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Wiccan Prayer in Iowa House Highlights Religious Freedom Problem

By Joseph Laycock

…people as they are—not just at their best but also their worst. We need to look at not only their awe-inspiring architecture and gentle mystics but also their bigots and suicide bombers.” This is where pluralism gets tough. For Taylor and like-minded Christians, opposition to Maynard’s religion, and a refusal to engage with it on its own terms, is a religious commitment. Taylor explained: I prayed about this a lot the last several days and I thoug…

The Hyperreal Kimmy Schmidt

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…etlana Boym discusses the remarkable etymology of the word “nostalgia.” It looks like it might be an ancient Greek concept, since the root words are Greek: nostos, meaning “return home;” and algos, or “longing.” In fact it’s a modern word—and thus, in Boym’s words, only “nostalgically Greek.” And fittingly so, because it describes a thoroughly modern phenomenon, described by the Swiss medical student Johannes Hofer in the 17th century (about a hun…

Muslim Brotherhood: Protect Churches; Mufti Exempts Egyptians from Friday Prayer

By H.A. Hellyer

…reports that at least on Thursday night, the protestors were fairly few in number in comparison to before. No one really knows what will happen tomorrow. There is all sorts of speculation going on at the moment—to the point where people are suggesting that actually, the army might attempt a coup. Where they have evidence for this is anyone’s best guess—but it reveals the amount of confusion the people have about the situation. And it’s only increa…

Thank You, Satanists

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…ect to my will alone. I make any decision regarding my health based on the best scientific understanding of the world, even if the science does not comport with the religious or political beliefs of others. My inviolable body includes any fetal or embryonic tissue I carry so long as that tissue is unable to survive outside my body as an independent human being. I, and I alone, decide whether my inviolable body remains pregnant and I may, in good c…

Talmud on Trial: Interfaith Dialogue in the 13th Century

By Michael Schulson

…good thing. And we tend to assume, in our interfaith educations, that the best way to learn about another religion is to study its texts and its official positions. The Paris trial challenges both. Perhaps it’s best to encounter religions in the real world, informally, with a focus on actual actions, not official words. Pope Benedict XVI worked hard to improve the Church’s interfaith profile, with limited success. While his largely positive attit…

Vigil Planned in Wake of Suicide by 17-Year-Old
Gay Mormon

By Joanna Brooks

…After his death, students at his Ogden-area high school wore their Sunday best to school to remember him. A local United Church of Christ is donating the candles for the vigil. Organizer Marian Edmonds, pastor of City of Hope Church in Salt Lake City and organizer of the OUTReach resource center in Ogden, will staff a table at the event to recruit mentors to help work with LGBT young people to prevent suicide. And Mormons are volunteering to spe…

God’s Obituary: A Humanist Response to Mass Murder

By Anthony B. Pinn

…to God’s logic offers a type of cosmic cover that is difficult to remove. Looking to God and trying to grasp the workings of the divine mind actually arrests our ability to understand the deeply human nature of these acts of violence. There is no justification; there is no larger logic, no theologically exposed silver lining. This misery is all too human—the imposition of an individual’s twisted will on others with deadly consequences. Appeal to…

Dreaming Beyond the Madman: Reflections on the Revolution in Libya

By Haroon Moghul

…er, Mu’ammar Qaddafi, who furthermore picks representatives for his regime best able to mimic his clownish rambling, absurdity, irrelevance, and stupidity. I have always felt terribly bad for Libyans, who must not only be represented nationally and internationally by a dictator, but by probably the craziest of them all. Qaddafi is protected by an all-female force of bodyguards. He seems to be unusually attached to a “voluptuous” Ukrainian nurse. H…

What Religion Looks Like, Wisconsin Edition

By Kim Bobo

…e importance of balancing our state budget while continuing to provide the best services possible to our citizens. But because of my belief that far more is accomplished for the best interests of all those we serve when employers and employees work together, I am writing to ask you to reconsider your initiative which I believe would end the possibility for those who are government employees here in Wisconsin to negotiate settlement of labor and ma…

No God but Country: The Religion of John McCain Has Something Important to Tell Us

By Kathryn Lofton

…country, who believes he would serve it well, who believes that he is the best American for the job. And since all Americans are assumed to be, at base, Judeo-Christian, then it is no lie at all to say that he is, at base, a good Christian man. And so he is. A good Christian man. He says it, and we have to believe him. We, the scholars. You, the voters. We believe him against the evidence because it feels better to believe that his life—his survi…