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The Surprising Catholic Roots of the War on Xmas

By Patricia Miller

…t begin to take action.” Then in 2005, Donohue struck gold when a Wal-Mart customer service employee emailed a woman who complained about the store changing “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” and told her: “The majority of the world still has different practices other than “Christmas” which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. … Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses [sic], mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from…

A Mennonite on American Obesity

By Lauri Lebo

…Their very existence tends to enable the alcoholism of a portion of their customer base. The fact of the matter is that people who lack self control are often enabled in their addictions by buffets and bars. But at least bars often have a policy of not serving obviously inebriated people. Buffets will let you eat until you explode. As I contemplated the commonplace nature of obesity in South Central PA, and its prevalence among Christians and non…

Occupy Francis Lewis Boulevard

By Haroon Moghul

…s crammed into small spaces, breeding like, well, South Asian rabbits. The customer at front grins at his rubber bullet origins story, but more out of exasperation than actual amusement. “They showed it on TV. A protester held a bullet up to the camera and it said, clearly, ‘Made in USA.’” I nodded my head blandly. He kept going, ever more frustrated. “Every other damn thing in the world is made in China, but when it comes to the rubber bullets an…

SoulCycle Looks to Sell its Soul

By Michael Schulson

…for-profit company that sells New Age values and ethical lifestyles to its customers. Like SoulCycle, it does so in an openly commercial context with high cost barriers. And, as Yale religion scholar Kathryn Lofton has argued, Oprah has built a (privately owned) empire, in part, by developing a powerful hybrid of spirituality and consumerism. So who cares? If the market can deliver spiritual or ethical goods, then shouldn’t it do so? And aren’t mo…

In Hamline Case, the ‘Free Expression vs. Religious Sensibilities’ Frame Obscures a Stark Reality About Higher Education

By Junaid Jahangir

…Fortunately, many universities allow space for critical inquiry. And, in addition to the petition in support of Dr. López Prater issued by a group of academics specializing in Islamic Studies and allied fields, both the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) and even the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have issued statements of support. They’re rightfully concerned about the stifling of academic freedom in universities. But we should a…

Will SCOTUS’s New Zeal for “Neutrality” Affect its Decision on the “Muslim Ban”?

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

…ke with an anti-gay message) and refusal to sell a product to a particular customer (a wedding cake to a same-sex couple). Of course, the Court didn’t seem so concerned with clearly biased government religious expression in Town of Greece. As Justice Kagan’s powerful dissent outlines, in that case “the Town Board select[ed], month after month and year after year, prayergivers who will reliably speak in the voice of Christianity” and thereby “infus…

Dear Amazon Prime, I’m Not a Racist, But Why Are You Destroying My Precious Middle-Earth With Black Hobbits?

By Mary Rambaran-Olm

Dear Amazon Prime,* As a loyal customer I’m appalled at your latest WOKE stunt and have some questions for you before I cut to the chase. I’ve been watching the new Rings of Power series based on the works of Professor JRR Tolkien who was a medievalist, philologist, and fantasy author of The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, and other works. Let me explain why your casting choices in this latest series are WRONG. I’m an amateur histori…

You Gotta Have Heart: A Response to Critics of “Why I’m Not an Organ Donor”

By Kristel Clayville

…rch and on the OPTN website run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. From my own clinical experience, I have anecdotal data about how significant resources are in getting on the list for an organ transplant (non-kidney). None of this is new to those who work in transplant, and there are many hands taking up the work of ameliorating this situation. These main points were wrapped in a short personal narrative about not being a donor…

Scientology: All-American or Aging Hoax?

By Gordon Haber

…ory than a supposition that the church is, to some extent, a reflection of American values. He also posits a number of broad questions (maybe too broad) about how we define religion in America and about “legal and theoretical issues in the study of religion.” In the interest of objectivity, Urban employs a simultaneous “hermeneutics of respect and hermeneutics of suspicion”—meaning that he takes Scientology’s religious claims at face value while…

Porn, Abuse, or Just Plain Incompatibility… Is Divorce Ever a Sin?

By Daniel Schultz

…recently released LifeWay Research survey on divorce found that 37% of all Americans consider it to be a sin to leave your spouse because of abuse within the relationship. That’s two points higher than those who think it’s a sin to ditch a spouse addicted to pornography. Thankfully, only 28% of pastors surveyed agreed, which is still too high for comfort. Still: Christians are much more likely to say divorce as a result of abuse is a sin than non-…