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The Right Wing Bible and the Politics of Impotence

By Christopher B. Hays

…and Chua’s exhortations. What Chua’s philosophy boiled down to is: Be the best, kick all those lazy kids’ butts. But if winning itself is not enough motivation (if the answer to life is not being honored by playing Carnegie Hall and getting the high-paying, prestigious job), it’s not clear what sort of motivation there would be. Similarly, if you’re not innately inspired to want to kick China’s butt, if you ask why?, you are likely to be met with…

What Religion Looks Like, Wisconsin Edition

By Kim Bobo

…e importance of balancing our state budget while continuing to provide the best services possible to our citizens. But because of my belief that far more is accomplished for the best interests of all those we serve when employers and employees work together, I am writing to ask you to reconsider your initiative which I believe would end the possibility for those who are government employees here in Wisconsin to negotiate settlement of labor and ma…

Dreaming Beyond the Madman: Reflections on the Revolution in Libya

By Haroon Moghul

…er, Mu’ammar Qaddafi, who furthermore picks representatives for his regime best able to mimic his clownish rambling, absurdity, irrelevance, and stupidity. I have always felt terribly bad for Libyans, who must not only be represented nationally and internationally by a dictator, but by probably the craziest of them all. Qaddafi is protected by an all-female force of bodyguards. He seems to be unusually attached to a “voluptuous” Ukrainian nurse. H…

Eddie Izzard on Atheism, Transgender, and “The Invisible Bloke Upstairs”

By Becky Garrison

…sbian were back in the 1950s. How I’m looking is me trying to work out the best way of getting everything I’m trying to get in this life because there could be another one, but at the moment I’m only banking on this life. I don’t believe in the invisible bloke upstairs. I heard you came out as an atheist during your Stripped tour. I was an agnostic for a long time just in case He came down—the End of Days, here it is, Rapture time! And I would h…

God’s Obituary: A Humanist Response to Mass Murder

By Anthony B. Pinn

…ble language to capture or explain. Sometimes it is in silence that we are best able to eulogize our collective loss, and to mourn our lack of power over the circumstances that lead to such destruction. To be sure, there were calls in the days after December 14 for this deep and meaningful silence. But what bothered me were the attempts to find space for a loving God in the context of this misery. I don’t mean the ridiculous and easily dismissed…

Vigil Planned in Wake of Suicide by 17-Year-Old
Gay Mormon

By Joanna Brooks

…After his death, students at his Ogden-area high school wore their Sunday best to school to remember him. A local United Church of Christ is donating the candles for the vigil. Organizer Marian Edmonds, pastor of City of Hope Church in Salt Lake City and organizer of the OUTReach resource center in Ogden, will staff a table at the event to recruit mentors to help work with LGBT young people to prevent suicide. And Mormons are volunteering to spe…

Thank You, Satanists

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…ect to my will alone. I make any decision regarding my health based on the best scientific understanding of the world, even if the science does not comport with the religious or political beliefs of others. My inviolable body includes any fetal or embryonic tissue I carry so long as that tissue is unable to survive outside my body as an independent human being. I, and I alone, decide whether my inviolable body remains pregnant and I may, in good c…

Muslim Brotherhood: Protect Churches; Mufti Exempts Egyptians from Friday Prayer

By H.A. Hellyer

…reports that at least on Thursday night, the protestors were fairly few in number in comparison to before. No one really knows what will happen tomorrow. There is all sorts of speculation going on at the moment—to the point where people are suggesting that actually, the army might attempt a coup. Where they have evidence for this is anyone’s best guess—but it reveals the amount of confusion the people have about the situation. And it’s only increa…

My Childhood Hobby Was Satanic, Or So They Told Me

By Joseph Laycock

…re beset at every turn by demonic forces and evil conspiracies. Despite my best intentions, some people may find these ideas offensive and feel that either their religion or their hobby has been slighted. But I think most readers will find this book interesting and thought provoking. What alternative title would you give the book? For a while my working title was “What The Moral Panic Over Role-Playing Games Says About Religion and Other Imagined…

The Hyperreal Kimmy Schmidt

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…dreds of years old.) Does his optimism, cheerfulness, and desire to do his best belong to a lost past as well—along with Kimmy’s cassette tapes, the 90s, Indiana, Georgia, scrunchies, and preachers named Gary? In The Future of Nostalgia Svetlana Boym discusses the remarkable etymology of the word “nostalgia.” It looks like it might be an ancient Greek concept, since the root words are Greek: nostos, meaning “return home;” and algos, or “longing.”…