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In a Powerful Statement Black Presidents and Deans Say: No More Stolen Black Lives!

By Pamela R. Lightsey

…essor, Penn State University Shanell T. Smith, PhD, Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins, Hartford Seminary Elise M. Edwards, PhD, Assistant Professor, Baylor University Renee K. Harrison, PhD, Associate Professor, African American & U.S. Religious History, Howard University School of Divinity Rev. Belva Brown Jordan, Interim President, Disciples Seminary Foundation, Associate Professor Practice of Ministry, Claremont School…

Sex and the Chosen People: Be Fruitful and Multiply, Etc.

By Mandy Van Deven

…d hopefully rabbis can be part of that discussion. Do you find modern day ‘American culture’ at odds with ‘Jewish culture’ in terms of sexuality? I find it difficult to presume that either American culture or Jewish culture is entirely monolithic. There are many different streams, many different conversations happening all the time! That said, I see in the broader secular culture, often, the presumption that sexuality is an item to be bought, sold…

New Pope Accused of Conspiring in Kidnapping

By Nicole Greenfield

…. You are the dictatorship!)—today became—“Bergoglio. Basura. Vos sos la dictadura.” Habemus Papam Franciscum! Check back (or sign up for the newsletter) for a more detailed profile of the new pope. …

New Reports Reveal Global Persecution of Nonbelievers

By Austin Dacey

…nd religious skeptics is widespread and apparently rising according to two new studies, one from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, and the other from a coalition of secularist, atheist, and humanist organizations including the Washington DC-based Center for Inquiry and the London-based International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). Full disclosure: I have worked with both organizations and consulted on the report, titl…

How To Talk To “Nones” and Influence People: Rob Bell’s Transrational Experience

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…el Hill. A good Northeastern liberal, I’d read the warning articles in The New Republic before I went, and I knew the Tea Party had taken over the state, but I could not have imagined something like the “bathroom bill,” or HB2. When I sat in Bell’s audience in Durham in March, the fallout from the state’s recent anti-LGBT legislation was just beginning. Still, I kept waiting for someone in the audience to ask: what do we do if it’s not our church…

Religious Practices on Trial in Arizona: The Problem With “Experts”

By Johnny P. Flynn

…s kinda, sorta how James Ray set up his spiritual Ponzi scheme, right? He knew someone who knew someone who did “Indian sweats” and presto and voilà, Ray is taking people on spiritual retreats at 10K a head and then people start dying. So, experts have to be brought in to figure out what happened. No Indians mind you, just experts. And the truth is, we don’t want to be experts. Why? Because we know there is no such thing as Indians, redskins, warr…

American Christmas (Shopping) and the Protestant Reformation

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…iness. So, Roman Catholics leave the Baby Jesus out of the manger, whereas American Protestants seem especially obsessed with that symbol of primal innocence. And American Protestants leave the Crucified Christ off of the Cross, which must mean something too… Consider what constituted the real heart of the religious reforms central to the Protestant Reformation. No holy water, no incense, no painting, no statues, no saints, no relics, no monasteri…

The Myth of ‘Voodoo’: A Caribbean American Response to Representations of Haiti

By Dianne M. Stewart

…d’s good nature is reflected in the slave trade, what was the Devil up to? American ignorance of Vodou beliefs and practices aside, I am befuddled by Robertson’s lack of reflection on what his tall tale of Haiti’s unpaved road to hell inevitably registers about the nature of the Christian God. Where was the almighty Christian God when Haiti’s founding patriots and defenders of human liberty allegedly “swore a pact to the devil?” There is something…

Op-Ed: A Few Things I Wish Barack Obama Had Said

By Garret Keizer

…cus on the profound similarity. Both are based on the firm belief that the American electorate regards its suffrage as a thing for sale. Both are based on that time-honored American political tradition of buying votes. You know, people have tried to accuse me of having messianic pretensions. But here is the proof that I am not “the one you’re waiting for.” The true messiah of American politics will be the candidate who is willing to say that enjoy…

“You Lie!”: Messing with American Mass

By Ben Brazil

…a long way towards explaining the outrage felt by legislators and by many Americans. The president was not speaking to a labor union in Ohio or to teachers in Florida—he was speaking to a joint session of Congress, a ritualized setting that invokes all the sacredness of the democratic government of the United States of America. Americans tend to watch such speeches together—as families, in restaurants, in bars. For a few moments, a significant po…