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American Christianity Is Changing Fast: Five Stories to Watch in 2016

By Richard Flory

…uiring rents that the former residents cannot afford. The result is that many of the newer urban churches—and some of those that have a longer history in a particular city—are now congregations of mostly young creative types who live in the vicinity. What will happen when urban hipster churches, like Hillsong, Oasis and RealityLA, come into contact with other churches and urban ministries? (Indeed, do they ever come into contact or do they each ma…

Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife

By Lisa Miller

…nces to heaven as well as history and theology. I spoke to the head of The New Yorker’s cartoon department about cloud-and-angel cartoons; to David Byrne, formerly of Talking Heads, who wrote that great song “Heaven” (“a place where nothing ever happens”); to Albert Brooks, who wrote and directed Defending Your Life. I included references to Marc Chagall, The Simpsons, folk songs, slave spirituals, Monty Python, Michelangelo, Hamlet, Homer, popula…

Haiti and the Push for Theological Questions

By Paula M. Cooey

…ral damage of our own inner struggles; occasions for testing, edifying, forming, and reforming ourselves? No, cultivating our own individual gardens, whether performed atheistically or theologically, is not a sufficient response to my mind. If the Lisbon earthquake has anything to tell us in the face of Haiti here and now, it would have less to do with edification through the contemplation of suffering and more to do with some very practical advic…

Another Manufactured Outrage: Rep. Ilhan Omar Did Nothing Wrong in Listing Hamas, Israel, and U.S. Together

By Joshua Shanes

…nization Truah tweeted last week, “It’s true that both US & Israel have committed war crimes. It’s neither antisemitic nor anti-American to say so (as patriots of both countries do). Her words do not equate the US/Israel w/Hamas/Taliban, which carry out terror attacks against civilians.” https://twitter.com/rabbijilljacobs/status/1402971552895930373 Moreover, Omar gets so much flak for not calling out Hamas and yet when she finally does, she gets…

Holy Father, You’re Not Helping: The Problem with the Pope’s Plan to Consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

By Katherine Kelaidis

…s difficult not to notice that the West—the rich, powerful twin—has seldom missed an opportunity to leverage Eastern Christian misfortune to its own advantage. The Crusades themselves are an excellent example, but Catholic power grabs in places like Ukraine during the 16th century around the fall of Constantinople also demonstrate this problem. Which brings us back to Thursday’s consecration. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, which holds…

The 17th Century Roots of Roy Moore’s Refusal to Concede the Election

By Karen E. Park

…a clear violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment and any number of Supreme Court cases. He was removed again last year for refusing to uphold federal law on same sex marriage, on the grounds that it was in violation of God’s law as found in the Old Testament. Like Winthrop, Moore believes that the Old Testament should order American society, whether Exodus or Leviticus. The ancient Israelites in these societies either adhered,…

Diplomatic Suckerhood: Why Israel Is Fighting Toward its Own Demise

By Ira Chernus

…etrayed the same sense of anxiety about weakness when he complained to the New York Times that with the Obama administration “focusing solely on settlement building and not on what the Arab countries should also be doing for peace, Israel felt that it was being driven to its knees and delivered to the other side.” That’s a bizarre exaggeration. In fact, the administration is also focusing on what the Arab countries should be doing: moving toward n…

‘Pro-Life’ Theater, Open White Nationalism, and Virility Fear — Day 3 of NatCon

By Annika Brockschmidt and Ben Lorber

…media loves a death watch!”) to distract from the fact that there wasn’t anything new in his speech. And it worked—he got the second standing ovation of the day, after Azzerad. ‘Blood and Bones’ Vance ended not with blood and soil, but a version of it—“blood and bones”—claiming that he wants to ensure that his children will be buried in the cemetery in Kentucky, near the land owned by his ancestors. It was a deeply strange sentiment for a politic…

Death With Dignity: Combatting Religious Opposition to Physician-Assisted Suicide

By Krista Kapralos

…hts. The Roman Catholic Church leads the fight against the practice, and many major denominations are following. Even now, months after physician-assisted death became legal in Washington State, patients have trouble finding doctors who will write them a prescription for lethal drugs. A central Washington man diagnosed with pancreatic cancer asked his doctors for the drugs, but not one would approve his request. Stephen Wallace died on April 8, af…

U.S. Bishops Reject Pope Francis’ Priorities

By Patricia Miller

…r Francis pick, Bridgeport, CT, Bishop Frank Caggiano, for chair of the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, which is responsible for promoting the church’s teaching regarding hot-button issues like family and contraception (or the lack thereof). Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield was elected as the conference’s new general secretary. NCR’s Winters, who has been an outspoken critic of the increasingly culture-warrior posture of the USCCB st…