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The Hypocrisy in Protests against Ultra-Orthodox in Israel

…—often more adroitly than their modern counterparts. In his Mishneh Torah (Code of Law), Maimonides explicitly advocated the position that women should stay mostly in their homes. The kabbalistic literature now so popular in modern Israel is in many ways worse. We have evidence that in the heyday of Safed in the sixteenth century a “council for rectifying sins” (va’ad le tikun avonot) was established to seek out and corporally punish those who wer…

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Are Social Issues Non-Issues?

…rence to “religious freedom” from Romney. Insiders know that the latter is code for exempting individuals and institutions from following government mandates on health care and provisions on anti-discrimination. But to the middle, Romney’s comment surely passed under the radar. And as for Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, even Paul Ryan is for that now. All this in the shadow of an unprecedented legal war against women’s reproductive choices, and an ever-morp…

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Louisiana Citizens Horrified that there’s Evolution in Science Books

…ning.” It also allows teachers and school districts to use “supplemental textbooks,” which are just code words for creationist and pro-intelligent design materials. Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University, co-founder of Louisiana Citizens for Science and one of the creationist movement’s most damning critics, said she believes the complaints are merely a tactic to get disclaimers (Warning: These books teach evo…

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Synod or Sin Oddly: Vatican Encourages Catholics to ‘Walk Together’ as Long as the Hierarchy Leads the Way and Decides the Route

…Pan Amazon region do not inspire any confidence that this one will be any better, just a scaled-up version of the same. For example, there were high hopes for the Amazonian Synod with a Latin American pope. But the well-documented requests for women to be included in ordained ministry and for married men to be ordained as priests all evaporated when votes were taken and the papal document emerged. What would motivate these people whose hopes were…

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What Makes Mormons Weird?

…own problems for the Mormon public image, a sense of radical disconnection between exterior and interior. And that sense of disconnection, of the public not quite matching the private, is only exacerbated by the insularity of Mormon communities, the secrecy of Mormon temple rites, and the privacy of faith practices like wearing sacred undergarments. Our difference—it’s there—under our clothes, just out of sight. Mormons learn to manage this balanc…

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When Mormons Mobilize: Anti-Gay Marriage Prop. 8 Effort ‘Outed’?

…zational skills. And whether its because [the Church] is concerned about tax-exempt status or they want to avoid bad publicity… they want to do it and not have anyone know they do it at the same time.” One cultural factor contributing to this apparent two-mindedness is the continuing insularity of Mormon culture. Mormon studies scholars suggest that Mormons living outside of Utah (like other minorities) have developed a “divided sense of self” and…

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The Two Faces of New Atheism

…of science. A former Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford, Dawkins exemplifies the best in science writing for a popular audience. His books, most notably The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and Climbing Mount Improbable, combine clarity with passion to explain the evolutionary process in terms that make it both intriguing and accessible. Dawkins’ success as a science writer stems as much from his expertise in biology an…

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Rewriting the History of Catholic Schools in America

…ion Tracy Fessenden has demonstrated, even after the King James Bible was excluded from the curriculum, “non-sectarian” textbooks and morals education in public schools would for decades be strikingly “pan-Protestant,” geared to rooting out “sectarian” immigrant religious identity. But even if Hughes was dedicated to American religious freedom, he certainly wasn’t dedicated to the freedom of Catholics within the church. Prior to his battle over th…

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The End (of Religion) is Near, Scientists Say

…Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. Turns out, every case of self-reported religious affiliation is trending downward: 40% self-identify as religiously non-affiliated in the Netherlands, as do 60% in the Czech Republic. The mathematicians seem far more surprised by these numbers than most religionists would be. The first and most obvious reason involves an important distinction th…

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