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What the Hell is Wrong With Us? A Muslim Response to America’s Failure to Change

By Haroon Moghul

…ur piety, our Creator and place in creation. But what bothers me even more about such incredibly juvenile, embarrassingly uninformed opinions about Islam is how even more ridiculous they become upon any measure of reflection. It is a core Muslim belief that Islam is meant to be universal; namely, that the message of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, is meant to be relevant to all people and all places, up to and until the end of our species…

How Do We Talk About Islam After Charlie Hebdo?

By Asma Afsaruddin

…ng a human life is of the highest priority in Islamic ethics; of course we know that Islam does not condone attacks upon civilians; and of course we know that Muslim jurists deemed such attacks in Arabic hiraba (terrorism). Sometimes our statements are met with skepticism; we’re accused by Islamophobic pundits of being apologists not only for Islam but, worse, for terrorism. And these days it’s getting harder and harder to get these facts across b…

Why All the Silly Devil Talk Should be Taken Seriously

By Ebony Utley

…ce. For black men, it’s a different story. The latent racism is further perpetuated by a lack of contemporary exposés about white men who invite affiliations with evil. Eminem’s “My Darling” is a conversation with the devil, yet neither Vigilant nor Ponce have written about him. Hip hop’s quintessential model of white-boy angst is simply “frustrated,” whereas African Americans are demonic. Adam Lambert is the only white male artist maligned by som…

The Mormon Version of Infallibility

By Holly Welker

…uring his tenure as a general authority. (Raise your hand: how many of you know someone for whom the last straw, the thing that finally got them to stop going to church, was Packer’s October 2010 Conference talk about how homosexuality is not an “inborn tendency”—changed in the reprint of the talk to “temptation”—but an “impure and unnatural” choice that can be overcome, because God would never curse someone with homosexuality?) The honesty, humil…

“Can You Tell Me Who The Villains Are?”: Rock and Religion, Irish-Style

By Lisa Bitel

…ar from small town eyes she floats Across the Irish Sea She’s the girl you know from down the road She’s your one from out the other side… She’s wondering what they’re thinking Do they know what’s going on? She feels examined by their eyes Is she right or is she wrong? She’s got a number in her pocket And one change of clothes Her innocence is fading Like last years winter snow’s Light a candle in the window So she can see it from the road With al…

Paranormal Vodka, Exorcists and a Demonic Doll: Welcome to Paracon, Based on the Work of the Demon-Hunters Who Inspired the ‘Conjuring’ Series

By Eric Harrelson and Joseph P. Laycock

…n eclectic group of vendors hocks their wares, from Ouija boards and books about ghost hunting to bath bombs shaped like horror movie icons. There are psychics, Tarot card readers, a shaman reading bones, and a ghost-hunting professional wrestler, right alongside various exorcists, including a self-proclaimed archbishop and a reiki-practicing nun. Any and all spiritual beliefs seem to be welcome, even though Ed Warren constantly warns about the da…

8: The Mormon Proposition Gets It Right

By Joanna Brooks

…disinterest or disbelief, or a consistent underestimation of Mormon organizational capacity and discipline. Well-meaning, politically savvy, liberal friends took one look at my wild, puffy eyes during fall 2008 and would say—trying to be comforting—“I know, I know, the evangelicals are at it too” or “don’t worry, there just aren’t that many of you Mormons in California.” Ignorance. It is precisely this kind of insularity and ignorance that a…

Seeking Jobs, Beach Clean Up Workers Come From All Walks of Life

By Lauri Lebo

…like we sound today.” But if you ask them what they are, they really don’t know. And they’re fine with that. They don’t know where they will be spiritually in a year, but they don’t seem very much preoccupied by it. Today, their spirituality comes from the Tao Te Ching. They are dedicated to shedding their possessions. Kumrits lives year round in a camper. The two men are constantly challenging each other to make do with less. I’m fascinated by th…

What the National Council of Churches Should Say About Financial Reform

By Daniel Schultz

…hat that meant off the top of their heads. But average Americans damn sure know that their wages have been stagnant, the price of health care continues to go through the roof, they can’t afford to send their kids to college, those kids can’t afford to move out of the house, and they have been screwed by corporate greedheads on Wall Street again and again. So if you’re going to start a campaign to end poverty, please, pretty please, use a hook that…

Will the Religious Side with Workers?

By Peter Laarman

…lity is that most Protestants share this anxiety and share an apprehension about throwing in with their workplace comrades to make things better. Nowhere more so than in these United States. There is also some status anxiety at play, and it too has deep historical and sociological roots. Which is to say, the more that Catholic leaders like New York’s legendary John Cardinal Hughes (“Dagger John”) would side with immigrant workers and with unions,…