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Debunking the Myth That Democracy Is “Incompatible” With Islam

By Asma Afsaruddin

…hics based upon the Qur’an that are conducive to the development of modern participatory forms of government: human dignity, human vice-regency on earth, accountability that is ultimately linked to a fundamental commitment to justice and mercy, an emphasis on consultative decision-making and the rule of law. Above all, the principle of shura or consultation, endorsed in the Qur’an as the basis for collective decision-making and administration of p…

Black Churches are Burning: Is It the 1990s All Over Again?

By Katie Day

…re were almost 900 reported cases of church arson in the late 1990s—a huge number compared to what we’ve seen in the last two weeks. A second difference is that of public response. In 1995-96, there was a unique alliance of actors creating “perfect storm” conditions. Black churches had long been the targets of racial hatred. But it was when Green Bay Packers player, Reggie White, spoke in an interview during the Super Bowl of 1996 about the arson…

A Secret History of Satan

By W. Scott Poole

…tion and persecution. This stuff should piss you off and if it doesn’t, to paraphrase the old saying, you are not paying attention. I do think that those who enjoy and consume vast quantities of pop culture will get a lot of pleasure out of this book (while they are possibly getting pissed off as well). Fans of everything from the blues to Buffy the Vampire Slayer will enjoy the weird angle on their favorite cultural obsessions. What alternative t…

The Gospel of Contradiction: An Interview with Mary Gordon

By Nathan Schneider

…ruggled with Jesus and left him for good reasons not to take seriously the parts in the Gospel that would give you a good reason for giving up on it. I had to read the parts of the text that I didn’t like. At the end of the book, I am still with Jesus. But I felt that I could only do that with integrity if I fully grappled with the parts of him that I really didn’t like at all. How do you imagine this book will come across to Jewish readers? My gr…

Turkish Police Move Against Activists Who Defied Pride Ban; And More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…the creation of the first gay rights group in 1971. Among the items: “The Papal nuncio in Mexico declared in 1985: “AIDS is the punishment that God sends to those who ignore His laws … homosexuality is one of the greatest vices condemned by the Church …” Politico.mx has profiled “10 LGBTTTI politicians working for sexual diversity.” Israel: Police arrest knife-wielding man near city’s first Pride celebration Times of Israel reported that 3,500 pe…

Pastor Convicted in Lisa Miller Child Kidnapping Case

By Peter Montgomery

…d that as he drove home from the border, Mr. Zodhiates tried to call a cellphone number registered to Liberty Counsel, an evangelical legal group. That cellphone number has sometimes been used by Mathew D. Staver, the founder of Liberty Counsel, dean of the Liberty University Law School in Lynchburg, Va., and a leader of Ms. Miller’s defense team. The RICO filed by Jenkins includes information that RD readers learned last year from Sarah Posner’s…

No Conspiracy Theories Needed: Abortion Foes Cry Racism

By Kathryn Joyce

…Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s proposed inclusion of contraception in the stimulus package, in part by denouncing her as a bigot and a racist who wanted “to reduce the number of children [born] to the nation’s poorest economic groups, which tend to be persons of color and other minorities.” The Pro-Life Action League made a similar criticism this week against the Guttmacher Institute, claiming that the Institute’s call for publicly-funded birth control “t…

Restoring Dignity: The Employee Free Choice Act

By Peter Laarman

…and neoliberal economists—technology, globalization, and outsourcing—tell part of the story but only part. The story that doesn’t get told is a bit uglier; it is the story of brutal union suppression by employers who figured out that it’s much cheaper to take the penalties currently handed out for labor law violations (which are extremely weak and rarely delivered) than to allow workers to unionize without interference in free and fair representa…

Are We Entering the End Times for Mainline Seminaries?

By Elesha Coffman

…g can only go so far, however, with enrollments dropping 24 percent in the past decade. Episcopal Divinity School still held $53 million in investments, plus its campus, at the time of its announced closing, but it was losing $133,000 a month. Andover-Newton’s campus alone was assessed at $43 million, but trustees deemed its future as a free-standing institution unsustainable. Rich endowments can stave off the inevitable so long that, when closure…

Response to Daniel Philpott: the Politics of Religious Freedom

By Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

…learning from our colleagues and exploring these complex histories over a number of years, we have found that religious liberty is not a single, stable principle existing outside of history, as it is often depicted (particularly in policy circles in North America and Europe and by many academics invested in promoting religious freedom). It is, rather, an inescapably context-bound, polyvalent concept unfolding within divergent histories in differi…