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When Religion is a Refuge for Scoundrels: ‘Ryan Budget’ Edition

…ional authority with universal jurisdiction.” Pope after pope call for a “true world political authority” and a “world bank” to preside over a “global, universal common good.” Nations need to “transfer a part of each nation’s powers to a world authority and to regional authorities.” What is called for is not a tyrannical despotic world authority. The Catholic tradition of “subsidiarity” means that nothing should be done by a higher authority that…

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Frodo and Mormon Share Stage in South Park Mormon Musical

…st moments and for what will most likely be perceived as its deepest incongruities. The incongruity comes from the ease with which the Ugandans and eventually the missionaries embrace this metaphorical model of religion. The central female character, Nabalungi, takes Cunningham’s stories literally, and against the backdrop of her blighted village sings a wrenching song about reaching the storied paradise, Salt Lake City, where, she imagines, the w…

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The Theology of Westboro: The “World’s Meanest Church” Is More Than Picket Signs

…have advanced degrees. Many people in the church are athletes, especially runners, who compete on the local level, and Topeka, Kansas, where the church is located, is a city of over 125,000 people—not a big city but also not a rural backwater. Also only one church member—founding pastor Fred Phelps, who died over a year ago—was from the South. Our decision to depict anti-LGBT bigots using these stereotypes reveals some larger cultural prejudices….

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Lying about Santa: The Irrelevance of Proof to the Holiday Spirit

…ildren only became firmer in their self-assurance. Set against the general run of their ruminations, Hook’s history can only described as revisionist. Reminiscent of the internet cult-phenomenon Zeitgeist’s treatment of Jesus, it featured the standard ingredients of a turn-your-world-upside-down debunking. Before Santa Claus became Baby Jesus’ materialistic sidekick, we learned, he passed through a sequence of incarnations and permutations that go…

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GMO or No: Problematic Intersections of Religion, Biotechnology, and Food

…consider if genetic modification will reduce or increase suffering in the world, or dukkha. If the world becomes sick, so will we. It is therefore imperative to avoid creating additional harm in anything we do. Genetic modification is not necessarily harmful, but in order for healthful products to have their intended benefits, it is important that producing them is carried out within healthful social, economic, and ecological frameworks. In an es…

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No Turkey for Me: Confessions of an Indian Militant

…heir blood put the fires out. So the fires were ordered to be relit, three times. How do you make that out of construction paper? And then Governor John Winthrop ordered a day of Thanksgiving to be set aside: “Thus did the Lord judge among the heathen, filling the place with dead bodies.” We know that when the passengers on the Mayflower landed in November of 1620, the first thing they did, the very first act they perpetrated, was to rob the grave…

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Why I Give Zero F*cks What Anti-Gay Christians Think

…o it right. We’re not called to save the whole world, but we are called to live our lives from a place of Holy integrity and love that has an organic authority of its own. It’s that integrity that will let us know when to speak and act, and when to walk away. Jesus says when you’ve tried your best—you’ve made your best arguments against the powers that be, in love, and they still don’t get it, let them know, in no uncertain terms, that you have ze…

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5 Reasons the Muslim Brotherhood Won’t Turn On Israel

…haraonic and Islamic varieties, and cannot long survive alienated from the world.   Aggressive national policy will accomplish nothing for Egypt and the many Egyptians whose jobs depend on the tourist sector. That’s worth keeping in mind when people ask if a new Egypt will be a pro-Hamas Egypt.  2. Why, How Many Tanks and Planes You Have Any post-Mubarak regime will have to incorporate not only the military’s interests, but reward the military (as…

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A Matter of Life and Debt: The Role of Religion

…hereas the truly odious and corrosive forms of debt, the forms that blight lives and destroy livelihoods, are hardly critiqued at all by the high-minded deficit hawks within the chattering classes, let alone by any prominent American religious leaders. Here below—in the streamlined form of religious instruction known as the catechism—is an exercise in thinking about debt in religious terms: _____________________________ Question: When and how, for…

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Hipsters v. Hasidim Over Brooklyn Bike Lane

…erhaps equally-strict hipster libertinism. At the beginning of this month, New York City Department of Transportation workers sandblasted away the bike lanes painted on the Hasidic side of Bedford, between Flushing and Division Avenues. It came as the result of a decision made earlier in the year, seen by both communities as a move by Mayor Bloomberg to win over the Hasidim by placating, so to speak, their fashion sensibilities: a religious injunc…

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