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Fox Makes Mockery Of Promise To Rein In Beck’s Anti-Semitism

By Sarah Posner

…ized him as an atheist, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, communism-promoting, one-world order-creating, evil mastermind of the progressive movement (even though he himself is a foe of communism and anti-Semitism). He’s wealthy; he’s a philanthropist for justice causes; he’s a Jew; he’s therefore the scapegoat, whether conservatives invoke tropes about wealthy Jews or their secret control of money or an imaginary one-world order; or as Beck put it, a “sh…

Catholic Church Ordained Women Before, Can Do it Again

By Phyllis Zagano

…to be the same fears and misconceptions. Honestly, the trajectory of deacon-priest-bishop is relatively recent—only about 700 or 800 years in the long history of the Church. In fact, the earlier understanding is that the deacon would become a bishop! I sometimes wonder if the naysayers are more afraid of women bishops than of women priests. But, in modern times, we have reestablished the tradition of a diaconate lived permanently. All priests are…

Policing Academic Freedom: A Book, a Controversy, and the Ominous Aftermath

By Michael Jerryson

…ization with around 8,000 members, is dismayed by Penguin Books India’s out-of-court settlement in which it has agreed to withdraw and destroy all copies of Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: An Alternative History. This decision undermines freedom of expression and academic freedom, both of which are the foundations of serious scholarship. That Penguin India has made this decision absent a court decision and under pressure from an advocacy group is…

My God, David Brooks

By John Modern

…s. All those mundane moments that enable us to better situate ourselves vis-à-vis this thing out there called religion. Taylor does not appreciate the Leviathanism that is the most apt description of the world we are currently living in. This is the secular age with its endless horizon of pixels and pundits and calls to liberation and fullness and health to which we all inevitably race to bow down. To be clear, such Leviathanism does not merely si…

Boy Scout “Perversion Files” Raise Questions about Abuse in Mormon Contexts

By Joanna Brooks

…me victims and accusers. In 1995, the Church established stronger guidelines and new protocols for reporting abuse, including a 1-800 number for local clergy. …

The Radical Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Left’s Challenge Today

By Peter Laarman

…radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered… America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is…

Covering Religion in The New Year: The Atheist Bus And More

By Diane Winston

…what and why will individual and corporate religious commitments shift vis-à-vis social concerns, political issues, and moral stands when less really is less—and more is not an option. I wonder, too, who will be smiling (more or less) when the smoke clears from Gaza. As important as covering who’s winning and why, Americans need reporting on how religious communities here—be they Jewish, Muslim or Christian—respond when religious entanglements be…

Prosperity Gospel Is Not the Only Problem with Joel Osteen’s Harvey Response

By Brie Loskota and Peter Gudaitis

…ts hard, people often turn to religion and spirituality. To not have a call-to-action or guidance makes the whole operation feel morally bankrupt. Accurate or not, any action the church takes now looks like Osteen’s attempt to save face rather than moral leadership and conviction in the face of a crisis. Despite its size and public image, Lakewood Church is not all that unique. Unleveraged assets exist within congregations of all faith traditions…

Trump is Helping the Economy… The Apocalypse Economy

By Jonathan Root

…ents an illustrative extreme—the reductio ad absurdum of America’s politics-as-entertainment culture, and the extraordinary fulfillment of all the ways that faith, apocalypticism, and the politics of fear can combine to help someone raise cash. Bakker has always had a nose for spectacle. In 1977, he started the PTL Satellite Network, making him one of the first religious leaders to recognize the potential of satellite TV. Then, using his fame and…

Are Atheists Taking 1st Amendment Suits Too Far?

By Gordon Haber

…(FFRF) is a group of “atheists, agnostics and skeptics” with a Scientology-esque fondness for litigation. Recently the FFRF has gone after the so-called “parsonage exemption,” which allows clergy to forego paying taxes on income used for housing. Last year the FFRF sued the IRS, claiming that the exemption privileges clergy over laypersons and is thus unconstitutional. The exemption was created to help smaller churches that can’t afford to build…