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Teaching the Dalai Lama’s Monks: Better Religion Through Science

By Arri Eisen

“Do bacteria require light?” Tashi, one of my best students, wants to know. He sits there in Dharamsala, India, like his Buddhist monk colleagues, cross-legged on the floor in maroon robes, six hours a day learning science from a tall white Jewish guy from North Carolina. Religion often has a hard time of it, especially among academics, and especially among scientists. Of course academics have no problem studying religion and raising big money to…

What Do Christians Think About the Netanyahu Speech?

By Sarah Posner

…oycott its leader — they are no friends of Israel, and we pledge to do our best to educate voters about their undermining of Israel and the U.S.-Israel relationship at this crucial hour. Today, in an email to supporters, CUFI is urging voters to call their representatives and demand that they attend the speech. “Attending this speech is not merely an opportunity for our representatives;” the email reads, “it is their responsibility.” On the other…

On Religion, Abortion, and Politics: Dr. George Tiller’s Christian Ethics

By Ed Knudson

…cess, where human beings have little actual freedom. Luther taught the opposite. He says we have no choices about the grace of God. But on the other hand, human beings are completely free to use their rational capacity to decide how best to live within the world. That is why their vocation in the world is so important. But as Lutherans engage in their vocation in the world, they are not promised to be able to know any better than non-Christians wh…

No, Sunni and Shia Muslims Have Not Been Fighting Forever

By Haroon Moghul

…use the power of the state to marginalize, and practically execute, large numbers of unarmed black men, women and even children, and deny even the possibility of legal redress to those left behind. Speaking of undying hatreds, when do you think American racism will end? We have gone to war with Muslim-majority countries and funded wars that have killed huge numbers of people. Iran’s anti-monarchic revolutionary Shia Islam is embedded in an anti-c…

Evangelical Stephen Baldwin’s Imitatio Christi & “Reality” TV

By Gabriel Mckee

…isms—they dumb us down, they elevate public humiliation—but what I’m really interested in is the way shows like Spike’s Joe Schmo Show or VH1’s I Love Money turn into morality plays about the value of friendship and loyalty. In the best reality shows, the initial rush of schadenfreude is gradually replaced with a genuine affection for the “good guys,” and righteous frustration at the machinations of the villains. I’m also fascinated by the villain…

Undercover at Falwell’s Liberty University, Finding Common Ground

By Nathan Schneider

…enthusiasm, despite praying and proselytizing and Bible-thumping with the best of them, Roose didn’t give in all the way. He didn’t get “saved.” His interior monologue never got too comfortable with the endless homophobia that passes for ordinary conversation among Liberty students, though he also fell short of speaking out against it at the time. When he returned, he was still a happy, post-everything Brown student. But he was still praying, eve…

“Ex-Gay” Common Ground More of a Killing Ground

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…point is that people can leave whatever it is that God calls less than His best and move into something that is His best, becoming more like He is. Honestly, this isn’t news. So-called “ex-gay ministries” have long given up the promise of turning homosexuals into heterosexuals. True, some who say they’ve “left homosexuality” have married opposite gender partners and had children. Here we can begin the long argument over Alfred Kinsey and his conti…

Putting the “Protest” Back in Protestant: Reclaiming the Spirit of Resistance

By Peter Laarman

…m to be the case that this works in reverse, however. That is, despite the best efforts of some within the Religion-Industrial Complex (see below), there is absolutely no sign that white evangelicals are ready to switch their allegiance in any significant way to Democratic principles or to Democratic candidates. Unless, of course, Democrats are willing to pander in classic Republican fashion to the particular prejudices of these religious voters….

Falling in Love With the Earth: Francis’ Faithful Ecology

By Jacob J. Erickson

…biodiversity. (Yale’s Forum for Religion and Ecology assembles some of the best of that content here.) As I read through Laudato si I saw much of the speculation confirmed. Pope Francis reflects on our various ecological ills. He reflects on anthropogenic/human-caused global warming, water scarcity, biodiversity loss, the dangers of unlimited consumerism, the dangers of unlimited and overused technology, “a misguided anthropocentrism,” economic gr…

Religious Freedom Org Sticking By Trump Clinging to SCOTUS Nominations

By Sunnivie Brydum

…ew reliable allies going to bat for him. And although Trump has seemed, at best, lukewarm about defending against the supposed “attack” on “Judeo-Christian values” in this nation, evangelicals and self-appointed religious freedom fighters continue to overwhelmingly support Trump. But those allies, like Trump’s TV surrogates, are increasingly required to twist themselves into rhetorical pretzels to justify their candidate’s behavior, policies (or l…