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Life as a Game Show: Reading Slumdog Millionaire

By Paul Courtright

…iar Bollywood genre. The musical score crackles with energy. There are any number of reasons why Slumdog has emerged as one of this year’s favorites among American audiences. Perhaps the Oscar nominations reflect India’s rise as a global economic power, as well as a cinematic one. And, while the story is set in India, there is something familiar to American audiences about the kid who finds his way to success and love through struggle in an indiff…

Catholic Leaders Offer Criticism, Support to Boxer Pacquiao After Anti-Gay Comments…

By Peter Montgomery

…icials and by the European Center for Law and Justice, an affiliate of the American Center for Law and Justice, the Christian Right legal organization created by televangelist Pat Robertson. From Rosie Scammell at the Religion News Service: While the Vatican and the Italian hierarchy opposed the bill, the removal of a “stepchild adoption” clause was seen as a significant triumph for the Catholic Church. The measure was set to allow a person to ado…

The Abortion Debate, Texas Style

By Dhawn Martin

…lt in the shutdown of a majority of clinics that offer abortion and health services to women. During Monday’s official proceedings, tears and confessions, facts and statistics, blatant propaganda and earnest pleas, punctuated testimonies offered on both sides of the bill. Unofficial proceedings turned the Capitol’s open-air rotunda into a public forum. One activist pronounced pro-life the “truly Christian” stance; another expressed dismay that “‘t…

The Fretting About Whether Democrats Are “Friendly” To Religion

By Sarah Posner

…king at 38% in mid-2008 during Obama’s presidential election campaign, the number of Americans describing the Democratic Party as friendly toward religion returned in mid-2009 to levels similar to those seen in 2005 through 2007. About one-in-five say Democrats are unfriendly toward religion (22%), up from 15% who felt that way last year but about the same as in surveys conducted in 2005 and 2006. Views of the Democrats’ stance toward religion hav…

Demonized and Demonizing No More.

By Joanna Brooks

…ty, especially for atheists who are so often the object of vilification in American society. The surveys, for example, routinely show that Americans are less likely to vote for an atheist for president than an individual of any other social, religious, or ethnic group. This vilification has really shaped the aggressively defensive public posture some atheists seem to assume. But I read your work and find myself imagining what an atheist ethic of h…

Trump’s “Muslim Ban” A Gift to Terrorists

By Ali Olomi

…terrorists themselves. But Mr. Trump’s executive order isn’t about keeping Americans safe, but the weaponizing of fear against a vulnerable population. It is not coincidental that countries with actual histories of terrorism like Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates are not on the list. His actions are about fear and the utility of that fear for his political agenda. Alongside the history of coexistence is a history of intolerance. From the an…

UPDATED: Oklahoma Personhood Bill Not Dead…

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…of the Missouri language that was upheld by Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. So if SB-1433 was meant to do exactly the same as the Missouri language, that should be no problem, right? In fact, it pretty much guarantees that it will function as a simple statement, and won’t radically rewrite the Oklahoma legal code in ways that are controversial and alarming to many Oklahomans. Yes, well. For whatever reason, that amendment was not palatab…

YOU Are Spiritual But Not Religious: The Secret Spiritual History of the Choose Your Own Adventure Books

By Daniel Silliman

…unted Warehouse.) The news of R.A. Montgomery’s death at 78 was met with a number of tributes and appreciations on the Internet. These books were huge in the lives of many American children and have even been seen as presaging the cultural shift to the Internet age, where audiences are no longer happy to passively consume content, but want interaction. The history of the books is intertwined with the history of the Internet. There’s also a somewha…

Dispatches from the Workplace: Postville: Ground Zero for the Intersection of Immigrant and Workers’ Rights

By Kim Bobo

…ptions: They could plead guilty to knowingly using a false Social Security number and the government would withdraw the more serious charge of “aggravated identity theft.” By pleading guilty, the worker would serve five months in jail and be deported without a hearing. If they pleaded not guilty, they could wait in jail for six to eight months for a trial without the right to bail. If the worker won at trial, he or she would be deported. If the wo…

New Research Links Spiritual-Not-Religious to Mental Disorder

By Elizabeth Drescher

…of Texas, Austin) and Meredith Worthen (University of Oklahoma) suggests a number of cautions that might well be applied to studies like that offered by King and colleagues. In their review, Musick and Worthen found no direct causal relationship between religion and health, with service attendance alone showing a meaningful correlation that extends to measured benefits in mortality. Going to church seems to be a good thing healthwise, but it’s not…