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Planetary Profiling: Dr. Who Part II

By James F. McGrath

…ilitary commander who identifies himself as “Father Octavian—Bishop Second Class, 20 clerics at my command.” Clearly there is some interesting church history in the thirty centuries between that future and our present, but the episode doesn’t explore it, beyond a throwaway line to the effect that “it’s the 51st century—the church has moved on.” Of course, Father Octavian isn’t what’s exciting about this episode. It’s the return of the Weeping Ange…

Magic v. Science: Doctor Who Part III

By Gabriel Mckee

…they do in order to survive. Because of this insight, the Doctor is not a classic vampire slayer, so much as an ecologist. He stops the Saturnynians for the same reason that environmentalists in North America combat the snakehead fish. Finally, it is fitting that Calvierri offers an alliance with the Doctor. Like the vampire, the Doctor is also an immortal outsider walking among us. He too has unnatural abilities and is alluring to the opposite s…

Religion or Ethics at the Supreme Court?

By Daniel Schultz

…“Hypothetically speaking, how would you weigh the competing interests in a class-action lawsuit seeking an injunction against all future offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico?”* To which the answer would be, “I don’t want to comment on any potential litigation that may come before me,” because our political process is stupid and nominees have to tap dance around what they actually believe lest somebody place an anonymous hold on them for pla…

Glenn Beck Takes on Liberation Theology

By Elijah Prewitt-Davis

…nifier, then liberation theology is still important and clearly has a future. Unlike Beck, I look forward to the day that a young immigrant worker picks up a copy of God of the Oppressed and realizes her humanity through it. James Cone once said in class that if you can write a book that people are still talking about 40 years later, then you might have had something very important to say. At the 41st anniversary of Black Theology and Black Power,…

Persecution of Ugandan Bishop Continues In United States

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…RD’s Walton vows to continue the fight to keep gays and lesbians as second-class, and perhaps even dead, citizens: ”These same liberal Episcopalians and other U.S. religionists are often indifferent to international religious persecution, even when churches around the world are under attack. For them, seemingly sexual freedom is more important than religious freedom.” No, the freedom for all people to be treated with dignity and respect, regardles…

The Heresies of Christopher Hitchens

By Austin Dacey

…or example, the Baha’i and the Copts of Egypt, who are relegated to second-class status; the Ahmadiyya Community, a large Muslim minority victimized by Pakistan’s blasphemy laws; or revisionist legal scholars like Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, author of Islam and the Secular State. Their advocacy for equal treatment of the heterodox, if it succeeds, will improve the lot of unbelievers in the Muslim-majority countries, yet its animating, organizing pri…

Who’s Afraid of Sacred Soccer?

By Gary Laderman

…tualized—New Agers with crystals, meditation retreats for the professional class. Instead, both old and new media have lit up the religious landscape, illuminating what is still an unconventional, and nebulous, but certainly increasingly capacious, understanding of the sacred in everyday life. Rock and roll can be religious, according to The Hold Steady; a recent Los Angeles Times article explores how celebrity doctors blur the lines between faith…

Does the Bible Really Call Homosexuality an “Abomination”?

By Jay Michaelson

…s, and Jebusites. So, toevah is serious, but it is serious as a particular class of cultic offense: a transgression of national boundary. It is certainly not “abomination.” Toevah is used four times in Leviticus 18—once to refer to male homosexual acts, and then three times as an umbrella term. As in Deuteronomy, the signal feature of toevot is that the other nations of the Land of Israel do them: “You shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgm…

Obama Recognizes Gay Dads

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…atement this past weekend in recognition of Father’s Day, he mentioned one class of fathers that no other president before him has acknowledged: gay dads. Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a stepfather, a grandfather, or caring guardian. His acknowledgement of the labor of love two men may put into their relationship with their children drew quick reaction from t…

Seeking Jobs, Beach Clean Up Workers Come From All Walks of Life

By Lauri Lebo

…said. People seeking jobs have come from all over the Gulf region. Middle-class plant workers who lost their jobs in the recession and convicted felons recently released from prison. Mothers and sons and uncles and nephews. The work is hard. There is no shade and when the heat gets too unbearable, they can’t run into the water to cool off. They are black, white and Hispanic. I guess Kumrits and Jones fill the demographic of designated hippies. Th…