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Václav Havel: Democracy as Spiritual Discipline

By Peter Montgomery

…neral anti-government hostility as particularly dangerous: It is enough to look around our political scene (whose lack of civility is merely a reflection of the more general crisis of civility)….Mutual accusations, denunciations, and slander among political opponents knows no bounds. One politician will undermine another’s work only because they belong to different political parties. Partisan considerations still visibly take precedence over pragm…

Is Liberalism Islamic?: An Interview with Mustafa Akyol

By Haroon Moghul

…y in unprecedented levels. I also think that today liberalism presents the best medium for Muslims to live Islam in the various ways that they understand it. Let me push you a little bit here. I would argue that most interpretations of Islam place a strong emphasis on the social, the communal, often above the individual—and if we stress the liberation of the individual from larger collectives, does Islam play any role in the great social questions…

#OccupyWallStreet and the Antichrist

By Sarah Posner

…their ideas. Their think tanks, legal societies, lobbyists, talk radio and best-selling manifestos have trained, educated and financed two generations of writers and organizers. Conservative Christian colleges, both Protestant and Catholic, provide students with a more coherent worldview than do the more prestigious schools led by liberals. More recently, conservatives marshaled media outlets like Fox News and the editorial pages of The Wall Stree…

To the One-Percenters, With Love

By Garret Keizer

…o regroup the protesters who’ve been scattered by the police. Is money the best thing you have to leave your grandchildren? Is a killing in the market your best incentive for not killing yourself? Yes, some of your colleagues would laugh at you if you went out to protest. Marie Antoinette laughed too, until she found herself smiling up from the bottom of a wicker basket. The image will seem over-the-top only to the slow learners. I mean tho…

The Women’s March, Anti-Semitism, and ‘The Jewish Farrakhan’

By Shaul Magid

…American Muslims and African Americans to now treat Farrakhan. I think the best example of a “Jewish” Farrakhan is Rabbi Meir Kahane. It is said, in fact, that Kahane was once asked in a radio interview in the 1970s, “What is the difference between you and Farrakhan?” To which Kahane allegedly replied, “The only difference between us is that I am right!” A militant American rabbi, Kahane founded the Jewish Defense League (JDL) in 1968 in response…

How New Religions Are Made

By Jacob S. Dorman

…ral European occult practices, and freemasonry. Although Matthew tried his best to hide this religious bricolage, his papers offer a rare opportunity to see how new religions are made. Is there anything you had to leave out? Tons. I came to see Black Israelites as being very closely related to Black Muslims. Not only was there overlap between the groups’ memberships, but it was not uncommon for groups to blend elements of both Judaism and Islam in…

The Convergence of Passover and Easter Can Leaven (or Unleaven) the Interfaith Family’s Holiday

By Samira K. Mehta

…ply, a fun and frequent dessert offering. (To offer a personal example, my best friend, the linchpin of my chosen family, usually gives up alcohol for Lent, though he also makes every effort to come to my seder if I’m hosting one. And so, he gives up alcohol for Lent except for the 4 ritual glasses at the seder table.) Similarly, Jews who are observing Passover give up leavening and chametz (wheat, oats, barley, rye, and spelt) and Jews of Eastern…

Despite Vastly Different Values, Evangelical ‘Hamilton’ Connects Secular Left and Christian Right

By Jake Johnson

…r point was that art may not survive democracy. Borders are necessary. Our best art and our best ideas ought to be kept out of reach if they’re to do any real work in the world. As it goes with art, so it is with religion. Give your beliefs a tough shell or skin and the uninvested (some say undeserving) will pass it by. Thick skin protects what’s inside by sometimes repulsing even those willing to give it a try. Thin-skinned ideas on the other han…

Of Personhood and the Pill: What’s at Stake?

By Atlee Parks Breland

…r. In a typical cycle, two embryos are transferred, to give the mother the best chance at getting pregnant at all without risking high-order multiples. However, this isn’t an exact science. There is no way to know in advance how many eggs will fertilize, or how many embryos will develop. If a woman has more embryos than can be transferred, doctors pick the two best, and freeze the remaining embryos for later use. However, the sad fact is that abou…

The Bible Says… and Other Myths About Scripture

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…rifles, not back then anyway. They had everything to do with what language best captured the central mysteries of the faith: “a threefold Divinity which nonetheless was to be accounted as an indivisible Singularity,” most of all. A Translation Around Every Corner One year after James I ascended to the English throne, he commissioned a new English translation of the Bible, to be created by a committee of biblical scholars working both from the orig…