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Turn on the News: Some Abortion Opponents May Opt For a New Vaccine, But Behind Their Skepticism it’s Often a Different Story — of Disinformation, Conspiratorial Thinking, and White Nationalism

By Daniel Schultz

…ak down the objections any further. Meaning, we don’t know how much of that 10% is rooted in concerns over abortion. It could be that people are balking because they see vaccination as unnecessary, or because they see vaccines as contaminants, both of which are fairly common objections linked to religious mindsets. And as law professor Dorit Reiss writes in the Washington Post, “We know that Americans game religious exemptions, because they tell u…

‘Cancel Culture’ Is as Old as Religion, And It’s Only a Thing Because of Who’s Doing the Cancelling

By Shaul Magid

…even the Talmud Recently, Will Berkovitz, a rabbi and CEO of Jewish Family Service in Washington State published an opinion piece arguing that, as the headline states, “The Talmud has a lesson for our cancel-culture world.” In it, he argues that the Talmud, a product of a small cadre of Jewish sages in Babylonia from the third to sixth centuries CE, can be a model for the tolerance and diversity of opinions that our present moment needs. That it c…

U.S. Christianity is Dead, Long Live U.S. Christianity

By Richard Flory

…r, more locally oriented church communities, and by larger churches that attract the masses for a spiritual or musical performance, and a sense of belonging to something much larger than themselves. Young people are looking for intimacy and personal connections, deep spiritual experiences, service to others and the opportunity to create their own community, whether religious or not. Religion is not going anywhere anytime soon, regardless how peopl…

Pope Francis’ Love Letter is an Opportunity Lost

By Mary E. Hunt

…toral changes that reflect what effective priests are already doing; and a spiritual coda cum prayer about the Holy Family. There is some soaring rhetoric, for example about adoption and young lovers dancing into the future with hope. But there is a lot of sermonic material, much taken from the Pope’s own weekly homilies in which he foreshadowed a lot of this document. I can imagine preachers recycling his words for one more wedding mass. The read…

Why We Should Ban Oppressive Speech Acts

By Natasha Lennard

…r’s Magazine published a “Letter on Justice and Open Debate” signed by over 150 writers, academics and public figures—including anti-trans zealot J.K. Rowling, scholar-activist Noam Chomsky, novelist Margaret Atwood and a host of intellectuals, some conservative, some liberal, some radical. Published during a potent moment of Black liberation struggle, when, finally, the institutional racism and whiteness of so many established media institutions…

Fundraising for Kyle Rittenhouse Reveals American Christianity’s White Supremacy Problem

By Andrew L. Seidel

…bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala. on September 15, 1963, killing four little girls, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair. In one of the stained-glass windows that was not entirely destroyed an image of a faceless Jesus remained. When James Baldwin was asked what this faceless Jesus said about the tragedy he responded: “The absence of the face is something of an achievement, since…

Times’ Link of NOI With Capitol Killer is Based on Flawed Comparison Between Rightwing Christian Nationalism and Black Religious Nationalism

By A. E. Brooks-Key

…While Louis Farrakhan’s history of anti-Semitic statements are fair game, posing him and the Nation of Islam as incubators of anti-government violence is simply not borne out by the religious group’s history. This type of reporting does a disservice to combatting actual extremism and anti-government violence. In addition, the life, service, and memory of Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” F. Evans deserve better treatment than being used as f…

A Catholic Sister, a Buddhist Nun, and Two Rabbis: Friendship That Goes Beyond “Interfaith”

By Matthew Gindin

…ith the Divine, not just reading—the better it is for all of us. It’s that spiritual energy I’m interested in.” Ven. Pelyang came to Tibetan Buddhism after spiritual restlessness led her first to an Episcopal priest (who mentored her but advised her to explore her own Jewish roots), then to a Buddhist retreat center where she discovered the power of a still mind. When she later met and practiced with Tibetan Buddhist monastics, she had found her p…

Bernie’s Roman Holiday

By Daniel Schultz

…Jesus, did they really put his logo on a picture of the Pope?! All this in service of a message that won’t impress or inspire anybody who wasn’t going to vote for Sanders to begin with. I suppose that was the goal all along, though: to maintain Sanders’ inspirational image. Either that, or they’re making some kind of bizarre, desperate play for the New York Catholic vote. Or again, maybe they were hoping a bird would land on his podium again, whic…

Battle of Antisemitism Definitions is Actually a Proxy War For Criticism of Israel

By Joshua Shanes

…d even celebration of violence and oppression if deemed necessary tools in service of Jewish power. For others, the lesson is universal, “never again to anyone,” with a particularly keen awareness that Jews are no different than anyone else and are therefore just as likely to abuse their power in the name of nationalism and “self-defense” as anyone else. This division has serious ramifications in terms of Jewish political choices. For the universa…