One day, when I was a college student on a conservative Christian college campus, I found myself hurrying to the college therapist’s office fighting back tears. The therapist’s office felt like the one haven where I could freely talk about my life without judgement. Once I reached her office, I broke down and sobbed. I could not make them stop. She sat with me quietly as I wept, a gentle presence who accepted me in a community that felt menacing and unforgiving.
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I’m joined by Yascha Mounk to discuss his new book The Identity Trap: A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time. We discuss why the progressive fixation on identity categories undermines the goals of progressive movements, my own experience as a gay man, the dangers of binary political thinking, and much more.
Yascha Mounk is an expert on the crisis of liberal democracy and the rise of populism. The author of five books that have been translated into over ten languages, he is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, a Contributing Editor at The Atlantic, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a Moynihan Public Scholar at City College. He is the Founder of Persuasion, the host of “The Good Fight” podcast and serves as a publisher (Herausgeber) of Die Zeit.
I love hearing back from my audience. Did you agree with us in this conversation? Disagree? Let us know in the comments below. If your comment is excellent, I might feature it in an upcoming post.
In this episode of Sacred Tension, I sit down with my colleague Minister Chalice Blythe to talk about the importance of seriously engaging with our Satanic history.
As I’ve watched online leftist spaces and parts of my local LGBTQ community, I’ve noticed a concerning trend. Many LGBTQ people (especially the younger, post-millennial generations) seem to be progressively infatuated with their identities, and centering it as the most important part of their existence.
Stephen Bradford Long 