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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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Don’t Discount Evangelicalism as a Factor in Racist Murder of Asian Spa Workers in Georgia

…but at the same time, white evangelicals are demographic outliers in their use of “morality” to uphold and defend their far-right politics. Young white evangelical men who are active in their religious communities have perpetrated more than one act of terrorism in America’s recent past, and if we want to learn better how we might prevent such crimes, we must not be afraid of examining these connections. *Last name changed to protect against possib…

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How New Religions Are Made

…ontinued for five more chapters concerning interactions and race relations between white and Black Jews during the Civil Rights and Black Power eras. Thankfully, Oxford University Press’ readers reined me in, and I was left with the much more compact, and much more readable text as it stands today, which focuses on the period from the nineteenth century to the 1930s. Some scholars may wonder how large these groups were, especially since African Am…

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Why the King Hearings Should Matter to Mormons

…anned hearings are being decried by religious leaders and scholars as an abuse of government power, a blow to religious freedom, and a government-backed demonization of millions of decent people of faith. As a Mormon, I find the King hearings particularly objectionable. Because Mormons of all people know what it feels like for an entire religion to be publicly demeaned for the objectionable deeds of its fringe minorities. And because our religion…

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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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Niebuhrian Humility and DC Punditry

…ported his election. He’s not happy with the way things are going, but for better or worse, it shows the system is working in fine Niebuhrian fashion. Niebuhr was sharply aware of (and often amused by) the shortcomings of political leaders. They were only human, after all. But he also believed that humility was not simply a personal virtue, but something thrust upon leaders by the unending pressure of competing interests in the democratic process….

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