The Overview (Monday, September 21)
RIP to RBG, why America is dangerously close to fracturing, and a Christian response to news from Venus
As if 2020 couldn't get any more surprising.
On Friday, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second-longest serving justice on the United States Supreme Court, died at 87. She had battled cancer and other ailments for years, so while her death was not necessarily surprising, it was a seismic moment for American politics. Ginsburg anchored the Court's liberal wing, and now President Trump will have the opportunity to name a replacement, shifting the Court in a considerably more conservative direction for the foreseeable future.
I wrote about what Ginsburg's death means for the country, the presidential election, and the future of Supreme Court, so I'm not sure I have anything substantive to add. There have been some developments since I shared my initial thoughts, though: Trump has said he intends to name a replacement as early as this week; the two names at the top of the shortlist are both federal appeals court judges, Amy Coney Barrett of the Seventh Circuit and Barbara Lagoa of the Eleventh Circuit; and two Republican senators (Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski) have said they prefer the winner of the election get to name Ginsburg's replacement -- if two more Republicans take that position, then we will likely have to wait on any replacement.
Until then, here's the Monday, September 21 edition of The Overview:
1) The Dispatch's David French paints a fairly pessimistic future of the United States of America, primarily due to the country's increasing political polarization and seeming inability to see our opponents in anything other than the most negative light. "There is a vast difference between a friend who disagrees and an enemy who seeks to dominate," he writes. "One vision sustains democracy. The other could destroy our republic." A dark vision, indeed, and definitely worth pondering in the weeks ahead.
2) Justin Giboney, writing for The Hill, argues that Americans are ill-equipped to engage in real conversation and discussion, the kind needed for a flourishing civil society. The solution, he says, begins at the top: "It’s time for people in both parties to promote justice and moral order. This moment calls for leaders who are compassionate and brutally honest.
3) The Atlantic's Spencer Kornhaber profiles musical artist Sufjan Stevens. Stevens gained notoriety in the 2000s for his rumored "50 States Project," in which he would write one album per state in the union. He only made it through two (Michigan and Illinois), but his latest album seems like final closure to that idea. "I’m inherently a pessimist," Stevens said. "For the first time ever, on The Ascension, I’m being honest about what I feel about the world."
4) The Gospel Coalition's Brett McCracken, one of the most thoughtful media voices out there, offers his thoughts of Netflix's Cuties. The film has created a stir for its sexualization (even if intended as social commentary) of pre-teen girls, and McCracken pulls no punches in his criticism: "That there is any hesitation to name the moral wrongness of Cuties shows how sexually confused and broken the West has become. Our poor children. As if they weren’t already vulnerable enough, growing up in a world awash in pornography and sexual exploitation, they’re being led by adults who can’t recognize the inconsistencies in their own sexual ethics."
5) Finally, Cedarville University professor Dan DeWitte responds to news that Venus--the planet most closely resembling Earth in our solar system--may be hospitable to life, despite the ridiculously hot and toxic conditions on the planet's surface. This wouldn't be intelligent life, mind you, but DeWitte got to thinking: if it was, what would that mean for Christianity? It's a question I've wondered over the years as well, and DeWitte's short response is worth reading.