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Taking the Economy Back From the Elites: Blessed Are the Organized

…onmentalist, anti-corporate, and anti-war actions are being planned in the United States. People are frustrated, and they’re inspired. But Stout, a professor of religion at Princeton, insists on asking another question: How will they organize? Why are the organized “Blessed”? Well, one definition of “blessed” is fortunate. In a shallow sense, the new elites are as fortunate as anyone has ever been. They practically monopolize society’s blessings….

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Is Coverage of Liberal Religion a Media Fail?

…the world of liberal American religion. An interfaith group called Faiths United To Prevent Gun Violence held a Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath this weekend, in conjunction with the National Cathedral (hardly an obscure institution) and 1,000 houses of worship around the country. If there is any issue that should compel people (religious or not) to action, the daily, senseless deaths of Americans to gun violence should certainly be one. But despi…

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Huckabee in the Holy Land: A Christian Zionist Campaign

…support for Israel. In the period from 1948 to the mid ’70s, when both the United States and Israel were led by governments with secular democratic agendas, the ‘Cyrus idea’ was present, if somewhat muted. The confluence of the George W. Bush presidency and a rightward shift in the Israeli government meant that visions of the Third Temple were no longer thought of as metaphorical. And although supporters of the ‘Temple Mount Faithful’ still consti…

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Methodist Church’s ‘Dismantling Racism Initiative’ Excludes Some Black Lives

…re matter, are members of the LGBTQ community? How serious can Black LGBTQ United Methodists take this new initiative that doesn’t contain a clear stance against homophobia and transphobia? Have our denominational leaders not yet learned Black Lives Matter means ALL Black Lives Matter, including members of the LGBTQ community? It was not too long ago that many of us sought to make this point at the denomination’s 2016 General Conference. About 150…

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The Critical Role of Jews in Defining Modernity

…cultural pluralists of the early twentieth century. As immigration to the United States rose and its sources changed in those years, growing numbers of Americans began to call for the exclusion or coercive “Americanization” of new immigrants. In contrast, a small minority of dissenting intellectuals—Randolph Bourne, John Dewey, Alain Locke, Horace Kallen, and a few others—promoted the doctrine of cultural pluralism, a view with roots in the Ameri…

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A State Without a Mexican

…hat Hispanics are the most discriminated against group in the contemporary United States. A recent CNN poll confirms Pew’s findings, yet unsurprisingly 71% of Hispanics oppose Arizona’s law. You don’t need a Ph.D. to realize that those individuals who will not be terrorized by this law seem to have no problem with it. Faith-based groups were active last week in publicly protesting Arizona’s law. Religious leaders evoke compassion, the dignity of t…

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Shari’ah (Panic) Threatens the Constitution

…f we accept the insinuation and ultimately the adoption of shari’ah in the United States.” That’s right, Frank Gaffney, speaking on the grounds of the United States Capitol with his band of fear-stoking propagandists. Gaffney is right. The Constitution is under attack. The panic that the Constitution is so weak that it would collapse under the weight of a few contracts providing for alternative dispute resolution, or wither from upholding the Free…

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Did the Church Create or Co-Opt Human Rights?

…ever, Moyn shifts his case to the trope: here it is not important that the United Nations’ concept of dignity and rights was different from the Vatican’s concept so long as their rhetoric was the same. The conceptual difference is far from trivial. It may be intriguing to know that various notions of human rights were circulating at mid-century, including some expressly anti-liberal notions. But we can still ask which of those notions were widely…

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In Historic Vote, Presbyterians to Allow LGBT Clergy

…rial cooperation agreements, recognizing the ordinations of ministers within the other denominations. “It’s almost like dominoes,” Adee said, “It used to be the exception, but it’s becoming the rule. The pressure is now on the United Methodists.” Currently, the United Methodist Church allows gay and lesbian ministers, but only if they are celibate and not open about their sexual orientation. “This is an ethical challenge and an invitation,” Adee s…

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What’s Wrong with Wright’s Words

…of September 11 can be traced to some basic consequences of something the United States, as a political entity, did. For Falwell it was secularizing the public square and legalizing abortion. For Wright, it was supporting state terrorism and using atomic weapons. To be sure, Falwell was widely criticized for his remarks, and issued a rather tepid apology. But he certainly was not repudiated or renounced by leading Republicans. To the contrary, Jo…

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