Daniel José Camacho

Augustine’s relationship to slavery—and sex—tells us much about how the ideal of freedom emerged alongside human bondage.

Christianity’s attempt to silence the voices within its texts mirrors the way some Christians have tried to silence the voices of real people throughout history.

At every turn, shame pricks the tip of my tongue. Shame for having an accent. Shame for not having the right type of accent. Anger when someone is surprised I can speak English “well.”

My dream for an intellectual life would have to survive—if it could—beyond some academic fairytale.

White evangelicals in the United States fell in love with a foul-mouthed man who never had a born-again experience of faith. Far from being an emblem of “family values,” this man, who cemented his myth and persona by his on-screen acting, had married three times, divorced twice, carried on several high-profile affairs, and helped circulate racist stereotypes to the masses. I’m not talking about Donald Trump but John Wayne.

While sitting in an Alabama jail, Martin Luther King Jr began writing a letter about the moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. He invoked the legal maxim originating with St Augustine that an unjust law is no law at all. This week, attorney general Jeff Sessions quoted the bible to justify a cruel policy that is, in fact, not a required law: the forced separation of immigrant families at the border.