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“I had been part of the problem of Islamophobia”: Pastor Danny Cortez On This New Era

By The Editors

…er the election, I reached out to a local imam and was invited to a prayer service. I wanted to show them physically that people of faith, especially those who claim to be Christian, weren’t against them and would stand with them in this climate. When I was invited to come to the mic, I made a confession. I confessed that, in the past, I had been part of the problem of Islamophobia. I had negative attitudes toward them. But then I realized that I’…

An Architect Reimagines the Synagogue as Ark, Shelter, Floating Fortress

By Kathryn Joyce

…ht in many traditions, including Christianity, Buddhism, and the amorphous spirituality of 1960s-era California, is an intermittently observant member of a Reconstructionist Jewish congregation, a branch of Judaism that stresses evolving interpretations of religious tradition. It’s a style of Judaism that Friedman believes lends itself to reassessment and entertaining new ideas, like synagogues without rain shelters. In many ways, the show functi…

More Thoughts on Media Coverage of Liberal Religion

By Sarah Posner

…han the Republican base, and includes a far more significant (and growing) number of unaffiliated voters, avowed secularists (who are both non-believers and religious people) and religious minorities. And because more of those people like the Establishment Clause and would shudder at religiously-directed public policy. Given that the Gun Violence Prevention Sabbath had the support of a variety of faith traditions, it’s a good question to ask why i…

Perception v. Reality of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

By Sarah Posner

…mass is not a political rally. It is actually a religious, very important service, where people come together to receive the body and blood of Christ. The idea that you’re using it as a rally for bishops is implausible to a lot of Catholics.” “We need to burst their [politicians’] bubble,” said the Rev. Carlton Veazey, president of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) and a Baptist minister. “It’s a perception that the bishops c…

Civil Rights and Soul: Memphis 2010

By Lauri Lebo

…hacks and broken-down campers, surviving frequent temperatures of more than 110 degrees without running water and electricity.) But I digress. The final leg of my journey took me to Memphis, a city so filled with rich history (and terrific barbecue) that it would take weeks to properly explore. There I met a man, a sanitation worker, who marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike. Elmore Nickelberry…

RDEpistle: Open Letter to Sean Hannity

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…o problem, anyway), can rant about how disgusting homosexuality is on pages 156 to 157. (Many thanks to your editors for the index.) I would call you a hypocrite, but if you’ve become a true believer, I guess the label no longer applies. I hope you are not too far gone, your conscience too eaten away with greed, to understand the violent and vile object lesson that Mr. Adkisson has provided for us in Tennessee, because it’s a lesson you need to le…

Evidence of Big Bang Discovered!

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…s story has made in the non-science press, at least not yet. Religion News Service noticed the discovery’s implications for the quickness of the origins of the universe. But I’ve seen little else about the human implications of this new snapshot of our human origins. Perhaps people are wary of overhyping, or not understanding the science. Fortunately as a religion writer I am subject to neither restriction. And when you see this video of the infor…

The Theology of Westboro: The “World’s Meanest Church” Is More Than Picket Signs

By Rebecca Barrett-Fox

…g I cut out is nearly as good as Primitive Baptists of the Wiregrass South: 1815 to the Present by John G. Mathis or Predestination: The American Career of a Contentious Doctrine by Peter J. Thuessen, who present these ideas in a way far more engaging that I would have been able to do. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? Characters clearly based on Westboro Baptists show up a lot in our pop culture—in films ranging from I…

Americans Say Religion is “Losing Influence”

By Diane Winston

…big tent approach to coverage of American ir/a/religion. But do the Gallup numbers point to new ways we might be thinking about business as usual? Two findings are striking. First: Gallup reported that although Americans felt religion’s influence was declining, many—75 percent—agreed that more religion would be positive for the country. Not surprisingly, churchgoers were most gung-ho about religion’s beneficial impact. But “over half of those who…

How the Study of Evangelicalism Has Blinded Us to the Problems in Evangelical Culture

By Christopher D. Cantwell

…thought to date, has robbed the concept of both its analytical utility and spiritual vitality, suggesting that it should, for a time, be abandoned. Essays by noted minister Timothy Keller and Global Ambassador of the World Evangelical Alliance Brian C. Stiller, meanwhile, argue that “real” evangelicals in the Bebbingtonian sense need to differentiate themselves from their politicized brethren. But what if the evangelicals who voted for Donald Trum…