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Denying Darwin: Another Peculiar American Institution

By Lauri Lebo

…battles over religion and science. Fundamentalist Fervor According to Ron Numbers, in his book The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design, the rise of Christian fundamentalism in America didn’t really start in earnest until the early 1900s. For the most part, Christians were not biblical literalists and accepted science—including the ideas that the earth was very old and that living creatures changed through time. A typic…

PFOX Accuses PTA of being PC

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…he sight of George Rekers — a champion of the “ex-gay” industry — taking a European tour with his luggage boy, who gave him erotic massages, gave PTA-ers pause about the validity of such programs. Perhaps it’s the junk science touted by the “ex-gay” industry that gave them pause. Whatever it was, PFOX shouldn’t feel bad, because I’m sure the PTA would have turned down an application from the Flat Earth Society as well. It’s not that PFOX is being…

The Social Cost of Atheism

By Lauri Lebo

…make ethical decisions without an instruction manual. Additionally, one of the most interesting differences among American atheists and those in other countries was in response to the question, “How often did you attend religious services when you were growing up?” Only 33 percent of Western European respondents reported going to church several times a month; 52 percent of Canadians; 43 percent of British and 45 percent of Australians. For Americ…

Is Yoga Hindu?

By Roman Palitsky

…ahminic inclinations of party leadership, as well as to the esotericism of European supporters like the Theosophical Society. Purged of its mixed roots, yoga came to represent Hinduism to the world through celebrity gurus such as Swami Vivekananda and Swami Shivananda. Thus the re-invention of a “Hindu” Indian history, along with nationalist revolutionary movements and a freshly-minted yoga, combined to foster the complex relationship between Hind…

The High Church of Art

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…well as at the Sorbonne and the University of Siena. His deep ties to the European art scene would play a major part in his life’s work. He began working as a curator in the 1930s, first at the University of Chicago (1933-1934), then took a lectureship at the Institute of Fine Arts in New York (1935-1940). He was then appointed as director of the Department of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art at the end of the Second World War (…

Christmas Candy Jesus, Black Magi, Jewish Xmas

By Michael J. Altman

…do found the image of the Virgin Mary and Jesus in a Christmas hard candy. European artists traditionally represented one of the magi as black. David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr. have gathered these images together as part of their “The Image of the Black in Western Art.” The Fed has reversed its ban on religious displays prompted by one bank in Oklahoma. Payne County Bank in Perkins, Oklahoma ran afoul a Kansas City Fed examiner who said the…

WikiLeaks Strikes the Vatican, a Camel in the Pews, and Luke Skywalker Tolerance

By Michael J. Altman

…on and is responsible for hostilities toward Turkey in its bid to join the European Union. The cable states that “allowing a Muslim country into the EU would further weaken [then Cardinal Ratzinger’s] case for Europe’s Christian foundations.” In Ecuador, a Polish Catholic missionary was beaten to death with a crucifix. And in Phoenix, Arizona, the bishop is threatening to strip St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center of its Catholic status over a…

Evangelical Islamophobia as American as Apple Pie

By Shalom Goldman

…e in the Muslim world. In a 1906 meeting in Cairo twenty-nine American and European missionary groups met to plan “the Evangelization of the Moslem world in this generation.” A follow-up conference in Lucknow in 1911 called for the Christianization of the Muslims of India. More recently, the 9/11 attacks, according to Kidd, “Re-energized those familiar themes of Muslim conversions and Islam’s place in the end times, two themes common in American C…

Islam in Conflict with Democracy? A Response to Stanley Fish

By David True

…ular politics, it’s a different kind of secular politics than that of some European nations; premised as it is on respect for conscience—especially religious conscience. The document is not grounded consistently in the strident form of liberalism that Fish portrays. Indeed, it is curious that Fish refers to the Smith decision, while ignoring the significant controversy it sparked in virtually every milieu; from the courts to the government, and am…

The Cynical Use of “Freedom of Religion”

By Kate Childs Graham

…occasion of this anniversary, France—which is, at present, heading up the European Union—and the rest of the EU, is introducing a UN declaration condemning discrimination and violence on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Currently, over 80 countries have laws condemning homosexuality with punishments including anything from long-term prison sentences to the death penalty. The Catholic Church has chosen to oppose this declaration…