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Can the “Spiritual Left” Make the Change They Wish to See?

By Arielle Levites

…ough emotional self-development. Spiritual practitioners argue that we can best change the world through changing ourselves. If we properly govern our own emotional responses, lowering negative emotion while cultivating positive emotion we make our country a better place, one interpersonal interaction at a time. And so, when Yoga Journal asked 10 yogis to offer reflections on the presidential election results, it’s not surprising that they emphasi…

CNN Editor Leaves Over Tweet on Hezbollah ‘Giant’

By Hussein Rashid

…for women’s rights. She rightfully acknowledged that the Tweet is not the best format for expressing complex thoughts. For example, were I to Tweet “Sad to hear of the passing of R. Reagan … One of the Republican’s giants I respect a lot,” no one would think I support Republicanism in any of its modern incarnations, because of the totality of my work. I can say that Reagan was an amazing orator, or acknowledge how he gave the country hope. That d…

Marriage is for Everybody, Says Former Anti-Gay Evangelical

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…t of technical scholarly debates about what they did and did not mean. The best you wind up with is a statement that says, “Well, these passages don’t mean what you think they mean.” It was essentially an argument from silence, which I don’t find compelling. As I was writing this I was trying to keep in mind a couple of families in my congregation. They were just regular folks who had children come to them and they were very upset with this. We ha…

How to Wreck Your Faith: A Theologian Teaches “Outlaw Christianity”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…time. I won’t make people feel ashamed for their tears. In debunking “Law Number Two” about never doubting your faith, you give a wonderful reinterpretation of the “Doubting Thomas” story. Tell me more. I started rereading the story of Thomas while I was writing the book and thought about how all you ever hear is, “Don’t doubt! But believe.” It’s true Jesus says that to Thomas, but this is not really the whole story. There’s also the only other t…

World Congress of Families Meets, Seeks a New Dark Ages

By Gillian Kane

…isolated the elderly, and fostered depopulation,” and figuring out how to best manipulate those same systems into defending their particular religious values. One concern undergirding the varied topics covered by the speakers was that the protection of individual rights (youth rights, gay rights, reproductive rights) was taking place at the expense of “fundamental” religious, cultural, and parental rights. The idea of Christian persecution, or Ch…

Please Reverend, Do Something About the Fat People

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…lem, except it’s not. Aside from its connection to health being tenuous at best, obesity seems to be leveling off. 5. It might be compelling if there were any safe and reliable way to permanently turn most fat people into thin people. But there seems not to be. Of the people that lose a lot of weight, the vast majority—like nearly all of them—gain it back. Many have a little extra weight to show for their troubles. Some have seriously screwed-up m…

How Do Christians, Atheists Compare on Muslim Tolerance?

By Darren E. Sherkat

…n the most obnoxious and ridiculous views must be tolerated. Bad ideas are best conquered with good ideas rather than with repression. Yet, the anti-civil liberties orientation of Christian politicians and pundits appears to be shared by several prominent atheists like Sam Harris and the late Christopher Hitchens. For them and their followers, as for Trump and Cruz, radical Islam is best countered through jailing imams, preventing incendiary preac…

Robert Bellah’s Powerful Legacy: A Mixed Blessing for Religious Studies?

By Ivan Strenski

…cal perspective anathema? Why did our data seem limited to American or, at best, North Atlantic, cultural material? Was there really nothing to be learned from rigorous cross-cultural comparison? At other points, however, I think Bellah’s pastoral and prophetic urges undid some of the great good he had done. Perhaps, it was Bellah’s heart-felt concern to make the university a place infused with high moral, even religious, purpose that played him f…

A far-right protestor wears a MAGA tophat with a grim expression.

Conservative Evangelicals Aren’t Hypocrites, They’re Sadists

By Daniel Schultz

…h a rabid culture warrior like Mike Pence in the #2 role. But probably the best evidence for somebody like this would be the ICE raids in Mississippi last week. Here’s Trump the authoritarian carrying out his promise to keep them safe—and the result is a terrorized, deflated community. People notice that kind of thing, especially when their church is called on to assist the victims. And it may never work! All the evidence indicates that there’s a…

On Death and After-Death

By Amina Wadud

…at some level, enough to “know” when people walk away, you’re at your gravesite and enough to experience a glimpse of your permanent place of abode. That is, if you’ve led a good life, done the rights things, tried you best, etc., you’ll get heaven. If not, well; you know what happens then. Now stories about Nakir and Munkar get interesting. So much so that some will even tell you the “questions” that they will ask and what answers are correct! I…