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Commies, Blacks, Jews, the UCC and Other Threats to America

By Daniel Schultz

…the nation, and gays and lesbians should enjoy equal protection under the law. Good that they think we’re a bunch of wild-eyed radicals. If I and the members of my denomination scare Glenn Beck, that’s a good thing. It means they’re off-balance. Same goes for the ever-execrable Mark Tooley, writing the same hack piece for the 40,000th time at the Weekly Standard. He strains at gnats because ultimately he has nothing else to fall back on, no compe…

Halloween, Evangelicals, and the Macabre

By John W. Morehead

…al academic journal. Also, new books are being produced that draw upon scholarly historical and ethnographic approaches to the study of forms of paganism, and critique has been brought to popular evangelical books on witchcraft, with evangelicals and pagans even coming together as described in Beyond the Burning Times (Lion, 2009). Halloween is also a good time to confront monsters. Monster Theory (University of Minnesota Press, 1994), a series of…

We Were Here Before September 11th

By Amina Wadud

…they are Muslims and they are the primary spokepersons about this new popular trend of Islam in America. Some even made a considerable amount of money off of their version of the “I am your friendly neighborhood Muslim; and I am an American;” as if Muslims didn’t exist in America before they became spokespersons. Or maybe it is the “friendly” part. For surely Islam became erroneously equated with terrorism after September 11th. Don’t get me wrong…

Why Anti-Gay Bullying is a Theological Issue

By Cody J. Sanders

…acitly welcoming or pseudo-affirming position to come out and publicly proclaim their places of worship as truly welcoming and affirming sanctuaries for people of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. I cannot count the number of times I have heard well-meaning, good-hearted people respond to this appeal, saying, “Things are a lot better for gay people today than they were several years (or decades) ago. In time, our society (or churc…

This Year in Satanism

By Joseph Laycock

…eaves says their goal is to change the “socio-political dialogue.” For scholars of law and religion, this has been an unprecedented series of events that has forced a conversation about the first amendment and what we mean when we talk about “religion.” Here’s a month-by-month break down of 2014’s Satanic controversies. JANUARY In an interview for Religion Dispatches, Greaves explained that his goal is not to promote Satanic worship but to demonst…

8: The Mormon Proposition Gets It Right

By Joanna Brooks

…of the oldest and least favorable public stereotypes of Mormons as an insular, secretive, manipulative people. During the campaign season, many of us who were Mormon and supported marriage equality found ourselves in the otherworldly situation of trying to communicate to outsiders the magnitude of what we saw happening inside our Church, only to be met—for the most part—with disinterest or disbelief, or a consistent underestimation of Mormon or…

Special Hell: Progressive Catholics Reckon With the Rise of Trump

By Patricia Miller

…’s heard from. “It’s all over the demographic landscape—older and younger, lawyers, blue collar workers, etc.—all used the word fear.” The big question they all have, Krueger said, is how they should move forward as Catholics, especially because the institutional church is offering little guidance. On one hand, the Catholic bishops have focused on the church’s traditional support for immigrants and immigration, which would appear to be a repudiati…

Holy Father, You’re Not Helping: The Problem with the Pope’s Plan to Consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

By Katherine Kelaidis

…crating two countries with overwhelmingly Orthodox majorities to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, particularly in response to a prophecy that one of those countries will be converted is, at best, problematic. On an entirely pragmatic level, these kinds of actions feed the fears of the most reactionary elements in the Orthodox world, for whom the fear of Western encroachment is very real. As these are the forces that we’re all collectively interested…

Glenn Beck’s Salvation Army

By Peter Montgomery

…ons when he creates a simplistic label—‘individual’ or ‘collective’—and declares the latter to be un-Christian. For many Christians, says J. Brent Walker of the Baptist Joint Committee, it’s a both/and, an individual decision nurtured by a church community. Max Carter, a Friends minister (and, like Walker, a commenter on a recent Washington Post On Faith question about whether Obama’s faith matters), says this: I hesitate to criticize Beck’s faith…

Orthodox Jews Begin to Reckon with Sexual Abuse

By Paul Berger

…ifficult,” she says. Furthermore, such practices may be illegal. Reporting laws related to sexual abuse differ by state. But there are few, if any, conditions under which an adult is not bound to report child sexual abuse to the authorities. In New Jersey, any adult with reasonable suspicion of child abuse must report their suspicion to the authorities, says Ford. However, Ford admits that sexual abuse is a delicate issue and she is under no illus…