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2011’s Best Books—
Or Just a Great Reading List

By Haroon Moghul

…d something we want to dismiss out of hand. 4. Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World by Michael Lewis W.W. Norton & Company Hand it to Lewis for making sense of the financial crisis through short, invariably captivating essays, each devoted to places like Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, and the United States. His descriptions of how the crisis unfolded differently in different places are powerful, easily digestible, and deeply aggravating…

Israel’s New President and Intolerant Judaism

By Sarah Posner

…rabbi, and called on Rivlin to address the idol worship comments. In the Jerusalem Post, a Rivlin defender came rather lamely to his defense: A source close to Rivlin responded that he “has always received Rabbi Yoffie respectfully and will continue to have a wonderful relationship with Diaspora Jews.” The day after Rivlin was elected, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the current president of the URJ, penned an open letter congratulating him, adding: I would be…

When the ‘Biblical View’ for Evangelicals Was That Life Begins at Birth

By Jonathan Dudley

…wish Publication Society (1985), Complete Jewish Bible (1981), and Koren Jerusalem Bible (2008). And Catholic Bibles, despite official teaching from the Church that there is a right to life from the moment of conception, continued to translate the passage in the traditional way: “miscarriage” or “miscarry” (New Jerusalem Bible, 1985; New American Bible Revised Standard Edition, 2011). The novel translation of Exodus 21:22-23 allowed the founders o…

Pope: Heterosexual Marriage “Makes Europe Europe”

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…virtues…” That was the message the Pope chose to present to a significant New World partner. But just one day before, the Pope’s message to a stalwart region of Eastern Europe and a relatively new member of the European Union was more pugnacious. In it, Benedict XVI explicitly appealed to the increasingly embattled concept of a European identity. Marriage and the family constitute a decisive foundation for the healthy development of civil society…

New Report Shows Dems are Far More Religiously Diverse Than GOP — Though One (A)religious Group Remains Woefully Underrepresented

By Chrissy Stroop

…cing the nonreligious demographic with voter outreach and encouragement to run for office, the Democrats could motivate the crucial, and increasingly nonreligious, youth vote while eroding the Christian privilege that enables Christian nationalists. Younger Americans are losing faith in faith for very good reasons, and in recent cycles, they’ve been showing up to vote—and vote for Democrats—in significantly larger numbers than they have in the pas…

The Episcopal Church ‘Takes a Flying Leap’ into Controversies Old and New

By Elizabeth Drescher

…Church. We just believed this was important in reflecting not only our own lives but also the lives of people who had gone before us in creating the non-discrimination canon. We didn’t want any of that language to go away.” Splitting Nuptial Hairs or Splintering the Church? The liturgy for the blessing of same-gender relationships approved at General Convention represents a significant step forward on a matter that has much defined the Episcopal C…

Despite Reversal on Hillary and Hellen Keller, ‘Christian Americanist’ Bias Remains in Texas Curriculum

By David R. Brockman

…the 2010 world history TEKS mentioned Christianity (and related terms) 14 times, far more than any other world religion. After the board finished amending the streamlined TEKS this month, the number of Christian references stands at 11, though Hinduism is mentioned only twice, while Buddhism, Confucianism, and Sikhism receive only one mention apiece. And the revised standards still require students to learn about Christianity’s major divisions (C…

Dispatches From the Site of a Massacre

By Haroon Moghul

…rdoing the offspring of that “interruption” was long since overdue. Choice Words From a Post-Ottoman World So I’ll be in Bosnia for the anniversary of the Srebrenican genocide. I have no idea what I’ll find or what I’ll feel. I have no idea how visiting Srebrenica, coming upon the war memorial and praying for the thousands of deceased, might affect me. That’s why I want to share my immediate, unpolished dispatches from all the places my travels w…

Praying to the Zombie Jesus: The Spirituality of Horror

By W. Scott Poole

…ck of faith that pre-dates the zombie pandemic. Both ask for miracles in a world ruled by monsters. This Is My Body Some horror newbies, drawn in by the excellent storytelling and character development that AMC is justly famous for, might be surprised to see religious symbolism and themes making an appearance in a gruesome tale of rotting, flesh-eating zombies. They shouldn’t be. In fact, the undying and undead popularity of the zombie genre has c…

5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Overthink the New Pew Data’s Impact on Politics

By Sarah Posner

…e of the nones is partly a result of disaffection with mixing religion and politics, indicating a possible mitigating effect. That will likely drive divergent trends of mixing religion and politics among Republicans and Democrats. 3. Keep in mind that, politically speaking, evangelicals, and in particular white evangelicals, have been highly politically organized for decades. As the sociologist Lydia Bean documents in her book, The Politics of Eva…