Social Justice Archives

Of Abortion and Abolition

February 12, 2023February 12, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

I discovered a bizarre fringe wing of anti-abortion Christian Nationalists this week. Abortion “abolitionists.”

The Right Way to Be Bisexual: A Review of Bi

January 29, 2023January 29, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

I was so thrilled to discover Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality by Julia Shaw last Nonfiction November. My shelves desperately needed some color, and I’d never heard of any other books specifically focusing on bisexuality.

After reading it, I’m wondering if my fellow bisexual readers would be better off without Shaw’s bi guide. She wrote it simply because it “didn’t exist,” so now the only new popular book dedicated to bisexuality is, in my opinion, not that great.

The Birth of Roe: A Review of Jane Against the World

January 22, 2023January 21, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

In the post I wrote one year ago, Why the March for Life is Not Pro-Life, I remarked that Roe v. Wade wasn’t likely to see its 50-year anniversary, and I was right. It is a heavy weekend for abortion rights supporters, but that is all the more reason for us to continue to fight back.

The White Power of the Damsel in Distress: A Review of White Tears/Brown Scars

December 4, 2022December 2, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

Ruby Hamad’s 2020 book White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color is a paradigm-shifting work that combines history, personal experience, and media analysis to show how the tears of white women are far from harmless. If you think you know feminism—or even if you think you know intersectional feminism—you must read this book.

30 Books That Expose the Truth About Christian Nationalism

November 14, 2022March 8, 2023Rebekah Kohlhepp

Christian Nationalism, or the malicious use of Christianity as a weapon to strip people of their liberty, is a poison to American democracy. Alarmingly, more than one in three Americans have never even heard of Christian Nationalism. This frequently-updated list of Christian Nationalism books by a full-time advocate for church-state separation will help you and your community understand the crucial facts surrounding this issue. Only when we all fight this insidious system together can we achieve true religious freedom.

Does Abortion Harm Women? A Review of The Turnaway Study

November 6, 2022November 5, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

In 2007, Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy, writing the majority opinion upholding a ban on one abortion procedure performed later in pregnancy, seized an opportunity to weigh in on the emotional and mental state of women who have abortions. He wrote, “While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained. Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow.” Clearly, in 2007, there was a serious need for reliable data on the consequences of abortion.
Diana Greene Foster, The Turnaway Study, p. 4

When Christian Nationalists Control the Court: A Review of American Crusade

October 23, 2022October 22, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

If I could summarize Andrew Seidel’s new book American Crusade: How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Religious Freedom in one word, I would say it is difficult. At times it is difficult to comprehend due to legal jargon (even after the author purposely trimmed the fat, so to speak) but it is immensely difficult to stomach. This was a book I had to read slowly and take plenty of breaks from. It wasn’t a fun book, and it wasn’t intended to be.

Book Review: Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

September 25, 2022September 25, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

Since its release in June 2020, Kristin Kobes du Mez’s Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation has been required reading for anyone seeking to gain a full perspective on the Christian Nationalist movement in the United States and how it got this way.

I Read the Gab CEO’s Awful New Christian Nationalism Book So You Don’t Have To

September 11, 2022September 11, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

Let’s be clear: a Christian Nationalist is not a person you want to be. But leave it to Christian Nationalists to embrace Christian Nationalism, and to make it look like the right thing to do.

Book Review: Bodies on the Line by Lauren Rankin

August 7, 2022August 6, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

If there is one good thing that has come out of the fight for abortion rights this year, it is that there are so many great books coming out which tell the story from every angle. Published in April 2022, Lauren Rankin’s Bodies on the Line: At the Front Lines of the Fight to Protect Abortion in America is the go-to book to learn about the unsung heroes of the abortion access movement: clinic escorts.