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Muslims Wearing Things, Tea Party Chastised on Nazi Talk, and Politicking in Church

By Michael J. Altman

…ters gathered outside and prayed. A school board member in Tennessee said that if students don’t want to hear prayers over the loudspeaker at football games they can “put their fingers in their ears.” The schools have since put a halt to pre-game prayers. Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell says prayer had a direct role in spiking her polling numbers. Can meditation change your brain? The best response to Juan Williams’ fear of Muslims in “garb”…

A desolate road in Israel lined with security fencing.

Decadence, Sickness, and Death: Mourning and the Israel-Hamas War

By Shaul Magid

…have released all the restraints [on soldiers entering Gaza],” I wondered what that could mean. Executions? Liquidation of civilian homes? No one yet knows the full extent. But we will. That’s what survivalism produces. So both sides claim they’re fighting for survival; not victory, not deterrence, not even security, but survival. A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a sick civilization. Shooting and crying…

Two Wars and No Peace in Sight: The Role of Faith-Based Pacifism

By Richard Ricketts

…enerally, peacemaking is a far more complex and multifaceted process than that. What about the idea that violence is inherent in human nature? I think that a lot of people believe that all human and animal life is driven by the survival of the fittest. Many people assume that we are innately aggressive and thus nonviolence is against our nature. But if that were true, why would we have to send soldiers to boot camp? Boot camp is designed to teach…

Conservative Christianity and Its Discontents

By Karl Giberson and Randall J. Stephens

…within evangelicalism, like the prominent Texas Republican, David Barton, promote the idea that America is slouching toward Gomorrah. America is God’s chosen republic, Barton asserts: the nation has been an explicitly Christian country from its earliest days and needs to reverse its sinful migration away from its biblical roots. Professional historians, by contrast (including leading evangelicals like Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, and George Marsden)…

“Make The Mass Latin Again”: The Pope Francis Backlash Comes Home

By Kaya Oakes

…e parishes, then appeared to flatline. Dreher says the risk is similar to that of American Orthodox churches, and that Latin Mass has become a “boutique niche.” For right now, however, Latin Mass has become one more chess piece in the war for Catholic cultural identity in America. On the one side, Pope Francis is making his moves, elevating bishops like Cupich and Tobin, keeping an eye on the “rigid” and “defensive” Catholics calling for a return…

Hajj Journal: Using the Toilet at the Grand Mosque

By Amina Wadud

…o I made my way out and retraced my steps back to my spot. Well, at least that is what I needed to do—but this is where those instructions on how to keep yourself sane would have been useful. Try to place yourself somewhere and note with markers where you are so you can retrace your steps. The mosque is gigantic, full of beautiful and elaborate designs, with an immense number of repetitions to them. The stairs and the escalators are deceiving, tak…

Bishops’ Attempt to Deny Communion to Biden Will Backfire Even More Spectacularly Than Opposition to Same-Sex Marriage

By Mary E. Hunt

…its alike is the notion that all Catholics are sinners. The dubious logic that follows is that all are equally unworthy to receive communion. Conservatives would say that some are a little more unworthy than others. They sniff piously and say we should all shiver in our shoes as we approach the altar. Please, my Irish grandmother…where do they get these notions? Communion is not a litmus test of orthodoxy nor a prize for theological correctness. I…

Rebooting the Universe: Doctor Who part X, Season Finale

By Gabriel Mckee

…same time, we put our past together. And it is precisely because of this that what we recall cannot always be relied on for accuracy. This is relevant to religion in numerous ways. One of the subjects I study is the historical figure of Jesus. I have encountered with surprising frequency the fringe viewpoint which claims that Jesus is unlikely to have really existed, having been concocted from earlier myths and stories (although why anyone would…

God or Gay, No Need to Choose Sides

By Jay Michaelson

…en, in the context of idolatry or lewdness—and only in those contexts. 2. That whatever the prohibition is, it’s central to religion. It isn’t. The “sin” in Leviticus is the same as eating a shrimp cocktail. Jesus never mentions homosexuality at all. It’s not in the ten commandments. It’s marginal, and of marginal concern. 3. That the “sin of Sodom” is homosexuality. It isn’t. It’s greed, cruelty, and inhospitality (Ezekiel 16:49-50, Jeremiah 23:1…

TD Jakes Pushes for Rehab of Prisoners

By Jonathan L. Walton

…peated reincarcerations. Jakes is quoted in the Associated Press saying that, “I think we have written off ex-offenders to a degree that we [Texas] have one of the highest recidivism rates in the nation. We’ve had to spend all our money building walls around our homes (to feel safe). Pretty soon you have to ask yourself, who is really being incarcerated?” Though the national unemployment rate is at 10% (double this for African American males),…