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Why Anti-Gay Bullying is a Theological Issue

…to me that profound sadness and stunned silence is no longer a suitable, appropriate, or adequate response. From Lamentation to Indignation My sadness began to change into something different with each successive news story about another gay teen hanging himself, shooting himself, or jumping off a bridge. As I saw the faces of these young victims and imagined the family and friends left to cope with the chaos created by their suicides, my lamentat…

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More Than Big Hair and Money: Jim, Tammy Faye and the Media “Holy Wars” of the 80s

…own, Shaken Together, which comes from one of the favorite Bible verses of prosperity preachers at the time, including Jim Bakker. But my editor thought that it was too obscure for most readers and I’m sure she was right. How do you feel about the cover? It nicely evokes the look of 1980s television and captures some of Jim and Tammy’s appeal. PTL was all about images so there were any number of options. Too bad books can’t come with a dozen diffe…

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The Only Common Denominator of American Conservatism is Anti-Blackness

…uries to be undone by even the junkiest of exhumed Robert E. Lees. White supremacist privilege, as opposed to white privilege, is the privilege—which is to say the power—to deny racist intent and always be taken at one’s word. To always be able to clutch one’s pearls and appeal in Scarlett O’Hara’s mint julep-inflected tone, Dearest me, we never intended to… and be believed. And remain a symbol of beauty in the world no matter how many scars are o…

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How the Study of Evangelicalism Has Blinded Us to the Problems in Evangelical Culture

…derstood as evangelicalism quickly breaks down in the newer pieces that comprise Parts II and III of the text. Reprints of recent articles, blog posts, and editorials join several commissioned essays in documenting the many ways that today’s evangelicals have failed to comport themselves with classical definitions of their faith. Historian Michael S. Hamilton, for instance, argues in one of the collection’s original contributions that evangelicals…

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Modern Vampires: Your Neighbors and Spouses

practices such as devotion to saints, rosaries, and labyrinths have been appropriated by pagans and eclectic religious seekers. I’m thinking specifically of products such as divination cards using Catholic saints and books describing Wiccan uses of prayer beads. These products are catering to a market that is not Catholic but looks to Catholicism for mystery and embodied practices. It’s almost as though New Agers raided the Vatican’s dumpster and…

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Welcome to the Shari’ah Conspiracy Theory Industry

…n terrorism and Islam as director of the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s Program to Promote and Protect America’s Freedom. Santorum, who is considering a presidential run, depicts an American battle against radical Islam as a civilizational war against “Christendom.” The theological warriors include Jewish groups as well. “Shari’ah is an Arabic term referring to a legal framework to regulate public and private aspects of life based upon specific…

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UPDATED: Religion Has Been Framed; Covering the Aga Khan’s Visit

…course on religion. Once religion is framed in conflict, it must always be presented that way. When a man who leads a large Muslim community, is believed to be descended from the Prophet Muhammad, and who derives his authority from that claim, comes to the United States it should be a major news story. Unfortunately, his message of tolerance, peace, pluralism, and education do not fit in the conflict framework. I see people who have much smaller c…

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New Reports Reveal Global Persecution of Nonbelievers

…xample, in addition to the tragic, but all too familiar, wave of blasphemy prosecutions in Pakistan, this year saw prosecutions for allegedly atheist comments on Facebook and Twitter in Bangladesh, Bahrain, Egypt, Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Turkey. In some of these cases, the governments even threatened to prosecute those who commented on, or “liked” or re-tweeted, the offending comments. In May, the Pakistan government went so…

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Americans Say Religion is “Losing Influence”

…nd Elizabeth Drescher’s ongoing coverage of nones underline the big tent approach to coverage of American ir/a/religion. But do the Gallup numbers point to new ways we might be thinking about business as usual? Two findings are striking. First: Gallup reported that although Americans felt religion’s influence was declining, many—75 percent—agreed that more religion would be positive for the country. Not surprisingly, churchgoers were most gung-ho…

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Sacred&Profane: The Living Dead

…are other dead conjured up in the final days of the presidential campaign, previous presidents who seem to speak from the grave as we get closer to voting day—Lincoln, as usual, but also Depression-era and wartime leader Franklin D. Roosevelt, and another American icon likely to grow in ghostly stature through the ages, Ronald Reagan. John McCain’s experiences as a POW during the Vietnam War surely speak to heroism and adversity under horrible pre…

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