Jonathan Ammons
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Religious liberty and national security
While debates around religious freedom in the U.S. tend to revolve around the conflict of constitutional rights, religious freedom internationally is often a life-or-death situation.
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Democracy abroad: 2022 in review
We live in an unavoidably interconnected world in which the choices of one nation have not just an effect on its own citizens or its geographical neighbors, but on the global system.
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America’s wall of separation
Most people believe there should be a hard line drawn between government and faith communities. At times, this idea can be taken too far, marginalizing people of faith and religious institutions.
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Reading McCullough
The late American historian David McCullough taught us that great men and women often live for years as ordinary people until an opportunity or circumstance arises and demands they rise to their full potential.
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A democracy of learning
Thomas Jefferson argued in favor of education – and the field of history in particular – as fundamental to a functioning democracy. Fortunately, we have abundant opportunities to develop our minds.
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The war in Ukraine and American exceptionalism
We should care about events in the world around us and strive to understand them, because if we don’t, we will eventually forfeit our place as leaders of the world.
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How we vote: ‘Knowledge will forever govern ignorance’
Voting well is just as important as voting at all. Casting a vote, after all, is no casual matter, but a critical exercise in community, state or national decision-making.
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Voting for America’s future
Perhaps Americans do not understand the power their vote wields or how to go about exercising their voting rights. The future of America and the notion of its exceptionalism lie in the hands of its voting citizens.
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Perfectionism and the American story
Under the guise of penitent cultural self-examination, critics of American values and institutions have argued that the faults of America’s past unavoidably undermine all that is good in America now. Such a view is perilously deceptive because it tricks us…