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New Reports Reveal Global Persecution of Nonbelievers

By Austin Dacey

…o “blasphemous content.” The IHEU reports being contacted by an increasing number of secularist groups organizing on Facebook, including groups in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, and Sudan. In all of this, the United States is an anomaly since it rejects even laws against religious hate speech, which were found in 36 of 45 European states in 2011. It’s the best place in the wo…

Americans Say Religion is “Losing Influence”

By Diane Winston

…its association with social stability, community cohesion, and traditional values—raised appreciation for its influence. The upshot? The perception of increased religious influence on American society is just a cataclysm away. Religion’s saliency for political machinations, cultural inspiration, and social movements is a separate reality from the growing number of nones. Both need coverage. But the Gallup data raises questions that I’ve rarely see…

Sacred&Profane: The Living Dead

By Gary Laderman

…oked. There are ghosts and graves in the yards of my neighborhood, and the number of skeletons—reclining on lawn chairs, sprouting up from the ground, beckoning from the shadows—has transformed the suburban landscape into a set for a George Romero film. In addition, and beyond bland suburbia, monsters, ghosts, skeletons, vampires, and other playful dead inhabit stores and sell products, entertain across the television dial, and instill a dreadfull…

The Real Goal of Pro-Life Movement Support for Scott Brown: Kill Health Care Reform

By Sarah Posner

…e consequences of a Sen. Brown victory mean it’s time to put a stop to the flawed government-run, pro-abortion health care program that’s been on a fast-track. For a movement with pretensions to ideological purity, the religious right’s support for Brown is calculated for the short term: hijack health care reform and push the narrative that the country is moving to the right. But something tells me if he’s ever invited to address the Values Voters…

The 17th Century Roots of Roy Moore’s Refusal to Concede the Election

By Karen E. Park

…According to the laws of the state of Alabama, Moore lost the election Tuesday night, and whether or not he eventually demands a recount, he is likely to remain the loser. But his theocratic mindset has not been vanquished, and is shared by far too many American Christians whose idea of government resembles John Winthop’s disdain for democracy far more than it does the flawed idealism of the Founding Fathers….

Travolta Airlifts Scientology, Supplies, to Haiti

By Becky Garrison

…pastoral care.” Their counseling services included promoting their hotline number on Fox News under the title “National Mental Health Assistance.” In 2002, Tom Cruise and executives from Scientology’s FASE (Foundation for the Advancement in Science and Education) launched “Downtown Medical” (also called “New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project”). This facility offered FDNY firefighters and other recovery workers the opportunity to partake i…

Sacred&Profane: Wilco Worship and the “Churn” in American Religion

By Gary Laderman

…t an almost-famous rock band suggests the possibility that faith may be in flux, but the sacred has many potential anchors outside of Great Books, Faith Traditions, and Sites of Worship, including, simply, music and musical subcultures. Americans young and old, rich and poor, atheist and faithful, have turned to music as a sacred source of religious life, discovering in the rhythms, beats, and lyrics a valuable way to escape (if only momentarily)…

Change v. Change at NPR

By Warren Throckmorton

…rmon faith (Spiegel and Schumacher-Matos incorrectly identifies Wyler as “evangelical Christian”). However, the “identity therapy” (more completely sexual identity therapy) does not promote change of orientation and is largely consistent with the APA and other professional groups on the matter of the durability of sexual orientation. For the most part, this is a religious debate. Some religious people think that the only way to fit in to a non-aff…

U.S. Bishops Reject Pope Francis’ Priorities

By Patricia Miller

…previous version was widely interpreted as saying that Catholics had to elevate opposition to abortion as their main criteria for evaluating candidates, which was used to pillory John Kerry in the 2004 election. The 2007 edition, however, retained opposition to abortion and euthanasia as “foundational” issues for Catholics in voting. Several bishops perceived to be allied with Pope Francis complained this week that such a framework failed to refle…

Jesus Christ and Super Stars: How The Holy Rolled Mainstream in Pop Music

By Alana Massey

…dinary devils. This was true at least of mainline denominations and white evangelicals. Though they were not without their own conflicts, black churches were largely spared the generational ruptures that cast Christian-raised white Americans into the “None” category. Because rap never divested from its origins in the prophetic witness of the black church, it’s not surprising that rap and hip hop have been the home base for some of the most explici…