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The American Media’s Longterm Ambivalence About the Papacy

By Peter Manseau

…ow stands either with his back to the reader, or in the case of a cover depicting Benedict XVI on the eve of retirement, with his features shrouded in darkness. Where once the face on the magazine cover was all, here were four images in which the pope was literally de-faced. The Church and the American media may once have found common purpose in telling stories of great men made into icons on the covers of the news magazines, but today much of the…

This Year in Satanism

By Joseph Laycock

…unishment in schools. It encouraged students to assert their religious conviction that their body is inviolable and cannot be subjected to abusive punishment. The Satanic Temple offered to put school boards “on notice” if they violate the religious rights of students. The campaign also produced a fact-sheet on the psychological damage caused by corporal punishment. MAY On May 5, the Supreme Court ruled in Town of Greece v. Galloway that the town o…

Special Hell: Progressive Catholics Reckon With the Rise of Trump

By Patricia Miller

…ny of their number broke decisively toward Trump and were critical to his victory in the Rust Belt swing states. “The Catholic vote went for Trump and many Catholics joined the non-voting defectors. That’s a scandal that calls into question the moral standing and integrity of most—not all—Catholics today,” Marquette University moral theologian Dan Maguire told RD. To many, Catholic support for Trump feels like a repudiation of the Catholic social…

More Than Big Hair and Money: Jim, Tammy Faye and the Media “Holy Wars” of the 80s

By John Wigger

…some of Jim and Tammy’s appeal. PTL was all about images so there were any number of options. Too bad books can’t come with a dozen different covers to choose from. Is there a book out there you wish you had written? Which one? Why? I love the writing style of Lawrence Wright and Hampton Sides. They are both masters at weaving nonfiction into a page-turner. Anything half as good would be fine with me. What’s your next book? I’m not sure yet. Hopef…

Glenn Beck’s Salvation Army

By Peter Montgomery

…faith through a prism of American nationalism? Not to mention the growing number of Americans without any religious commitment? Beck tells us, “you must fall to your knees and you must reconnect with God. He is not asking you. He is commanding us as a people to get behind Him. He will right the wrongs. We will have to pay a price because we lived outside of His laws. We will have to pay a price, but every day we don’t get behind Him, the price ge…

An Unholy Holy Week: Is the All-Male Rule of the Roman Catholic Church Self-Destructing?

By Anne Eggebroten

…stigations and prohibiting any report to civil authorities. Will Pope Benedict XVI set in motion any change to canon law? Will he step down or ask any complicit bishops to resign? Will he even order a Church-wide investigation? Unlikely. Instead, his moral authority will continue to erode. The number of priests will continue to dwindle. Catholic women will assume more and more administrative and other posts, and the hypocrisy of refusing to ordain…

Kirk Cameron Joins the Anti-Mormon Chorus
(Sort Of)

By Julie Ingersoll

…he pluralistic spirituality promoted by Beck. In Howse’s view, the not-so-fictional Left Behind novels are being played out before our eyes. Pastors and evangelical leaders literally locked arms with all faiths, including Imams, in a spiritual endeavor despite the clear biblical warnings of II Corinthians 6:14… The Mormon Church is now rejoicing over the public relations success that these undiscerning evangelical leaders have handed the Mormon Ch…

Orthodox Jews Begin to Reckon with Sexual Abuse

By Paul Berger

…abused a boy at a Jewish summer camp. Rather than supporting the alleged victim, the community rallied to Kolko’s defense. Historically, abuse victims and their families have often been urged—and then bribed or threatened—not to go to the police. Jewish customs and concepts, such as mesirah (not informing on a fellow Jew to the secular authorities), chilul hashem (the desecration of God’s name) and lashon hara (spreading gossip) are invoked to c…

New Reports Reveal Global Persecution of Nonbelievers

By Austin Dacey

…o “blasphemous content.” The IHEU reports being contacted by an increasing number of secularist groups organizing on Facebook, including groups in Afghanistan, Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey, and Sudan. In all of this, the United States is an anomaly since it rejects even laws against religious hate speech, which were found in 36 of 45 European states in 2011. It’s the best place in the wo…

My Business, Myself: Piercing the Corporate Veil

By Howard M. Friedman

…those of the “real people” who own or manage it. An Oklahoma federal district court, rejecting a challenge by Hobby Lobby Stores to the coverage mandate, thought it was, finding: General business corporations do not, separate and apart from the actions or belief systems of their individual owners or employees, exercise religion. They do not pray, worship, observe sacraments or take other religiously-motivated actions separate and apart from the i…