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Pro- and Anti-Muslim Sentiment in Gainesville

By Julie Ingersoll

…oes forward with his plan to burn Qur’ans or not. The community-building efforts of the Gainesville Muslim Community continue through the month, and will culminate in a community fast and shared meal on September 27. Pastor Johnson says he hopes the recent controversy will “have a silver lining with more and more people seeking to better understand each other.” But full-blown understanding might be too much to ask, as people have been steeped in e…

The Rise and Fall of an American Gang: Religion as Camouflage?

By Spencer Dew

…The book is alternately fascinating and frustrating. What we learn of Jeff Fort’s childhood doesn’t mention religious upbringing, though he had siblings named “Maryam, Kadija… Kaaba, Akaba, and Aki.” Similar gaps riddle the narrative. “An Illinois politician invited Fort to attend the 1969 inauguration of President Richard Nixon,” we’re told, but we’re not told who, or why. Likewise, we’re told “the El Rukns had been paid ten thousand dollars thro…

Alleged Fort Hood Shooter Is Muslim. So What?

By Sarah Posner

…ing web sites from exploding with incendiary speculation about a “Jihad at Fort Hood?” and a “Terrorist Incident in Texas.” The Huffington Post reported this morning that a Republican congressional candidate in Florida, Allen West, a retired mililtary officer, issued a statement on the massacre headlined “Terrorists Are Infiltrating the Military.” Muslim groups were quick to condemn the shootings — as if they were obligated to much a special effor…

Pricey Tickets, Cranky Citizens, and Priests Behind Bars as Philadelphia Prepares For Papal Visit

By Anthea Butler

…to continue to shrink into the insularity and disorganization that caused the Philadelphia Archdiocese to decline so precipitously? It remains to be seen. Meanwhile, faithful Catholics and others who want to see the Pope may be losing heart. 10,000 tickets for the Pope’s Speech at Independence Mall sold out in two minutes on Tuesday, with 394k people trying their best to get a few. Tickets are already being scalped at $100 and up on craigslist. I…

Are Evangelicals Suffering From Buyer’s Remorse with Obama?

By Bill Berkowitz

…line, “As part of Tchividjian’s election, the 2,200-member congregation in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, agreed to merge with Tchividjian’s 650-member New City Church, also located in the Fort Lauderdale area.” Kennedy was a profoundly political and powerful conservative pastor, albeit lesser-known than the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Dr. James Dobson, and Pat Robertson. While Tchividjian has written that he and Kennedy didn’t differ in their beliefs, “he tol…

Feeding the Hungry vs. Antigay Activism: A Double Standard for Religious Freedom?

By Hollis Phelps, Ryne Beddard

…lly at best and coldhearted at worst. Nicki Grossman, who runs the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, told the Sun Sentinel that she has received emails telling her that the city “has no heart.” But, at least as far as we can tell, it seems that virtually no one has pulled out the First Amendment in defense of Arnold Abbot. We draw attention to this because, as RD has frequently noted, appeals to “religious freedom” have become…

Mile-High Identity Politics: What We Can Learn From the Same-Sex Seating Controversy

By Eboo Patel

…ke his middle. I have watched passengers with first class seats hand their tickets to uniformed veterans and sit in economy. Several times I have witnessed people move further back to allow a mother to sit next to her children. All of these required not only the hassle of moving, but also the discomfort of a worse seat. Sometimes the person with the better seat was asked, sometimes s/he offered. In most situations, the person moving to the worse s…

The Key to Understanding the Federalist Society Isn’t Originalism — It’s This 800-Year Old Tradition

By Peter Schwartz

…notions of “human dignity” and “human flourishing,” Catholic natural law—an 800-year-old tradition dating back to Thomas Aquinas—is a lens that offers utter clarity to conservative Catholic jurists, activists, policymakers, and scholars as they observe, describe, and engage the world. The power and sharpness of this lens allow them to confidently snap every human movement—every human desire and motive and act—into its divinely appointed and proper…

Atheist Nazis? The Pope’s Cheap Atonement

By Susannah Heschel

Adam Clayton Powell called it “cheap grace,” but we might call it “cheap atonement”: the effort by sinners to select which sins to acknowledge and repent. Pope Benedict XVI ended his heavily protested visit to England with a heartfelt apology for German bombings of England during the Battle of Britain; though he refused to accept Christian responsibility for the Holocaust, blaming it instead on pagans and atheists. Given that Cardinal Walter Kasp…

Virtual Book Burning and Its Consequences

By Laurie Patton

…world stage by declaring war on the United States, and, through the US’ efforts to placate it, becomes a world power as a result. “I see the scrolls burning but the letters fly up…” Indeed, the Gainesville event might be the final culmination of the age of hijackers, where a small group’s manipulation of a powerful vehicle has far-reaching disastrous effects. Only in this case, the vehicle is the Qur’an, not an airplane. And the manipulation need…