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Mercy, Justice, and the Telephone Company

By Daniel Schultz

…city, but the construct of a particular political entity, in this case the United States. Bias against illegal immigrants is a logical progression in the development of that national identity: nationalism is not simply a claim of ethnic similarity, but a claim that certain similarities should count as the definition of political community. For this reason, nationalism needs rigid boundaries in a way that pre-modern ethnicity does not: ‘Nationalism…

It’s Not Just About Ground Zero

By Mark S. Byrnes

…cans to delude themselves into thinking otherwise.” (By this standard, the United States should have established gulags for political dissidents during the cold war.) Fischer makes it clear that what he really wants is for Muslims to renounce Islam: “If a mosque was willing to publicly renounce the Koran and its 109 verses that call for the death of infidels, renounce Allah and his messenger Mohammed, publicly condemn [terrorism and terrorist grou…

After Early Christian Opposition, Iceland Gets First Pagan Temple in Nearly 1000 Years

By Joseph Laycock

…s to polytheistic or Pagan religions parallels contemporary debates in the United States, especially in the wake of groups like The Satanic Temple who have demanded the same privileges enjoyed by the Christian establishment. Following the Greece v. Galloway decision, which authorized public prayers before government events, Chaz Stevens of Florida offered to open a town council meeting with a prayer to Satan. In response, conservative pastor Mark…

New Book by Olivier Roy Argues that Aggressive Attempts to Christianize the West Actually Hasten Secularism

By Ivan Strenski

…Sunday services have tumbled into the single digits, and roughly the same number disavow belief in major Christian doctrines. Despite the political impact of white evangelicals, and the United States’ claim to being exceptional in escaping Western Europe’s radical de-Christianization, Gallup reports that fewer than 50% of Americans declare membership in a church, synagogue, or mosque. Yet, despite the decline of organized religion, the latest boo…

Ground Zero is Sacred Space, But Not Just Because of 9/11

By Randall Balmer

…nd their churches. Hughes made his case for toleration by appealing to the United States Constitution and to Americans’ better selves: “Is this state of things, fellow-citizens, and worthy of you, worthy of our country, worthy of our just and glorious Constitution? The vicinity of lower Manhattan was also the venue for signing of one of the most significant pieces of legislation in the twentieth century. At Liberty Island on October 3, 1965, Lyndo…

The Way We Never Were: Calling Out Evangelicals For Hypocrisy Misses the Point

By Hollis Phelps

…rights serve as its contemporary calling card, the religious right in the United States, as some have argued, has its origins in racial segregation, particularly the establishment of private Christian schools as a work-around to the desegregation policies that emerged out of Brown v Board of Education. Given this history, it’s not surprising that those on the religious right would continue to support a president that is, by most sane accounts, a…

Fake, Evil, Spiritual, Commodified; What’s the Truth About Popular Yoga?

By Andrea R. Jain

…a yoga—were also disliked by many mainstream populations from India to the United States, those who were interested in and engaged in physical techniques faced the harshest criticisms. Finally, Craddock’s construction of yoga is consistent with the history of modern yoga’s adaptation, assimilation, and syncretism. Craddock identified as a Unitarian but also as the pastor of the Church of Yoga. The fact that a woman could be so polymorphously relig…

India’s Elections and the “Doniger Affair”

By Murali Balaji

…too good to pass up. Many of these activists and scholars also live in the United States and the United Kingdom, often conjuring up fantasies of a right-wing Hindu takeover of Western institutions. Some, in the wake of the elections, have even tried to re-write history to a much more favorable interpretation of the Nehruvian model of secularism. However, they’ve remained conspicuously silent on India’s censorship of Salman Rushdie or Taslima Nasri…

Bin Laden’s Death Does Not Prove that Torture Works

By Sarah Sentilles

…ssible because torture is not understood to be wrong by many people in the United States, and part of the reason for that is because no one has been punished for engaging in it. Officials are able to champion their use of torture—as Bush did in Decision Points—because no one in the Bush Administration has been held accountable for torturing or for authorizing torture despite the overwhelming evidence that they did so. There are some countries to w…

Orthodox Church’s Authoritarian Anti-LGBTQ Statement Poses Serious Threat to Academic Freedom

By Sarah Riccardi-Swartz

…ussian Orthodox priest for speaking out against the war in Ukraine. In the United States, we’re witnessing both the political and religious authoritarianism that have long been part of the American social structure, and that were extensively cultivated during the Trump years, continuing to flourish through the revitalized culture wars rhetoric that has taken on transnational dimensions. Christian Nationalism is now used as an identifier by politic…