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Dinos and Demons and Swedes, Oh My! It May Be Cartoonish, but Evangelical Radicalism Isn’t Just a Sideshow

By Chrissy Stroop

…voters who voted for Trump as a rough approximation—will assent to, or at best excuse, the claims. In authoritarian communities like the white evangelical one I grew up in, certain sacrosanct “Truths” become markers of in-group identity. Members of these communities build up infrastructure—in this case Christian publishing houses, bookstores, alternative cultural products, Christian schools and curricula, etc.—in order to generate pseudo-intellec…

The Visceral Vote: Obama-as-Sojourner v. McCain-as-Mythic-Hero

By Ira Chernus

…tary, and national security. That’s the one area where McCain consistently bests his opponent in the polls. It’s only his claim to experience on these issues that are keeping him competitive. That does not mean the voters prefer McCain’s war policies. Since last February, when it became clear that the Arizona senator would be the GOP’s nominee, the pattern has not changed: Even when a comfortable majority of those polled support Obama’s policy — w…

Is Monsanto Satan? The Pleasure and Problem of Conspiracy Theory

By Alan Levinovitz

…le, because the deceiver is so powerful that any contact risks corruption. Best to avoid it entirely, lest you end up like Bill Nye, the Science Guy, who changed his mind on GMOs after visiting Monsanto. Under most circumstances, the reasonable explanation would be that Nye was persuaded by argument and evidence. But for those who believe in Monsatan, the better—the only—explanation is that Nye was coerced, just as the best explanation for my skep…

Why it (Still) Makes Little Sense to Call ISIS Islamic

By Haroon Moghul

…cial component. He worked as a spiritual and social reformer, though he operated in the categories of his time, reforming the institutions of his time given the possibilities of that time. This context is missing in most mainstream analysis of Shari’ah, such as Wood’s and Callimachi’s. Case in point: when outsiders look to the Muslim sanction of capital punishment and think—what kind of Prophet would preach that?—they miss its larger vision, inten…

Toward a Richer Ethical Discourse in Trumplandia: A Response to Harper’s “Trump: A Resister’s Guide”

By Peter Laarman

…im Barker, and Sarah Schulman. Robin’s “The Dream of the Enemy” may be the best of the lot. In just eight compressed paragraphs, Robin reminds us that today’s multicultural neoliberalism, epitomized by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, is essentially backward-looking and fear-based. The gist of Robin’s argument: A liberalism that needs monsters to destroy can never politically engage with its enemies. It can never understand those enemies as political a…

Open Carry Racism: The Right Wing Fever Dream that Predates Trump

By Jason C. Bivins

…ers of which refuse to do so. Get Out may never have been fated to win the Best Picture Oscar, but it’s still the movie that best answers the question how did we get here? while pointing to the “black mold” in the basement. But what needs to be acknowledged is that while Trump is truly exceptional in his disregard for laws, norms, and institutions, he’s also a recognizable product of a half-century’s con game. Significantly, it was with Ronald Rea…

What the Hell is Wrong With Us? A Muslim Response to America’s Failure to Change

By Haroon Moghul

…ask the reader of the Qur’an, over and over again, to reflect, to use her best judgment, to make her best effort, and to learn from others? If the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the last Prophet—and Islam certainly insists on as much—then everything he communicated has to be universal enough to be meaningful but flexible enough to reflect the nuances and characteristics of different experiences. This is one thing a lot of people don’t u…

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

By Arielle Levites

…1940s through the early 1970s. In time, in the face of disappointments generated by the limitations of their political activities, the New Left became disillusioned with the promise of revolution as members began to adopt a more incremental approach to social change. He writes that “over time the radicals’ focus shifted away from identifying and demanding the conditions that would qualify the United States as a social democracy and towards attempt…

The Top 10 (Non-Religious) Religious Films of 2017

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…because of its first five minutes, but Wonder Woman continues some of the best of audio-visual storytelling, telling us why Hollywood is the most powerful mythmaker on planet earth today. 8) The Disaster Artist There’s little religion in this film, but James Franco’s quirky project points out the ways films are followed religiously, how they create their own worlds that people find meaning and purpose within. Tommy Wiseau is shown to be a fanat…

Satanists Want You to Respond to the Pandemic with Compassion. And Reason.

By Joseph Laycock

…current crisis on the Obama administration. Any others? As we become frustrated over the response to pandemic, it’s also important to remember the Sixth Tenet: People are fallible. If one makes a mistake, one should do one’s best to rectify it and resolve any harm that might have been caused. It’s easy to get disgusted with people, but we have to be more willing to give people a pass for being wrong. You have to give people room to grow. We have…