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UPDATED: Religion Has Been Framed; Covering the Aga Khan’s Visit

By Hussein Rashid

…e to my mind when I started looking for coverage of the Aga Khan’s visit: “Americans are interested in hearing a major Muslim leader speak of tolerance and cooperation, so why isn’t the media covering the Aga Khan’s visit?” Patel, with his interfaith interest, focused on the message of Pluralism the Aga Khan espoused, and the role education plays in generating a sense of pluralism amongst people. All these messages are accurate and necessary, but…

Travolta Airlifts Scientology, Supplies, to Haiti

By Becky Garrison

…etox program from the medical facility, this program remains in operation. New York City was by no means the only disaster site targeted for clearing by the Church of Scientology. Whenever one finds a disaster that makes the international news (like the tsunami in Indonesia), one can find volunteer ministers decked out in yellow shirts interfering with relief workers, who are trying to deliver bona fide services to those in need. What can be done…

Why Anti-Gay Bullying is a Theological Issue

By Cody J. Sanders

…e of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. I cannot count the number of times I have heard well-meaning, good-hearted people 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 t…

The Real Goal of Pro-Life Movement Support for Scott Brown: Kill Health Care Reform

By Sarah Posner

…nservative movement is rejoicing over what it is characterizing as a “new” American revolution — a new tea party, if you will — emerging out of Massachusetts. The geography is rife with symbolism: the first shots of the 2010 revolution fired in the heart of blue America, potentially killing Kennedy’s life work and setting the stage for a Republican resurgence in New England, of all places. But what pro-life activists aren’t saying right now — but…

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

By Grant Gallicho

…urprise. In October 2005—just three years after the bishops’ adopted their new norms—the Archdiocese of Chicago’s review board recommended removing an accused priest, Daniel McCormack, from ministry, and Cardinal Francis George refused to do so. He wasn’t removed from ministry until January 2006, and McCormack later pled guilty to abusing five kids. As the victims’ attorney Marc Pearlman told NPR, “I just don’t know… how many kids were abused betw…

Presidential Pep Talks and the Religion of Fear: How did an Uncontroversial Speech Become a National Controversy?

By Eric Reitan

…developments within the mass media. In Bush’s day, there wasn’t a 24-hour news station devoted largely to explicitly criticizing the sitting president, nor was there a blogger-riddled Internet through which the banners of “propaganda” and “indoctrination” could be taken up. But the fact is that even given access to these new media outlets, Obama’s right-wing critics wouldn’t have achieved their aim without a sufficiently receptive audience. Someh…

Haiti and the Push for Theological Questions

By Paula M. Cooey

…tic or atheistic view, however well known it may be, is not shared by most Americans. “Repent, the end of the world is at hand.” Less known are the clerical responses of the time, which were numerous. Charles and John Wesley (the latter considered the founder of the Methodist movement) preached many sermons on the earthquake. According to Methodist minister Ann Bracket, the Wesley brothers saw the Lisbon earthquake in terms of the biblically-preor…

Life Imitates Satire Imitates Life: Rep. King Revives Manchurian Candidate

By The Editors

…al Imams,” based on a remark made 12 years ago by neoconservative-friendly American Muslim leader, Shaykh Hisham Kabbani. In honor of this magic number and the hearings King will hold next month in order to address the “creeping threat of Sharia law,” RD presents the first edition of Life Imitates Satire Imitates Life. In this clip, from the Manchurian Candidate a Joseph McCarthy stand-in uses his own investigative tool to determine how many cry…

Jesus Christ and Super Stars: How The Holy Rolled Mainstream in Pop Music

By Alana Massey

…ls her ‘mission statement, if I have one,’” writes Rachel Syme in a recent New Yorker profile. On the track, Baker declares, “But I think there’s a god and he hears either way when I rejoice and complain/Lift my voice that I was made/And somebody’s listening at night with the ghosts of my friends when I pray.” This God is not an amorphous therapeutic deity of yesteryear nor a mostly ornamental cross in a photo shoot. This is the living Lord who he…

Lo and Behold, the Sacredness of the Internet

By Martyn Smith

…internet as a result of the inexorable working out of Moore’s Law. As the number of transistors on a chip grew exponentially, computers became smaller, and then they became “personal,” and then they fit in our pockets as a phone. “Revolution: The First 2000 Years of Computing,” at the Computer History Museum In this telling, the internet was not a unique “Columbus” event, but an evolution dependent on the shrinking size and growing capacity of co…