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How the Politics of the 1890s Explain the GOP’s Health Care Woes

…arge again after running against the tariff and the Silver Act, they, like today’s GOP, were in the hook to make good on their promises of returning America to better, simpler days without government interference. Then, the worst depression of the nineteenth century, the Panic of 1893, hit. The Democrats put all their efforts into repealing the Silver Act, which it blamed for the country’s financial difficulties. But when that didn’t end the panic…

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Most U.S. Catholics Back Marriage Equality, But Knights of Columbus Pour Millions into Opposition

…inancial power comes from a huge and profitable life insurance business it promotes through local councils and parishes. It funnels millions of dollars to the pope and bishops’ conferences as well as to more service-oriented charities.  “The Strong Right Arm of the Bishops: The Knights of Columbus and Anti-Marriage Equality Funding,” documents $6.25 million in direct Knights funding to anti-marriage equality campaigns at the national level and in…

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Modern Vampires: Your Neighbors and Spouses

…(Praeger, release date: May 30, 2009). What inspired you to write Vampires Today? What sparked your interest? Some people think I study vampires simply because they are unusual. I’ve even been asked if I am a vampire myself. The reality is that I became interested in the vampire community when I learned of a massive survey being conducted by the Atlanta Vampire Alliance (AVA). Their project was relevant to the sociology of knowledge: instead of de…

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Anger, Privilege, and Invisible Injustice: What Cain and Abel Have to Do With Ferguson

…his head, killing him. Cain and Abel’s remarkable argument is little known today, but it is not a mere blip on the radar of biblical interpretation. It exists in different versions in other Targum manuscripts, including fragments found in the Cairo Geniza, showing that it was discussed, revised, and transmitted across Jewish communities. And it is representative of a concern with justice we can see in many other texts where Jewish interpreters gra…

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Romney Accuses Obama of Stifling Religious Liberty

Today, the Washington Examiner published an op-ed from Mitt Romney, “President Obama versus Religious Liberty:” The Obama administration is at it again. They are now using Obamacare to impose a secular vision on Americans who believe that they should not have their religious freedom taken away. This is the same Mitt Romney who could barely utter a word about religious freedom for his own faith when it was under assault by some of his fellow conse…

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Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World

…“Christ figure.” In the immortal words of Woody Allen, “If Jesus came back today and saw what was going on in his name, he wouldn’t stop throwing up.” It is safe to say that Allen’s comments can be applied to a lot of religious film criticism. Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing? As with the above point the main audience is, I hope, students. I tried to write this in an accessible way, introducing key themes in religious studies…

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Ordain Women Transforms Mormon Feminism

One year ago today, Ordain Women celebrated the creation of the Relief Society on March 17, 1842 by launching its website with 19 profiles of individuals calling for the ordination of Mormon women. Today it has more than 250 profiles—and has completely transformed Mormon feminism. I continue to be impressed and pleased with the extremely thoughtful work Laurie Goodstein and Jodi Kantor are doing on Mormon women. I recommend a conversation on “The…

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Does Record Number of Religious “Nones” Mean Decline of Religiosity?

…ut American religiosity—about religion as it is lived in the United States today? A number of what I would see as problems in the Pew report suggest to me that our growing fixation with religion-by-the-numbers may be distracting us from richer, more nuanced understandings of American religious practice.  Wanted: A Community that Doesn’t Share My Beliefs and Values Take the demographic category of “Nones” itself. The Pew report notes the difficulty…

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Sacred&Profane: The Living Dead

…rits, it seems perfectly natural to dwell on the ghostly dead who haunt us today in this political season—what some have labeled the season of the witch. Surely this reorientation to mortal and immortal matters is not surprising considering this election’s campaign cycle has not only resurrected the memory of Robert Kennedy’s assassination in the democratic primaries, but also identified the accidental death of Joe Biden’s wife and daughter in the…

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High Ark: A Geologist on the True Meaning of Noah’s Flood

…rd by young-earth creationists that all of the geologic features we see on today’s Earth—sedimentary rock, species distribution, formation of continents, volcanoes, canyons, everything—can be attributed to one “global flood,” within the 6,000-year time frame they allow for Earth’s history. It’s an idea that begs for debunking, certainly, but who would be listening? Fortunately, Montgomery’s book offers the reader something much more interesting th…

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