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The Agenda in Making John Paul an Insta-Saint

By Patricia Miller

Is it my imagination, or has the process of canonizing saints in the Catholic Church largely become a circular process by which popes justify the political agendas of their predecessors? When I was a kid growing up in the Catholic Church, sainthood was a long and mysterious process. I remember the excitement surrounding the canonization of Elizabeth Ann Seton not only because she was the first American-born saint, but because the order of nuns wh…

The Agenda in Making John Paul an Insta-Saint

By Patricia Miller

Is it my imagination, or has the process of canonizing saints in the Catholic Church largely become a circular process by which popes justify the political agendas of their predecessors? When I was a kid growing up in the Catholic Church, sainthood was a long and mysterious process. I remember the excitement surrounding the canonization of Elizabeth Ann Seton not only because she was the first American-born saint, but because the order of nuns wh…

Virginians may Vote in Elections, But in Counties with Militias Democracy Hangs in the Balance

By Carolyn Gallaher and Priya Dixit

…one. Then They Joined the Capitol Attack,” The New York Times, February 14, 2021. [38] Kyle Cheney, “Text Message Trove Shows Oath Keepers Discussing Security Details for Trump Associates,” Politico, April 18, 2022. [39] “Proud Boys,” Southern Poverty Law Center, SPLC’s Extremist Files. [40] Cassie Miller, “Proud Boys are Still Violent, Despite Legal Woes,” Southern Poverty Law Center, August 25, 2021. [41] Derek Hawkins, Cleve R. Wootson Jr., and…

Dreaming Cyborg Dreams: Virtual Identity and Religious Experience

By Rachel Wagner

…depends on the extent that one’s religious worldview is imported into the online world. Second Life In the online world of Second Life, “residents” design their own avatars and engage in unscripted encounters, making real religious dialogue a possibility. Rita King (and her avatar Eureka Dejavu), engaged in some tough discussions about cultural differences with Muslims, as reported in Dispatches From the Imagination Age. Eureka describes a time w…

As We Survey the Damage of Yesterday’s Violence, What Will Christian Nationalist Politics Look Like in 2021? New Report Offers Clues

By Chrissy Stroop

…church-state separation issues for 2020 and laying out areas of concern for 2021. Sensibly framed in terms of promoting religious equality for all—including the nonreligious—the annual report, which American Atheists first issued in 2018, tracks both “positive” (upholding church-state separation) and “negative” (undermining church-state separation) factors, which serve as the basis for an index used to issue convenient individual scorecards for ea…

2021 National Prayer Breakfast: A Kinder Gentler Christian Capitalism

By Becky Garrison

The 2021 National Prayer Breakfast (NPB), held annually the first Thursday in February and attended by every sitting President since its founding in 1953, reverted this year to dishing out their faith based programming on fine china in lieu of the fast-food version served by the Trump White House. As expected, media coverage of NPB focused on President Joe Biden’s bipartisan message of national unity and faith in light of the January 6 Capitol in…

‘Cult’ Is an Inaccurate, Unhelpful and Dangerous Label for Followers of Trump, QAnon, and 1/6

By Catherine Wessinger

…. Lately, Trump and some supporters have begun to claim that he will be “reinstated” as president in August 2021, after there have been recounts in some states where, they believe, widespread voter fraud has taken place. (It shouldn’t be necessary, but sadly it is, to note here that there is no meaningful evidence of widespread voter fraud or that any recount would affect the result of the election.) This repeated setting of dates is reminiscent o…

‘Theological Porn’: The Most Egregious Religious Idea of 2021 is a Tie

By Mary E. Hunt

…ompetition was keen, but the award for the Most Egregious Religious Idea of 2021 resulted in a tie between that of Supreme Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett and that of Bishop John F. Doerfler of the Diocese of Marquette, Michigan. The award does not apply to any single individual, but is given for a concept or ideology that does serious damage. Judge Barrett’s flabbergasting claim came in oral arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health…

Sacred Texting: When Religious Writ Gets Wired

By Rachel Wagner

…esire to access them. The ease with which a Muslim can now read and search online databases of the hadith (sayings and deeds of Muhammad) has made some Muslim scholars nervous. The University of Southern California offers a searchable online hadith collection, in English, which is prefaced by a “warning” issued “especially for Muslims.” The warning explains that the early scholars of hadith were experts in the “critical science of collecting and e…

After Michael Jerryson (1974-2021) Nobody Will Ever Look at Buddhism the Same Way

By Mark Juergensmeyer

It is perhaps not too much of an exaggeration to say that after Michael Jerryson no one will ever look at Buddhism the same way. Others have written about Buddhist violence and warfare, of course, but Jerryson brought it to public attention in a way that could not be ignored. Michael Jerryson/Facebook When he died last week after over two years of struggling with ALS (the dreaded neurological Lou Gehrig’s disease), Jerryson left a rich corpus of…