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Trump’s “Muslim Ban” A Gift to Terrorists

By Ali Olomi

…tates as a nation of hypocrites who promise freedom out of one side of the mouth and demonize minorities out of the other. ISIS propaganda calls the US an unsafe place for Muslims. Refugees fleeing from ISIS need somewhere to flee to. By banning refugees, Donald Trump vilifies the victims, deliberately conflating them with the perpetrators. ISIS is achieving its aims: a nationless population it can absorb into its nascent and brutal state, with an…

Exclusive: Christian Right Bill Mill, Project Blitz, Hasn’t Gone Away, It’s Just Gotten More Secretive

By Frederick Clarkson

…exposes their view of democratic institutions. Indeed, the bill became infamous months before it morphed into a secret model in the Project Blitz playbook. The “Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act,” introduced by then-freshman Missouri State Rep. Ben Baker (R-Neosho), ignited a state and national controversy in January 2020 shortly after he took office. Baker is an Assemblies of God minister, a graduate and former Dean of Students of the ti…

After More Mass Shootings It’s Time to Call Out White Supremacy in the Pews

By Peter Laarman

…lping. I’m a preacher and I can say with near certainty that 99% of the sermons preached yesterday morning didn’t get close to the level of truth-telling that’s needed. Nor will the compulsory “thoughts and prayers” pronouncements, nor the words spoken at memorial services over the next days and weeks. Of course as a pastor I’m aware that words of consolation are appropriate and necessary at a time like this. But if actual truth-telling isn’t also…

Life as a Game Show: Reading Slumdog Millionaire

By Paul Courtright

…han Regis Philbin did in America; and a crore (10,000,000 Rupees) is a lot more money relative to the Indian economy than a million dollars is in America. Bachchan was huge; the show was huge. What is it about this film, with a seemingly random set of game show trivia questions at its center, that has captured our imagination? Why now? And, what does Slumdog Millionaire have to do with religion? It is Written The film begins with a question, typed…

Catholic Leaders Offer Criticism, Support to Boxer Pacquiao After Anti-Gay Comments…

By Peter Montgomery

…rds of the Jakarta Post, “further enhance cooperation with Indonesia in promoting moderate Islam.” From the Imam’s interview: This major propaganda is orchestrated by various international institutions and organizations using all kinds of methods and instruments such as the mass media and seminars, involving a number of celebrated figures and other possible means. The objective is to promote and solidify homosexuality. Al-Azhar, in a previous stat…

The Fretting About Whether Democrats Are “Friendly” To Religion

By Sarah Posner

…s Republicans and white evangelical Protestants. But they have also turned more negative among both independents as well as Democrats who are ideologically moderate or conservative. What Pew leaves out of that summary is that among liberal Democrats, the view of their party’s “friendliness” to religion remains unchanged from August 2008 to August 2009 (56% find it “friendly”). But a more important unanswered question is: why should we care? The t…

Demonized and Demonizing No More.

By Joanna Brooks

…monized or rendered invisible are very liminal. What’s shifting is that as more and more attention is given to religiously unaffiliated populations, it has carved out a path for atheists. The data suggests that a significant majority of the religiously unaffiliated are not atheists, but the general public sometimes assumes they are. Increased attention to the unaffiliated is an opportunity for atheists to articulate ourselves and carve out a clear…

Amway, Religious Right Pyramid Scheme, Returns to the Motherland

By Bill Berkowitz

…Obama fought false rumors that he is secretly a Muslim, and Mitt Romney’s Mormonism became a controversial topic. Candidates were held accountable for the incendiary comments of their pastors and their clergy supporters, such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and TV preacher John Hagee. Many observers thought the whole thing was an unholy mess, especially in a nation that separates religion and government. For the other stories—and explanatory notes—ma…

3 Reasons Catholic Bishops Are Holding Their Tongues on GOP Health Care Debacle

By Patricia Miller

…ed adoption agencies to refuse to provide services to LGBT couples or individuals. The bishops also would love any GOP health reform plan to include a wide-ranging “conscience” clause that would allow health care providers to refuse to provide any service for moral or religious reasons, which could be used to deny services to LGBT patients or single mothers. When it comes to the Trump administration, the bishops have apparently decided to hold the…

Swimming Against the Tide: Religious (Non) Affiliation Might Not Mean What You Think It Means

By Timothy King

…society today. And yet the import and meaning of these changes are likely more nuanced than how they often are portrayed. A mouse pad decorated with a school of ancient “ichthus” Christian symbols (and a contemporary “evangellyfish” headed in the opposite direction). Image via Zazzle.com. A few examples: Self-reported church attendance is roughly the same today as in the 1940’s and did not change significantly during the time of these reports. Ac…