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This Halloween, Think of Islam as a Religion of Pieces. Reese’s Pieces.

By Haroon Moghul

…ou (hint: promise candy), and act as if they’re all yours. Remember: large numbers of Muslims walking through bucolic scenery is especially reassuring to Hungarians. Incidentally, if you try to order a TSA uniform and your name is, say, Muhammad, the least of your problems will not be flying again. Actually, many of these ideas could end badly. For you. So think twice. Stop, drop and Tootsie Roll.™ Hooded young men with candy, after all, push arme…

The Religious Right: Still Not Dead

By Frederick Clarkson

…n the antiabortion PAC Susan B. Anthony’s List issued an anybody-but-Trump Open Letter before the Iowa caucus, they didn’t endorse a candidate, they simply urged people to find someone else. Similarly, neo-conservative Catholic leaders Robert P. George and George Weigel’s call to arms simply urges fellow Catholics to pick any other Republican. As with any other religious or political movement Christian Right unity is often aspirational. CNN’s Dani…

American Horror Story: Hotel and Monotheism’s Dirty Little Secrets

By W. Scott Poole

…s note of this season’s bloody massacre of religious iconography. Even the opening credits, always a work of terrifying art in and of themselves, intersperses ghoulish images of restless, hungry and sexualized death with brief flashes of the Ten Commandments. Then there are the monsters themselves—or, at least, the monsters we’ve met so far. Season five might become known as the “vampire season” of AHS, so it makes sense that religion plays such a…

Israel-Hamas is Not a Religious War and This is Not Your Rapture

By Thomas Lecaque

…eptable for pastors and politicians to voice it in the most aggressive and open way possible. One of the more prominent right-wing pastors in the movement, Pastor John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, has a history of inflammatory statements on multiple topics. In a 2006 NPR interview with Terry Gross, he said, “those who live by the Koran have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews.” That rhetoric continues, both from Hagee,…

Conservative Bishops Headed For Synod Victory?; Indonesian Sharia Official Says Gay Caning Law Meant To ‘Safeguard Human Dignity’; Slovenian Court OK’s Referendum on Marriage Equality Law; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…s focused on shoring up doctrine, and those who want the church to be more open to Catholics who are divorced, gay, single parents or cohabiting. As the bishops face a deadline Saturday to present their report to the pope, it is increasingly clear that Francis is struggling to build consensus for his vision of a more inclusive and decentralized church. The question is whether the pope, who has won the hearts of those in the pews, can persuade the…

(Ex-)Ex-Gay Activist Alan Chambers On His Prop 8 Epiphany and the Downfall of Christianity and Evangelicalism

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…d news. The rest of it is just advice. What does your future hold? We have open hands. It’s uncomfortable not knowing what’s next but we feel like there’s nothing tying us anywhere and we have this ability to move on. We want there to be something next but we want it to be on purpose. Whether we get to do something related to activism for a living or if that’s just in our spare time, we’ll see. Do you want to be more of an LGBT ally or have a mini…

Still from the set of “The Exorcist: Believer" shows six people surrounding a bound, possessed girl all attempting to exorcise the demon.

Ecumenical ‘Exorcist’ Sequel Reflects Profound Cultural Changes Since the Catholic Original

By Joseph Laycock

…t again. This may be why it’s virtually a requirement that exorcism movies open with a scene in Iraq, Africa, or some place where Westerners imagine there’s a more direct connection to the spirit world. This idea can be found in theologian Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy (1917). Like Green’s film, Otto suggested there was some shared phenomenological reality buried behind the doctrines of different religions and that it could still be encounter…

Conservative Cardinals’ Controversial Letter Cites Church Appeal

By Patricia Miller

…allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion. A similar number were in favor of allowing cohabitating couples to receive communion. This isn’t surprising as one-quarter of all Catholics are divorced and 44% have cohabitated at some point. It’s true that the numbers among Catholics who attend church weekly are lower, 42% and 46%, respectively, but this just demonstrates how many people who still call themselves Catholic have been…

If Modesto’s Public Schools Can Teach World Religions, It Can Happen Anywhere

By Jonathan Homrighausen

…ious and political temperament. The Modesto I grew up in was not a city of open-minded religious pluralism. Modesto is the city where, as a teen, I was invited by a friend to a service at his church. It turned out to be a performance of “Heaven’s Gates, Hell’s Flames,” a dramatization of the final moments of peoples’ deaths. The play vividly promised eternal hellfire for those who had not given their heart to Christ. My fourteen-year-old self want…

Is Marriage Equality the New “Scopes” Moment? Sort of…

By Chrissy Stroop

…though whether and when they may be able to regain it this time around is open to question. And indeed, amid efforts to hold the line on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ affirmation, there are more and more voices suggesting that Evangelical influence is on the wane. Recent comments by Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, suggest that Evangelicals may be headed toward a tactical retreat…