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…latter. Zuhura’s question is simple. Why ban Muslim women from fasting because of their period? I use the word women are exempted, because to make it a ban overlooks its corollary with other types of bleeding, thereby making menstruation some kind of problem. And although this problem has resulted, the fact that women are also exempted when not menstruating but lactating or pregnant I use to keep away from the word “ban.” If it was a ban then ther…

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‘People You May Know’ Reveals a War on Democracy Being Waged With Big Data [Part II]

…0, which is a Koch platform as well, with voter data. And a lot of this is used in 2016, a lot of it’s being used now under various names. But the CNP has a larger agenda, which is to change the Constitution of the United States. These are all just tools for what you refer to as culture wars, to fundamentally change the country. CK: When this election is finished, and we’re in the big ambiguous period of deciding what happens next, and we see arme…

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SCOTUS’s Incoherent Masterpiece Cakeshop Decision

…to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to—to use their religion to hurt others. It’s simply a factual statement followed by an anodyne opinion. I don’t think people should use their religion to hurt others, either. Does that make me a bigot? The broader point here is that Kennedy’s reasoning is simply incoherent. There is no way for government to remain “strictly neutral” when it comes to religious values. B…

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Keeping the “Southern” in Southern Baptist Convention

…and on this issue. Our Baptist forefathers went to prison and died for the freedoms that we have, and now it’s our responsibility in the providence of God to defend these freedoms lest they be taken away by government fiat.” And it extends far beyond the so-called “social issues.” The “take action” portion of the Commission’s website urges followers to contact Congress on the full panoply of issues that preoccupy the Republican right, representing…

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“Religious Freedom” and the Conservative Quest for Absolute Truth

…irm boundaries. If that issue concerns institutional religion, so much the better, because the language of limits and hierarchies is already prominent in that sphere. That, I suspect, is the main reason evangelical Protestants are so eager to support the Catholic bishops even when a majority of the Catholic laity don’t support their bishops.  A Conservative Quest for Absolute Truth Every time religion collides with politics and produces controvers…

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The Dark Side of Our Obsession With Trapped Thai Children

…hem voice; we heard them screaming for their parents. We know some of them use porta-potties. They are kept behind the same kind of chain-link fence that many of us use to confine our dogs. The president has described their kind as “animals.” Surely most of us, no matter what our political bent, feel sad for the entrapped children in both circumstances. But our collective conscience leads us to two different interventions on their behalf. Though s…

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Jihad Chai Latte

…rganize some kind of lecture or event series which rejects the extremist abuse of Islam and explains how their abuse of Islam is flawed, immoral, and historically and theologically wrong. Misguided. Evil.  And then, a columnist in an international newspaper makes a throwaway reference to “jihad” in the sense that extremists have used it, confirms the popular impression of what jihad is and what it means, and all that effort is immediately undone….

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When Violence is Inevitable: Club Q and the Success of the System

…noticed that I haven’t used the word “hate” yet. In fact, the only time I use “hate” is in this paragraph. That’s because the “hate” framework allows us to hide systemic oppression behind the inscrutable actions of individuals, of so-called “lone wolves.” It’s as inaccurate to use a framework of “hate” to describe a single person’s actions as it is to use a framework of “environmental friendliness” to describe a single person’s actions. Both fram…

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So What if Psychedelics Are ‘Just’ Spiritual?

…it’s pretty much a commonplace among many researchers that the intentional use of psychedelics in certain environments (what users and researchers refer to as “set and setting”) can mimic and perhaps even produce authentic mystical experiences. Indeed, many who take psychedelics do so mainly for what they consider to be the spiritual benefit of the experiences they offer. Using psychedelics isn’t so much recreational, in this sense, but a controll…

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Ultra Orthodox Murder-Suicide Makes Headlines

…an on a Tel Aviv street and then turned his gun on himself, was trained to use a gun. In fact he had been working as a security guard. Among Israeli Jews, for whom there is universal military conscription, this type of work would not have been at all unusual, but among the ultra-Orthodox it was striking. For under Israeli law the ultra-Orthodox are exempt from the draft. All Haredi men and women are free from the responsibility of spending years i…

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