commenters are themselves Christian fundamentalists.) Read more
