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Right Wing Suspicion of Experts is Martin Luther’s Fault

By Jonathan Malesic

…Gospel of Mark and Paul’s letter to the Galatians, don’t even mention the virgin birth.” Kristof is no theologian, but he doesn’t see why he has to accept this particular Christian teaching. If a smart, well-intentioned person reading the bible doesn’t come away from it convinced of the virgin birth, then what’s the problem? In trusting his own reading of scripture ahead of what centuries of theological experts have maintained, Kristof makes the…

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph: The Disgusting Religious Defense of Roy Moore

By Daniel Schultz

…t to be crucial. Not doing the nasty, so to speak, was only one element of virginity in the ancient world. As Elizabeth Johnson argues in Truly Our Sister, virgins weren’t so much people who avoided the contamination of sexuality as those who gave up their desire in order to maintain a single-minded focus on serving God. It’s only later, as the monastic emphasis on rigorous purity sets in, that virgins became those who have never taken part in vag…

Amid Growing Legitimacy Challenges from its Right and Left, Vatican Seizes Control of the Supernatural — to Prevent ‘Abuses’

By Emma Cieslik

…itual one. The decision is worth millions of dollars, as Marian apparition sites in Lourdes, Fatima, and Guadalupe draw pilgrims each year, and Sedevancantist communities spread (taking their tithe money with them). These rulings even ripple down to jewelry companies like Awe Inspired whose Virgin Mary jewelry could be considered invalid by the Church. At a recent press conference, head of the Dicastery, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, argued fo…

A Muslim Reflects on Christian Theologian (and UCLA Coach) John Wooden

By Amir Hussain

…er of the amazing things about him. He was approachable, answering his own phone and mail, meeting with complete nobodies like me. I thanked him for the basketball lessons that I had learned from him, but more importantly for the life lessons. His beloved wife Nellie had passed away in 1985 after 53 years of marriage, and my wife had died suddenly in 1992. Coach gave me a powerful model for dealing with that loss, a reminder that those we loved we…

Pentecostal Prayer Gangs: New Film Documents Religion in a Brazilian Prison

By Nick Street

…es would talk to me and let me do interviews. There were times when I made phone calls to inmates’ family members to let then know that visiting times had changed, to save them a long trip to the prison. I also visited the families of inmates with pastors and other volunteers to bring food, sometimes a gift a child’s dad had made. I basically become part of the lives of the people whose lives I wanted to document. How did a project you undertook f…

Too Hot for Shul: Rabbis Seek Healthy Israel Dialogue After Gaza

By Sarah Posner

…e for Peace, on whose Rabbinical Council he serves. (Compared to J Street’s 800-plus-member Rabbinic Cabinet, JVP’s two-year-old Rabbinic Council has just 50.) Rosen told me he was not forced out, but that his decision to step down was driven by “stress between individual congregants and me,” and was made “for my congregation’s well-being and my own well-being.” Rosen described Israel’s 2009 war in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, as the “breaking point…

Teaching Love: Soulforce Takes it to the Quad

By Nick Street

…w dozen yards of the riders and take pictures of the scene with their cell phone cameras. Traffic on College Avenue begins to pick up. “You’re protesting God!” a motorist hollers when he catches sight of one of the Soulforce banners. Finally a slender young man wearing a “CBC Soccer” jacket ventures all the way to the sidewalk. “I just kind of want to show them I care,” says Jonathan Jacobs, a junior at the college. Jacobs, whose family moved to C…

Why I Wrote the Freedom Seder And Why It’s Still Necessary 50 Years After Dr. King’s Assassination

By Arthur Waskow

…tian radical A. J. Muste calling Moses the organizer of “Brickmakers Union Number 1” and a pacifist Russian rabbi named Tamaret—wove them all into a new Telling of the tale of freedom. In that Telling, the then ongoing, even now unfinished, struggle of Black America for freedom was interwoven with the ancient story of the Israelites’ struggle to end their slavery under Pharaoh. Where the old Haggadah had what seemed to me a silly argument about ho…

The Belly of the Beast: NYC’s Shiny New Transit Hub Is All Wrong for the 9/11 Site

By Carolyn Bratnober

…ying day all the unsuspecting people in those towers were attacked—and the number of New York’s finest who lost their lives helping people to safety. This is a city that values sticking up for one another. We don’t look back on 9/11 with fond nostalgia for our financial monoliths; we remember the pain, the courage in the face of it, and how everyone came together. If a retired cop or fireman who was injured on 9/11 has to use a back-alley freight…

“Marriage Savers” Lobbies for Repeal of No-Fault Divorce

By Kathryn Joyce

…ls who hold responsibility for the dissolution of their marriages. The Web site lays out a plan of five groups of people who could be mobilized to fight for more stringent divorce laws, including adult children of divorced parents or of unmarried parents, family members of divorced couples, the 80% of divorcees Marriage Savers considers “victims of divorce,” and also the officials, social service workers, judges, and lawmakers who work with divorc…