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What American Flag-Worship Looks Like to a New Citizen

By Rosalind C. Hughes

…Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, ‘I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.’, should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. After an item has been blessed in divine service – palm leaves, linens used to dress or to wipe up at the altar, a metal chalice – and has rea…

Trump Floated Dastardly Deal With Erdogan

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…in Salman, who, according to the CIA, ordered the murder of Khashoggi. The United States should be doing everything it can to distance itself from Salman and his autocratic Saudi regime, not get him off the hook—especially not through a deal that amounts to nothing more than human trafficking. In a 2017 interview with Fethullah Gulen for Religion Dispatches, I observed that he appeared to be what he said he was, a spiritual leader for a movement o…

Next Up: A Pope of Color?

By Kate Childs Graham

…Peter…[Obama’s election] is a great step for humanity, a sign that in the United States the issue of race and the problem of discrimination have been overcome…The Church has also made impressive advances…[The election of a black pope] is certainly possible. Thanks to the wisdom of the cardinals, that could happen at the next conclave. Is Archbishop Gregory on to something? Back in 2005, during the last conclave, there was quite a buzz about the p…

The Kids Are All Wrong: Texas Tosses The Enlightenment

By Burke Gerstenschlager

…d States as a whole, whether the majority of the citizens of Texas (or the United States) believe this narrative or not. On the day of the final vote, board member Cynthia Dunbar, opening the meeting in prayer, said as much when she prayed: “I like to believe we are living today in the spirit of the Christian religion. I like also to believe that as long as we do so, no great harm can come to our country.” Dunbar was quite clear: only our citizens…

Sometimes, Sides Must be Taken: Obama and Lincoln

By Michael A. Elliott

…he-secular-creed during this last week, the bicentennial of his birth. The United States may need a reenactment of the New Deal, but America is also in a moment of Lincoln-mania cultivated, with great skill, by our president. I’m still working my way through all of the Obama-Lincoln articles in the popular media—and I am waiting for the scholarly presses to begin churning out articles and books on the phenomenon. If only I had been prescient enoug…

A Tea Party Leader Hates Christians

By Sarah Posner

…as “little more than the first Church of Karl Marx,” was incensed that the United Methodist Building (known to locals as “the God box”) on Capitol Hill had a sign supporting the DREAM Act. (h/t Religion News Service). “After all,” Phillips adds, “what can you say about a church that considers Hillary Clinton to be a member in good standing?” Phillips goes on to call the church “the religious arm of socialism” because it supports “illegal immigrati…

The Faith-Based Militia: When is Terrorism ‘Christian’?

By Frederick Clarkson

…istianity—that fairly describes the majority of religious believers in the United States, for all of their extraordinary diversity. That said, regarding diversity among Christians in the U.S., we have no central ecclesiastical authority to define who and what is and is not Christian. Lacking common definitions can affect our responses to the likes of Clayton Waagner, Scott Roeder, and the Hutaree. For example, liberal Washington Post columnist Eug…

The Black Church: Institution or Abstraction?

By Anthony B. Pinn

…even mentioned the roughly three million African American Catholics in the United States. Nor, have I given any space to the African-based traditions such as Voodoo, Ifa, and Santería–to name only a few–that claim the attention and adherence of many African Americans. And what about the three million African Americans who have embraced Sunni Islam? Do you get my point? Much of this nuance, these differences, are lost in sound bites and news report…

Meet the Christian Reconstructionists Behind the Latest Birther Theory

By Sarah Posner

…he doesn’t meet the natural born citizen requirement for president of the United States. Peroutka chimed in: “all the debate that’s been about where he was born doesn’t matter. The point is, who’s your daddy, and your mommy, that’s where your loyalty is. . . . His father — he’s not eligible to be president of the United States.” Afterwards, Lofton provided me with a recording of an interview he did with Titus late last month, in which Titus laid…

The Quiet Passing of Fundamentalist Mormon Prophet Lynn A. Thompson Suggests Polygamy Recognition Remains a Distant Hope

By Cristina Rosetti

…o continued the controversial marital practice. According to the Apostolic United Brethren, they were charged with continuing the “fundamentals” of the faith—namely polygamy—after the LDS Church essentially brought an end to the practice in 1904. Over the past two years, the legal and criminal status of polygamy in the US has once again been at the center of public attention. At the start of the 2020 Utah legislative session, Senator Deidre Hender…