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Greatest Hits of 2015: Religion Stories Our Readers Couldn’t Resist

…d preferred mercy, amnesty and forgiveness over force (though Muhammad did use force, and at times that use of force shocks). #5 Josh Duggar and the Purity Lie The downfall of the Duggar family, of reality TV fame, was among the most notorious sources of Schadenfreude this year. Sarah Posner goes beyond the gossip and muckraking in this post about the family’s cover-up of Josh Duggar’s sexual predation. #4 Why Tony Campolo’s LGBTQ Reversal is Evan…

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For Love or Threat: Pro-Life Prayer Includes Names, Photos of Abortion-Rights Advocates

…thing they agree on is that [neither] prayer nor scripture should ever be used as weapons. And we agree that prayer should be entered into humbly, seeking the Holy One’s will and guidance, not assuming we already know what it is.” Campaigns like PLAL’s, with their use of names and photographs, are potential catalysts for harassment according to Reverend Knox. “Creating what looks like a wanted poster, then asking people to pray for those shown, i…

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Some Christian and Muslim Leaders Urging ‘No’ Vote in Australian Mail Ballot on Marriage Equality; and More in Global LGBT Recap

…ance of LGBTQ people. “According to a poll conducted by Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights (TAPCR) in 2013, around half of Taiwanese support same sex unions whereas 75% of the opposition came from the Christian community. In addition, there are also Taiwanese who oppose same-sex unions on the grounds of upholding traditional Chinese family tradition,” she notes. “Therefore, if the same logic is applied to Indonesia then I think ‘I…

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Graeme Wood on ISIS: No Such Thing as Objective Critique

…described the ‘Islamic State’ as “not Islamic” it was not necessarily because of a lack of understanding of the group, but because of an awareness of the power of his words to affect the lives of the millions of Muslims in America. Wood does not acknowledge the power his words have in constructing the “reality” they depict. That is, he is not simply describing the Truth, but helping to construct it. In her essay “Representing Fundamentalism: The…

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Popesplaining: Women Remain “Strawberries” in Francis’s Book on Happiness

…adds, “slavery prevents us from truly and fully living in the present, because it makes our past empty and cuts off our future, separates us from eternity.” But a great deal of this book is about relationships. Joy, the pope tells us, doesn’t come from material possessions but from “encounter,” a word he often uses to talk about what the church should be doing. His Jesuit background means that Francis has both spent much of his life living in comm…

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DeSantis is More Polished and Less Bombastic Than Trump — But is He Less of a Threat to Democracy?

…ists anonymously. Even if DeSantis were to replace Trump, it wouldn’t be cause for celebration because, as Sharlet correctly observes: “DeSantis doesn’t represent a break with fascism. He doesn’t even represent a break with Trumpism. Trump, the person? Perhaps. But ‘Trumpism’ is what we’ve been calling this particular American version of fascism, which DeSantis embodies as much as anyone.” As a trained historian and scholar of fascism, I have bad…

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Bad Karma: Life Lessons From Earl

…n the hospital. While there, he hears about karma and decides that he will use this principle to turn his life around. He puts together a long list of wrongs committed and begins the process of correcting for past, harmful behavior. The numerous awards won over four seasons suggest something of the show’s appeal. Earl, an unlikely convert to ethics of reconciliation, stumbles through various attempts to reconcile self-interest and the needs of oth…

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Election Day: Hope, Heartbreak, Naiveté, and Studs Terkel

…n order to affect the election. On the state level, too, religion is being used to promote discrimination: Proposition 8 in California seeks to annihilate gay marriage rights, though they have been confirmed by the California Supreme Court, by amending the California Constitution. The Prop. 8 campaign has effectively played on fear and the ingrained religious notions of marriage that most people retain, no matter what religion—or even lack of reli…

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Even After an Obama Victory Reports of the Death of the Religious Right are Greatly Exaggerated

…has been a surprisingly vibrant discussion surrounding the potential redundancy of the phrase ‘frozen tundra.’ The New York Times’ sports pages reported on Lake Superior State University’s eagerly awaited List of “Words Banished From the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness, 2003 edition,” which banished ‘frozen tundra’ for being redundant (missing the irony, perhaps, that this isn’t a word, it’s a phrase). LSSU’s 2004 edit…

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Romney Accuses Obama of Stifling Religious Liberty

…jected the Vatican’s ban on contraception. Catholic women are as likely to use birth control as other women. What about their consciences? Or, for that matter, the consciences of Romney’s fellow Mormons: the LDS Church permits the use of birth control, all methods. And here’s another one: what would the reaction of the anti-Mormons in conservative-land be to a claim of violation of religious freedom by the LDS Church, should it request an exemptio…

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