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Why Science Needs “Neurodiversity,” Autism Included

By Andrew Aghapour

…ve. Neurotribes documents how selective, “pyramid” thinking has fostered a number of dangerous theories about autism. It tells the story of Bernard Rimland, a widely-read author who took up a comprehensive review of autism research in 1958 when his son was diagnosed with the syndrome. He was so committed to the hope of a simple cure, however, that he latched onto the theory that autism was the result of a simple glitch in a single metabolic pathwa…

New Report Mapping Christian Nationalism by State Suggests Election Need Not be Played Out on Christian Nationalist Terms

By Daniel Schultz

…olina, and Wisconsin? They’re all right around the national average. Those numbers are not destiny, however. Conservative Utah has low levels of agreement with Christian nationalism, at just 28%. Meanwhile its solidly Democratic neighbor New Mexico is a bit higher, at 32%. Still, the results are significant for understanding the political scene today. Christian nationalism should not be ignored or downplayed, but at the same time the segment of th…

Synod or Sin Oddly: Vatican Encourages Catholics to ‘Walk Together’ as Long as the Hierarchy Leads the Way and Decides the Route

By Mary E. Hunt

…friends, especially those who aren’t connected to parishes, to keep their phones open. At their last meeting in June 2021, the US Catholic Bishops did not discuss the Synod at all, even though they knew it was scheduled to start four months later. They’ve set aside a full forty-five minutes on the agenda of their November 2021 meeting to discuss what’s promoted as the most life-changing process for the Catholic community worldwide since Vatican I…

Why We Need a Public Black Theology for the 21st Century

By Vincent Lloyd

…litical theology that does the essential work of joining the two. Where to look? Cornel West has been the nearest that we have had in recent years, though he is at his best as a charismatic orator rather than as a public intellectual in the ordinary sense. In print, West’s Christianity can seem superficial, but performed to an audience, West displays a powerful charisma. At his best, West avoids giving white audiences what they want; he takes risk…

A Recent Local Controversy Reveals the Theocratic Heart of ‘Project Blitz’

By Frederick Clarkson

…enerally referred to as a Christian nationalist, largely because he is the best-known promoter of the idea. But as a former vice chair of the Texas Republican Party and a frequent headliner at Christian right and Republican conclaves, he is also a Dominionist with considerable political reach. (The Jefferson Lies was on the New York Times best-seller list at the time it was withdrawn.) The Christian nationalist appeal is to, what historian Frank L…

State of the Union Stuck in that Olde-Time Semi-Niebuhrianism

By Ira Chernus

…centuries-old American exceptionalism and a decades-old consensus that can best be called “semi-Niebuhrianism.” “When a tragedy like this strikes,” Obama said in his Tucson speech, “it is part of our nature to demand explanations—to try to impose some order on the chaos, and make sense out of that which seems senseless.” He might more accurately have said that it is part of American political culture to demand that the president impose order…

Did Mormon Morality Teachings Really Make it Harder for Elizabeth Smart to Run?

By Joanna Brooks

…ing responsible sexuality to young people will fall back on what they know best—in the worst cases resorting to spent chewing gum, or ruined donuts, or other punitive object lessons. Punitive and sexist folk doctrine does not in fact reflect the best of Mormon scripture or theology, which takes a positive view of human embodiment including the “fall” of Adam and Eve. And yet punitive rhetoric on sexual morality can be found in the historic writing…

New Book on Trump and Evangelicals Gets it Mostly Right

By Greg Carey

…tories within evangelicalism. Fea repeatedly notes evangelicals’ mixed (at best) history with respect to race relations. He devotes nine pages to the history of racial fear in the evangelical South, but he never gets messy with the most telling factor: that no other religious group even remotely approaches white evangelicals’ preference for Trump. Race proved one of the most decisive predictors of Trump support, and white evangelicals were the mos…

SCOTUS Likely to Support Memorial Cross; Should We Even Care?

By Andrew L. Seidel

…tists, Pentecostals? How should they divvy up taxpayer money? Who gets the best spots on government property for their symbols? The only fair solution is for the government to remain neutral on religious issues. None is favored, none is disfavored, all are equal. ALSO FROM THE AUTHOR Divorcing religion from the government does not promote atheism, as some claim. Imagine a football coach at a public high school. He’s a government employee so the se…

Is Monsanto Satan? The Pleasure and Problem of Conspiracy Theory

By Alan Levinovitz

…le, because the deceiver is so powerful that any contact risks corruption. Best to avoid it entirely, lest you end up like Bill Nye, the Science Guy, who changed his mind on GMOs after visiting Monsanto. Under most circumstances, the reasonable explanation would be that Nye was persuaded by argument and evidence. But for those who believe in Monsatan, the better—the only—explanation is that Nye was coerced, just as the best explanation for my skep…