Katherine Stewart

Katherine Stewart is an American journalist and author.

Recent Articles

The Proselytizers and the Privatizers

How religious sectarian school voucher extremists made useful idiots of the charter movement  

AP Photo/Maria Danilova
This article appears in the Fall 2017 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here . At the Heritage Academy, a publicly funded charter school network in Arizona, according to a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, high school students are required to learn that the Anglo-Saxon population of the United States is descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel. They are asked to memorize a list of 28 “Principles” of “sound government,” among which are that “to protect man’s rights, God has revealed certain Principles of divine law” (the ninth Principle) and that “the husband and wife each have their specific rights appropriate to their role in life” (the 26th Principle). To complete the course, students are further required to teach these principles to at least five individuals outside of school and family. Over in Detroit, the Marvin L. Winans Academy of Performing Arts charter school—also taxpayer-funded—is a...

Should Government Save Religion from Acts of God?

The religious right wants to open up the spigots of government funding after natural disasters. But their ultimate goal is to secure more public funds for churches—even if it means undoing the First Amendment.

(Steve Gonzales/Houston Chronicle via AP)
In between Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, Trump took the time to plant a tweet bomb under the First Amendment. “Churches in Texas should be entitled to reimbursement from FEMA Relief Funds for helping victims of Hurricane Harvey (just like others),” he twittered. If it seems a little hasty to start arguing about money before the streets are dry, that’s because, well, we’re talking big money here, and not just disaster money. The thing about today’s religious right is it is really focused on the bottom line—and the First Amendment is starting to look like roadkill on the path to the ultimate payday. The demand for FEMA relief for houses of worship sounded innocuous at first. In view of the devastating news from Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Mississippi, and the ongoing recovery process in Texas and Florida, who could object to helping out churches, especially those that offered aid to hurricane and flood refugees, in their own hour of need?...