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Religion Dispatches - Religion Dispatches Religion Dispatches
  • Racial Justice
    • Uncovering the (White) Christian Roots of Slavery, Native American Genocide, and Ongoing Efforts to Erase History
      Uncovering the (White) Christian Roots of Slavery, Native American Genocide, and Ongoing Efforts to Erase History
    • America Appears to be Heading for a Religious Civil War
      America Appears to be Heading for a Religious Civil War
    • Holocaust Humor and The ‘Real’ Germany — As Top Officials Shatter Post-WWII Taboos, German Conservatives Follow GOP Playbook and Charge Ahead
      Holocaust Humor and The ‘Real’ Germany — As Top Officials Shatter Post-WWII Taboos, German Conservatives Follow GOP Playbook and Charge Ahead
  • Politics/Law
    • America Appears to be Heading for a Religious Civil War
      America Appears to be Heading for a Religious Civil War
    • Holocaust Humor and The ‘Real’ Germany — As Top Officials Shatter Post-WWII Taboos, German Conservatives Follow GOP Playbook and Charge Ahead
      Holocaust Humor and The ‘Real’ Germany — As Top Officials Shatter Post-WWII Taboos, German Conservatives Follow GOP Playbook and Charge Ahead
    • ‘Sit Down and Be Quiet’ — MAGA Attack on Jewish Republican Exposes Christian Nationalism’s Shaky Commitment to Pluralism
      ‘Sit Down and Be Quiet’ — MAGA Attack on Jewish Republican Exposes Christian Nationalism’s Shaky Commitment to Pluralism
  • Sex/Gender/Justice
    • ‘Sit Down and Be Quiet’ — MAGA Attack on Jewish Republican Exposes Christian Nationalism’s Shaky Commitment to Pluralism
      ‘Sit Down and Be Quiet’ — MAGA Attack on Jewish Republican Exposes Christian Nationalism’s Shaky Commitment to Pluralism
    • Following Republican Playbook, German Conservatism Breaks <em>the</em> Post-WWII Taboo
      Following Republican Playbook, German Conservatism Breaks the Post-WWII Taboo
    • Contrary to Claims of Anti-Trans Muslims, LGBTQ+ Acceptance is Widespread in the History of Islam
      Contrary to Claims of Anti-Trans Muslims, LGBTQ+ Acceptance is Widespread in the History of Islam
  • Christian Nationalism
    • Uncovering the (White) Christian Roots of Slavery, Native American Genocide, and Ongoing Efforts to Erase History
      Uncovering the (White) Christian Roots of Slavery, Native American Genocide, and Ongoing Efforts to Erase History
    • America Appears to be Heading for a Religious Civil War
      America Appears to be Heading for a Religious Civil War
    • ‘Sit Down and Be Quiet’ — MAGA Attack on Jewish Republican Exposes Christian Nationalism’s Shaky Commitment to Pluralism
      ‘Sit Down and Be Quiet’ — MAGA Attack on Jewish Republican Exposes Christian Nationalism’s Shaky Commitment to Pluralism
  • Books
    • Uncovering the (White) Christian Roots of Slavery, Native American Genocide, and Ongoing Efforts to Erase History
      Uncovering the (White) Christian Roots of Slavery, Native American Genocide, and Ongoing Efforts to Erase History
    • From Civil Rights Liberals to New Age Conspiracy Theorists — What Betty and Barney Hill’s Alien Abduction Story Reveals About America
      From Civil Rights Liberals to New Age Conspiracy Theorists — What Betty and Barney Hill’s Alien Abduction Story Reveals About America
    • Russell Moore Claims There’s a Crisis in Evangelical America — But White Evangelicalism is Exactly Where it Wants to Be
      Russell Moore Claims There’s a Crisis in Evangelical America — But White Evangelicalism is Exactly Where it Wants to Be
ens310@lehigh.edu'

Ed Simon

Ed Simon is the Editor-at-Large for The Marginalia Review of Books, a channel of The Los Angeles Review of Books. A regular contributor at several different sites, his collection America and Other Fictions: On Radical Faith and Post-Religion will be released by Zero Books this year. He can be followed on Facebook, at his author website, and on Twitter @WithEdSimon.

(A)theologies, Archive, Books, Christian Nationalism, Culture, OMFG, Science & Technology, Sex/Gender/JusticeApril 5, 2022

With Demons Held Responsible These Days for Everything from Covid to LGBTQ Rights, Take a Visual Tour of the History of Demonization

By Ed Simon

During our season of political madness, it took a lot to trigger a double-take, and…

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(A)theologies, Archive, Books, CultureSeptember 30, 2021

Pittsburgh Paradox: A City Haunted by God and Steel

By Ed Simon

Willa Cather is so associated with the Nebraska prairie’s expanse, depicted in novels like O…

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(A)theologies, Archive, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeDecember 16, 2020

History Matters: On the 400th Anniversary of Plymouth We’re Still Clinging to Destructive National Myths

By Ed Simon

Within William Bradford’s massive work, Of Plymouth Plantation, composed between 1630 and 1651 while he…

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Archive, CultureFebruary 26, 2020

In a Time of Chaos and Misrule, Mardi Gras’ Subversive Message is Virtually Meaningless

By Ed Simon

Historically amongst the revelers at Venice’s celebrated Mardi Gras Carnival, are those costumed in the…

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Archive, CultureFebruary 5, 2020

Literary Critic George Steiner, Whose Views on Anti-Semitism Drew Controversy, Dies at 90

By Ed Simon

In 2019 the community of literary scholars marked the passing of the pugilistic and controversial…

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Archive, Culture, Politics/Law, UncategorizedJanuary 18, 2020

MLK Monument That Never Was, is a Reminder of the King Too Often Ignored

By Ed Simon

During the controversy surrounding the selection of a design for the Martin Luther King Jr….

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(A)theologies, Archive, Books, Culture, History/Theology, New Books, Politics/Law, Politics/Law, Sex/Gender/Justice, Sexuality/GenderDecember 19, 2019

A Devil’s Dozen of the Best ‘New Religion Journalism’ Books of the Decade

By Ed Simon

Since the turn of this century, following the news is like experiencing a daily repudiation…

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Archive, FeaturedNovember 26, 2019

Thanksgiving Reveals More About Us Than About 17th Century Events

By Ed Simon

A reluctant Indian militant, a Jew with Christmas envy, and a feminist in search of an alternative Thanksgiving are among the scholars and writers who have weighed in over the years on our secular religious national holiday of Thanksgiving.

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Archive, CultureOctober 16, 2019

Struggling With the Legacy of Harold Bloom, Brilliant but Deeply Flawed Critic (1930-2019)

By Ed Simon

For all that Bloom got wrong about theory and the state of the discipline, he was correct in his contention that the sometimes godlessness of the field was a critical detriment, and that ‘A nation obsessed with religion rather desperately needs a religious criticism.’

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Books, Culture, New BooksAugust 6, 2019

Toni Morrison, Prophet of America’s Demons (1931-2019)

By Ed Simon

Morrison’s witness to language’s power to both destroy and create has been on ample display in our current season of American blood-letting. In 1993 Morrison warned of “Tongue-suicide,” which is “common among the infantile heads of state and power merchants whose evacuated language leaves them with no access to what is … human.”

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Religion Dispatches

Religion Dispatches

Religion Dispatches is your independent, non-profit, award-winning source for the best writing on critical and timely issues at the intersection of religion, politics, and culture.

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