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Dispatch from Charlottesville: “It Was a War Zone. It Felt Like There Were a Million Nazis.”

By Sunnivie Brydum

…alkanize this moment. What happened on Saturday has been happening for 400 years or more—we don’t need to single this out as some sort of unique moment. This is a catalyst for us, and we need to respond to it. That’s real. The other thing is, this is a personal plea to white clergy—we didn’t have the numbers. White clergy did not respond to this. https://www.facebook.com/publictheologian/photos/a.832371280191875.1073741829.832236016872068/13646766…

Size Matters According to New Study

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ns of the brain that remain unactivated in the rest of us. There are any number of weird implications and outright contradictions in these sorts of studies. The first is this: do the authors of these studies believe that religious belief or practice has the power to effect the size of the human brain? If so, that would seem to grant an astonishing power to religion to effect real world, and very nearly miraculous changes. Or perhaps the claim i…

Picasso’s Sacred Monster Eats Chicago: A Mystery Solved?

By Jeremy Biles

…people of Chicago” (Picasso refused payment), the ambiguous, 50-foot-tall, 162-ton sculpture met with a combination of public affection and outrage upon its unveiling. Mayor Richard J. Daley offered these words on the occasion: “We dedicate this celebrated work this morning with the belief that what is strange to us today will be familiar tomorrow.” Tomorrow has come, and the Chicago Picasso is indeed familiar—but no less strange than it was fort…

American Christianity Is Changing Fast: Five Stories to Watch in 2016

By Richard Flory

…as religious leaders, is the so-called “Rise of the Religious Nones.” The number of dropouts/defectors from church involvement has risen significantly over the last several years, such that about 23 percent of the American population now claims no religious affiliation. They leave for many reasons, ranging from a general disillusionment with large-scale institutions in general to the politicization of religion and religious scandals—whether finan…

‘Pro-Life’ Theater, Open White Nationalism, and Virility Fear — Day 3 of NatCon

By Annika Brockschmidt and Ben Lorber

…den Pappin extolled the far-right educational reforms undertaken in recent years by Hungary’s Orban administration where Pappin has worked for several years. (Orban, whom Politico calls a “dictator,” and the US Right have worked closely together for some time now.) Among the many Orbanist policies Pappin urged US conservatives to replicate—using universities to train public service administrators to serve as a patriotic bureaucratic elite. Nationa…

Aasif Mandvi on Islamophobia, Acting, and the Long Shadow of Jon Stewart

By Haroon Moghul

…out? Anything to make a social impact?” I had been on the Daily Show for a number of years at this point, and spoken to a lot of Islamophobes, people who had a lot of misinformation about Islam and Muslims. It was a personal thing to me, and it was an issue I thought I could lend my voice to in a satirical space. Were there any particular misconceptions or fears you wanted to address? There was a lot of stuff about Shari’ah Law, the protests again…

Another Manufactured Outrage: Rep. Ilhan Omar Did Nothing Wrong in Listing Hamas, Israel, and U.S. Together

By Joshua Shanes

…more effective if it were honest. And perhaps that would have lessened the number of death threats and other vile correspondences she has received. Second, others have said that she deserved the criticism for its political harm, that this hurts the Democratic party. Perhaps, but that doesn’t make much sense either, because the manufactured outrage made it worse. If a Democratic leader had privately contacted her and said, “Ilhan, you have to clari…

The 17th Century Roots of Roy Moore’s Refusal to Concede the Election

By Karen E. Park

…clear violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment and any number of Supreme Court cases. He was removed again last year for refusing to uphold federal law on same sex marriage, on the grounds that it was in violation of God’s law as found in the Old Testament. Like Winthrop, Moore believes that the Old Testament should order American society, whether Exodus or Leviticus. The ancient Israelites in these societies either adhered, or…

Diplomatic Suckerhood: Why Israel Is Fighting Toward its Own Demise

By Ira Chernus

…ay, like this one from the Jerusalem Post: “Iran Could Build Bomb Within a Year”; even though, as the article clearly states, the Israeli government “currently believes that worst-case scenario is not likely to materialize.” Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak betrayed the same sense of anxiety about weakness when he complained to the New York Times that with the Obama administration “focusing solely on settlement building and not on what the Ara…

The Sacred and the Dead: Truckin’ as a New American Pilgrimage

By Varun Soni

…ed States has profoundly changed since the genesis of the Grateful Dead 50 years ago, especially in terms of the dramatic rise of the number of Americans who are no longer affiliated with traditional religious institutions or denominations. In the absence of traditional religious affiliation, people are increasingly turning to popular culture to explore and interrogate the ultimate questions of meaning and purpose in their lives. That is why in th…