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Remembering Rumsfeld: The Defense Department Gospel and America’s Desert Crusade

…these documents. A former Air Force intelligence officer told me that the use of biblical verses on cover sheets, in his experience, is “not at all surprising.” Many of those privy to such briefings probably would have been Christian, he suspects, and the rest “knew better than to object.” Scriptural errancy Those who want to recover their traditions from conflation with errant militarism can begin by correcting some simple misunderstandings that…

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Archbishop Retracts Videotaped Criticism of Fellow Bishops

…entable. As Archbishop of St. Louis Mo. He was one of the first bishops to use communion as political battering ram against then candidate John Kerry. He announced that if Kerry came to St. Louis, he would not permit him to receive communion. Shortly after that he said that Catholics who voted for pro-choice candidates were committing grave sin and needed to go to confession before they could receive communion. He lauded Sarah Palin as a shot in t…

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Catholic Sex Teaching is No Laughing Matter

…as observed, and so might well respond that statements about homosexuality used in Persona Humana are those of psychologists and biblical writers, not its own. But no amount of indirection can obscure the Vatican’s decision to use this vilifying language and not some other, in Persona Humana as well as in the much more widely read Catechism of the Catholic Church. And have no doubt, such language has serious effects. Here in the US, the media regu…

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Cafeteria Cockroaches and Synagogue-State Relations in Israel

…tutional settings, a kitchen will be either “milk” or “meat”—not both. Because of the delicate relationship between synagogue and state, all Israeli government institutions serve kosher food, including both government offices and the vast apparatus of the Israeli Army. And this despite the fact that most Israelis are not themselves “strictly kosher.” Without Kashrut supervision most restaurants and hotels in Israel would not survive—they wouldn’t…

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Trump’s Inaugural Address Gets an “F” in American Civil Religion

…es are either on his side or they are illegitimate. This worldview—divided between winners and losers, to use two words popular with our new president—has, it seems, little use for sacrifice. Trump, in his speech, evoked not the ultimate sacrifice of those who give their lives for their country but, instead, in an odd image, the blood that unifies patriots. Never mind that traitors, tyrants, and terrorists all bleed red, too, Trump’s description o…

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After All the Handwringing We’re Now Seeing Exactly Why Conservative Christians Supported Trump

…that Trump is such an artist, but it’s the other way around: Trump didn’t use the religious right to win the presidency; the religious right used Trump to get what it wanted. And this itself is nothing new, despite claims to the contrary which, we think, has more to say about the commentator than the subject in question. Although it may be convenient and more than a little self-serving to view Trump as an aberration who doesn’t align with desired…

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The Problem of ‘Evil’ in Describing Southern Baptist Abuse Crisis

…rn Baptist Church upholds gracious submission as godly and relegates the abuse as “satanic,” casting them into different realms. Yet, submission and abuse should not occupy spaces so far apart in our theological imaginations, because they work together. When leaders demand unquestioning obedience from women and girls, it sets up the perfect environment for predation to occur. He was both people. I thought about the word hypocrisy: its origin is fr…

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Despite Vastly Different Values, Evangelical ‘Hamilton’ Connects Secular Left and Christian Right

…f doing. Rather, they teach us how to imagine (what they consider to be) a better, more just version of our world—though in the case of the Christian Right that version of the world tends to be “more just” only for those who believe and look like they do. Truth isn’t a currency in these economies. This act of lying is what’s important. It opens up space for possibility. Musicals and religion both do it with ease. There’s something special about th…

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Double Helix: Science & Religion as Cultural Kindling; A Response to The New Republic

…the very statistics about Americans cited by Coyne; we need to do this because of those statistics. When we do, people actually learn better, see that there are usually more than simply two sides to an argument, and aren’t forced, as they currently are, to ‘take sides’ or reject ideas. Humans learn better when we can relate knowledge to our daily experiences and consider it from diverse perspectives. It’s called education. And, yes, it’s difficult…

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Crossing the Line: Fetal Cemeteries

…d me they are enraged when they pass these crosses planted on campus which use Jesus to accuse women of murdering their babies. And they are frustrated when college administrators tell them this activity is covered by academic freedom. Academic freedom leads to scholarly enquiry. So let’s examine the religious validity of fetal cemeteries. The notion that one can create a cemetery for fetuses actually highlights the fact that, the religious ritual…

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