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The Tense History Behind Jimmy Carter’s Liberty U. Commencement Address

…. The same elite establishment that Jesus condemned remains the real enemy today. Falwell Jr.’s need to make Carter acceptable to the Liberty crowd (who Carter joked was larger than Trump’s crowd the previous year) did not end there. Unlike his father, Falwell Jr. praised Carter for his 1976 Playboy interview because Carter was willing to follow the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 5:27-28: “You have heard it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not…

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Sikh Temple Shooting: Two Massacres and the Virtual Transformation of Trauma

…and 2012. I loathe to say this, but what if the 1984 massacre had happened today? Could the ruthless terror unleashed on innocent Sikhs have been curtailed before it became a trauma of magnifying proportions that the world continues to remain oblivious to? Could the effects of that trauma have been lessened? Even today it is only a handful of what sociologist Arlene Stein calls ‘memory-workers’ who are using the internet in defining 1984 as a trau…

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The Atheist Encounter with Christianity: A Failure to Disbelieve?

…ly admitted that evolution poses challenges to Christian theology and have freely chosen to not ignore them or sweep them under the rug. They have a deep knowledge of Christian history and theology as well as evolutionary theory. And they have reconciled the two and find joy living and working on the boundary between them. These people are not uncommon. Many of them are parishoners in Catholic and mainline churches, many are teachers and professor…

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Why Anti-Gay Bullying is a Theological Issue

…le 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 churches) will come around on this issue.” To these friends and others, I must say, “It’s time.” For Lucas, Brown, Clementi, Walsh, and Chase the time is up. For these teens and the myriad other bisexual, transgender, lesbian and gay youth lost to suicide, the waiting game hasn’t worked so well. A…

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Prophets of the Environmental Apocalypse

…ghtmares. In somewhat the same way that climate change denialism functions today, the Atoms for Peace campaign merely divided public opinion, allowing some to sleep easy and the most knowledgeable people even more distraught and fearful. Events like the recent reactor meltdown in Northeastern Japan can bring even the sleepers back to the edge of anxiety, and then there’s the persistent fear that a nut job or a terrorist will decide to usher in apo…

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Heaven On Earth: A Non-Hysterical History of Shari’ah

…e the matters that are causing greatest damage to inter-communal relations today. That means, regrettably, devoting attention to conflict—not just the ‘jihad and terrorism’ you mention, but also the harsh attitudes toward criminal justice, gender politics and religious toleration that have been hardening of late in some ostensibly Islamic states.   Another writer might well have struck a different balance, but that would simply have drawn criticis…

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Seeking Jobs, Beach Clean Up Workers Come From All Walks of Life

…ng to save?” Kumrits asked his friend. “Man, he sounded just like we sound today.” But if you ask them what they are, they really don’t know. And they’re fine with that. They don’t know where they will be spiritually in a year, but they don’t seem very much preoccupied by it. Today, their spirituality comes from the Tao Te Ching. They are dedicated to shedding their possessions. Kumrits lives year round in a camper. The two men are constantly chal…

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When Welcoming the Stranger Was Not Just a Religious Value

…stem works, and that good can come when we choose to be our better selves. Today, as was the case in 1979, religious leaders have set aside their divisions and have stood united in their strong commitment to aid and resettle Syrian refugees. Last week, as Congress debated the fate of Syrian refugee resettlement, organizations representing the entire gamut of American religious communities—Muslims and Jews, evangelicals and Unitarians, Catholics an…

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The Oil Spill and “Real Deathliness”

…can’t even grasp, and nobody—nobody—has any plausible idea of how to break free from the system. There are plenty of ideas floating around, yes, but there are no easy answers to put into practice today. If there were, we’d be using them. That’s what we’re afraid of and what we can’t afford to admit even to ourselves. So to my mind, this “Targum on Romans” does more to speak to the situation than all the pretty talk about “creation care”: So here’s…

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Heresy, Bad Taste, or Capitalist Adventure: Is it Still Pentecostalism?

…Gospel and the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) rests on the elevation and promotion of these practices above all others. The deviations then, are important to understand how Pentecostalism is being reshaped and redefined. Prosperity Gospel The Prosperity Gospel has had several names throughout its history, including the “Health and Wealth Gospel” and the “Word of Faith”. The movement’s Pentecostal antecedents arise out of the healing movements of…

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