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Along Came a Spider: What the Pope Doesn’t See

By Anthea Butler

…rn movie, think again: this is the latest escapade from the Archdiocese of Miami, encapsulated in the headline from the Miami Herald “Ex-Stripper: Priest is my baby’s father—and I want him to pay.” Before I go south and start to write this whole piece with quotes from songs (“That’s Just My Baby Daddy” comes to mind) I am struck with disgust about where the Catholic church, and lately Miami’s Archdiocese in particular, finds itself in matters of c…

Debunking the Myth That Democracy Is “Incompatible” With Islam

By Asma Afsaruddin

…to the people—is therefore not an alien concept within the variegated Islamic milieu. The term—rather than its meaning—itself may be regarded with some skepticism, given its association with what is widely regarded as part of an amoral Western cultural and political onslaught on the non-Western world. More recently, the foolhardy attempt to forcibly impose “democracy” through the barrel of a gun in Iraq and elsewhere under Western military occupa…

After More Mass Shootings It’s Time to Call Out White Supremacy in the Pews

By Peter Laarman

…civilians have more assault rifles in their possession than does the U.S. military. All well and good. But we have too few leaders who will talk about the deeper roots of these things or attempt to explain why American culture is “exceptional”—exceptional in its toxicity, that is. A growing number of truth telling historians are eager to help us discover these deeper roots if we are willing to listen. Here I’m thinking mainly of scholars like Rox…

A Secret History of Satan

By W. Scott Poole

…rica’s historic sense of its own innocence and righteousness, and the concomitant belief that its enemies represent the demonic Other, helps explain our historic obsession with Satan. The book’s examination of the strange byways of American belief about the Devil is really a brief filed against the whole notion of American exceptionalism, the idea that we are somehow exempt from the terror and the moral complexities of history. Is there anything y…

The Quixotic Task of Debunking David Barton

By Paul Harvey

…defender of Truth against those who, according to him, do not believe in any Truths of any sort. It’s a case study, in some ways, of recent depictions of the neuroscience of political differences, and in particular the way “righteous minds” conceive of the world. And it’s a perfect example of the thesis that Randall Stephens and Karl Giberson have outlined in The Anointed—the ways in which evangelical experts have created alternate intellectual…

Pastor Convicted in Lisa Miller Child Kidnapping Case

By Peter Montgomery

…ed any role in or knowledge of her flight from the country. Erik Eckholm’s New York Times coverage of the trial included this information: The prosecutors presented evidence that others had worked with Mr. Miller to help Ms. Miller flee. Chief among those alleged to have taken part was a businessman in Virginia, Philip Zodhiates. Telephone records suggest that Mr. Zodhiates was in touch with Ms. Miller for months and drove her and her daughter to…

‘Murder Among the Mormons,’ Latest True Crime Doc From Netflix, Highlights Issues of Faith, Skepticism, and Authenticity

By Benjamin E. Park

…ofmann, then, will easily fit into this established pattern, the genius criminal whose mind captivates national attention. But for those in the Latter-day Saint community, the Hofmann forgeries and bombings had longer legacies that transcend what they’ll see on the screen. The crisis also raises questions concerning spiritual belief, religious scholarship, and faithful belonging in a modern era. Bolder and bolder forgeries The Church of Jesus Chri…

Are We Entering the End Times for Mainline Seminaries?

By Elesha Coffman

…y degrees, as well as lay ministry certificates. In terms of institutional mission, seminaries that had once existed mainly to train full-time pastors faced reductions in both the number of churches that could support such positions and the number of people eager to take the more challenging, but lower paying, church jobs that remained. Some seminaries shifted their missions to serve the academy or society more broadly, while others trained more p…

Religious Practices on Trial in Arizona: The Problem With “Experts”

By Johnny P. Flynn

…s kinda, sorta how James Ray set up his spiritual Ponzi scheme, right? He knew someone who knew someone who did “Indian sweats” and presto and voilà, Ray is taking people on spiritual retreats at 10K a head and then people start dying. So, experts have to be brought in to figure out what happened. No Indians mind you, just experts. And the truth is, we don’t want to be experts. Why? Because we know there is no such thing as Indians, redskins, warr…

How to Make Nones and Lose Money: Study Shows Cost of Catholic Sex Abuse Scandals

By Kaya Oakes

…cost the church money and participation, but not necessarily faith. For many Millennials and members of Generation X, who make up the largest percentage of the religiously unaffiliated, the sex abuse scandal may or may not be as much of an issue as it was to their parents and grandparents. Christian Smith, who is co-Principal Investigator of the multi-year National Study of Youth and Religion at Notre Dame, says that when teens were polled in 200…