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Rarefied Islamophobia: When Americans Duplicate the European Cultural Talk

By Jocelyne Cesari

…onfuse European discourse on this topic. While Muslims are part of an underclass of Europe, this is not caused by some factor unique to Islam but by specific conditions of labor migration and structural changes in the labor market over the last 25 years. These changes in turn led to the deterioration of significant parts of the working classes across Europe. The various problems and implications of these topics have been subsumed under general ana…

Why David Brooks Doesn’t Get the Outrage Over AIG

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…s typology of number crunching versus psychology. The Washington political class has spent the past week going into made-for-TV hysterics over $165 million in A.I.G. bonuses. We’re in the middle of a multitrillion-dollar crisis, and our political masters—always willing to throw themselves into any issue that is understandable on cable television—have decided to risk destroying the entire bank-rescue plan because of bonuses that account for 0.001 p…

Double Helix: Science & Religion as Cultural Kindling; A Response to The New Republic

By Arri Eisen

…ic testing, there is a pink elephant in the room. In my university science classroom, for example, the elephant is religion. Science can be a good and powerful force; religion can be a good and powerful force. And they, and the broad spectrum of ideas and opinions within each, can work together for more good and power than either alone. This, despite Coyne’s thesis, is, if not reconciliation, at least a step toward it, and perhaps even a step beyo…

Freeman Dyson, American Heretic

By Michael J. Altman

If Scientists are the West’s last priestly class then Freeman Dyson might be our greatest heretic. Nicholas Dawidoff’s profile of the brilliant physicist in the New York Times Magazine illuminates a man who has always sought to subvert scientific consensus—most recently in denying the dangers of climate change and CO2 emissions. The story’s title, “The Civil Heretic,” signals the ghost of religion hanging in the background. It is the “secular rel…

An Immigrant’s Tale: The Pull of the Homeland

By Shabana Mir

…seen little other than Brooklyn and small town Illinois take long, cramped flights to dusty Lahore and crowded Cairo. Young women raised in the comfort of suburban Virginia and the freedom of college campuses take long, hot summer vacations with curious, opinionated relatives in Jeddah and Teheran. It is from first generation immigrants that the American-born Muslims learn this yearning for the homeland. First generation immigrant Muslims are a wh…

Purpose Driven Atheism: Secular Maharishis Seeking True Believers

By Frank Schaeffer

…ee Brent Plate’s “Why Bill Maher Gets a ‘C’ in My Introduction to Religion Class”]. When I was watching Religulous in an Upper West Side theater in New York, it seemed to me that the laughter and shouted comments were just another version of “Amen!” and “Preach it brother!” I assumed these cries of affirmation were from the more spirit-filled atheists in the audience! In a moment of unintended self-parody, Maher even delivered an altar call at the…

My Womb for His Purposes: The Perils of Unassisted Childbirth in the Quiverfull Movement

By Kathryn Joyce

…ies, Chmielewski sought the opinion of a certified professional midwife (a class of midwife distinct from certified nurse midwives, who have extensive medical training) from Central Indiana Home Birth Midwives. According to retired OB-GYN blogger Amy Tuteur, the midwife told Chmielewski that she was carrying twins, and maintained her diagnosis despite an ultrasound that only revealed one fetus, claiming that one twin was “hiding” behind the other….

Old Politics, New Bedfellows: The Olson/Boies Challenge to Prop. 8

By Jesse Lava

…ounds quaint today. Has he not noticed that virtually the entire political class in Washington DC is against enforcing anti-torture laws if it means investigating top officials from the Bush administration? Has he not heard members of that administration repeatedly channel Richard Nixon’s infamous contention that “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”? Those who favor the rule of law have been tagged as radical leftists, n…

Conservative ‘Cafeteria Catholics’ Favor Opposition to Gay Marriage Over Health Care

By Paul Gorrell

…s do not enjoy all of the same benefits of marriage and, thus, have second-class status. These findings have prompted a new legislative push for same-sex marriage within the state; debate over the measure will begin this fall. To fight potential legislation that would provide marriage rights to same-sex couples in New Jersey, the bishops have joined conservative Catholic organizations like the Knights of Columbus that are aligned with right-wing R…

RD10Q: Holy Hullabaloos: A Fun Book on Church and State

By Jay Wexler

…the prayer or lead the prayer. But if students want to get together before class or after school or at recess or whenever to pray, they can. Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing? I was hoping to write a book that would be attractive to all sorts of people who are interested in religion, law, politics, education, etc. Two particular groups I hope will read the book are atheists and other nonbelievers who don’t like religion, becaus…