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The New Age Fantasy of a Celtic Church that Revered Nature and the Divine Feminine Never Existed — So What?

By Ed Simon

…Chicago the river will be dyed green, and in Washington DC the Taoiseach will present the president with a Waterford Crystal filled with shamrocks. We’ll see kitschier associations as well, from “Kiss Me I’m Irish” t-shirts to full-grown adults cosplaying as leprechauns. Clergy have expressed concern about secular revelry obscuring the religious significance of what, after all, is a saint’s day. Fr. Ryan Jones, an Episcopal priest at the Eucharis…

Bush Has Helped the Scarecrow of American Religion

By Hussein Rashid

…sations at a popular level about the role of religion in public life. We still have a way to go in terms of putting theory into practice. A recent collections of essays about the religious left fails to include any Muslim voices (disclosure: I know several of the contributors and have much respect for them), and a group called Faithful Democrats is really for Christians only (their current website makes this clear, but their earlier public face di…

When Corporations are “Persons” Under the Law: The Real Problem With Health Care

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…specially its war debts. That’s a constitutional requirement, now. But we will not take on, and we will not permit the individual states that have been forced back into the Union to pay, debts that we deem to be unjust. Justice matters, even in economic matters, and justice demands the settling of (certain) accounts. There is a chilling message in all of this. Our history is an ambivalent and ambiguous and violent one. It has worked against justic…

Too Late for Apologies: Three Steps the U.S. Bishops Should Take to Prevent Another Sexual Abuse Scandal

By Grant Gallicho

…Cardinal Rigali also sits on that influential Vatican congregation. If rumors are true, Rigali will soon be replaced and sent to Rome. (He’s 76, one year past the mandatory retirement age.) A credible successor will be key to restoring the trust of Philadelphia Catholics. That appointment will also hold lessons for the wider church, including bishops. The question that remains, then, is what will they learn?…

Obstacles for Secularists

By Sarah Posner

…choice, made and kept alone. In my piece, I point out how even Democrats still resort to appeals to faith, but: The religious right has given the secular-humanist-atheist community a huge opening: by placing conservative religious doctrine front and center in the healthcare debate, they have raised serious constitutional questions about what religious freedom and church-state separation mean. Many of the organizations and activists who are part of…

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

By Varun Soni

…the Grateful Dead collectively formed an intentionally itinerant community numbering in the tens of thousands, with their own customs, vernacular, art, and economy. In his explanation of the lure of the Grateful Dead to thousands of Deadheads around the country, Garcia ruminated, “maybe we’re just one of the last adventures in America.” Indeed, the promise of a great American adventure animated Deadheads to undertake an annual pilgrimage across th…

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

By Sunnivie Brydum

…ystems are complicit in the violence that happened on Saturday. Charlottesville is hurt and broken. But this is not just about Charlottesville: this is a resurgence of white nationalism that is being supported by our current administration. And as much as we are trying to address the needs of the community here, I also want to acknowledge that people were holding vigils all over the country for Charlottesville, and responding to this crisis. And t…

Missing the Anger for the Shoes

By Hussein Rashid

…feces smeared all over their floors and carpets, although I’m sure a great number of non-Muslims appreciate these artifacts from guests’ shoes. As mentioned previously, shoes are also used to discipline people. Belt-whuppins are difficult when men’s traditional garb does not include belts. Shoes/slippers/etc. are far more common. They are used to help “enlighten” insouciant, arrogant, oblivious, destructive, or otherwise socially maladjusted indiv…

Top Five (Less Sensational, But More Dangerous) Things to Remember About Pat Robertson (1930-2023)

By Mark Hulsether

…independence from the French. According to Robertson, they told Satan “we will serve you if you will get us free.” Satan then responded, “OK, it’s a deal” and “ever since, they have been cursed.” Is this worth acknowledging? Comments by Robertson that are racist, sexist, arrogant, complacent, misleading, and/or embarrassing are like a bus: if you miss one today, there will be another tomorrow. Those who stir the pot by writing “can you believe he…