Rand Richards Cooper

Rand Richards Cooper is a contributing editor to Commonweal.

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Article

Different Drums

Two films about two supremely gifted singers explore how fate deals out both the plot of one’s life and the temperament with which we negotiate it.

By Rand Richards Cooper

November 9, 2019

Music

Movies

Article

From Muckraking to Clickbait

Mike Wallace contributed both good and ill to the evolution of American journalism. Perfect for an era of fake news, a new documentary traces his evolution.

By Rand Richards Cooper

September 27, 2019

Movies

Article

What’s That Sound?

Two new films give audiences the pleasures of the four B’s of pop music: the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Beach Boys, and, of course, the Beatles.

By Rand Richards Cooper

August 30, 2019

Music

Movies

Article

Hope’s High Stakes

The first Kenyan film ever officially screened at Cannes, ‘Rafiki’ was banned in Kenya for “legitimizing homosexuality” against the country’s dominant beliefs.

By Rand Richards Cooper

May 17, 2019

Article

Creepy and Creepier

Some scary movies succeed by trafficking in every sort of imaginary monster. But Steve Bannon is the real deal.

By Rand Richards Cooper

May 4, 2019

Article

Is this ‘Common’ Language?

Amherst’s ‘Common Language Guide’ dismissively simplifies concepts that deserve nuanced treatment.

By Rand Richards Cooper

April 22, 2019

Must Reads

Politics

Keeping the Faith

In the face of continued voter suppression by Republicans, the time has come for new legislation protecting the rights of all American voters.

By The Editors

August 25, 2020

Religion

Trolling the Catholic Vote

CatholicVote seems to think that if every issue is presented as black or white, the pro-life, pro-family Catholic voter will line up obediently at the polls.

By Paul Baumann

August 27, 2020

Culture

Summer Readings & Screenings

Faith in God is an absurdity, as is Christ himself, and the believer must boldly, absurdly choose Christ anyway, again and again and again.

By Griffin Oleynick and Anthony Domestico

August 20, 2020

Culture

Savers and Unloaders

Physical objects carry meaning for us, but their accumulation can be a kind of spiritual error. Reconciling this contradiction leads us to richer, deeper lives.

By Rand Richards Cooper

August 20, 2020

Books

The ‘Canceling’ of Flannery O’Connor?

This summer, Loyola University Maryland hastily decided to remove Flannery O’Connor’s name from one of its buildings. It should never have happened.

By Angela Alaimo O’Donnell

August 3, 2020

Collections

The Coronavirus

COVID-19 has profoundly affected our daily lives. Catch up with some of Commonweal’s best writing on the political and spiritual ramifications of the virus.

By The Editors

April 21, 2020