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Argue-by-Number: A Suggestion for the Church

By Mark D. Jordan

…d homosexuality in so many American churches? Why do we rehearse arguments most anyone active in church has already heard dozens of time? Why do we behave like prisoners? I don’t think that long-term veterans of church debates have much hope that undecided people will be persuaded by the repetition. Most of us know that persuasion happens in other, more private ways. It happens, for example, when someone close to you—a child, a sibling, a parent—d…

Why The Book of Mormon (the Musical) is Awesomely Lame

By Jared Farmer

…er to send text-messages—is simply groundless. East Africans are among the most adept users of cell phones in the world. The plot twists at the end raise questions about the racial politics of the show. Only a threat of American violence saves the villagers from the tyranny of the local warlord. Only the ingenuity of the white men provides Africans a useful religion. The dewy-eyed boys from Utah share the genius of Joseph Smith: the Yankee spirit…

Some Thoughts on Richard Dawkins’ Terrible Tweet

By Haroon Moghul

…ultipolar world more seriously. Nobel Prizes are a largely Western affair. Most rankings, judgments and pronouncements on the “best of” this or the “worst of” that are absent Muslim considerations—all the more grating since one of four people in the world are Muslim. Though, to be fair, the present Muslim world’s scientific (and other academic) achievements leave much to be desired; I will be the first to demand a sober appreciation of where and h…

Give Me That Old-Time Ex-Gay Snake Oil

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…at, indeed, Foster’s problem isn’t homosexuality, but (as the title of his most recent book alludes to) sexual addiction, and gets the most bang (sorry) for his buck out of sex with men. Perhaps he has other psychological issues centering around shame or self-hatred or body image that lead him to prefer anonymous encounters over deeper, loving relationships. Perhaps what Foster really needed was a good psychotherapist to help him work through his…

Why David Brooks Doesn’t Get the Outrage Over AIG

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ose on the Left should be in dialogue. Brooks began by observing that what most modern economists share is an intense interest in human behavior, an interest in the complex psychological motives (and yes, the faith) that drive so many of our economic choices. In contemporary economic theory, according to Brooks, there are two dominant models of analysis: number crunching and social psychology. In short, Economics is either a subset of high-order M…

Presidential Pep Talks and the Religion of Fear: How did an Uncontroversial Speech Become a National Controversy?

By Eric Reitan

…and parents and civic leaders since they were in the first grade. But the most memorable part of the news segment was a brief interview with one mother who, after confronting the uncontroversial character of the speech, declared that this is how indoctrination starts: subtly at first, lulling us into a false sense of security. Apparently, she was under the impression that Obama is planning regular addresses to our kids, and that this was just the…

‘Don’t Call Me Black No More, I’m an Israelite’: Kendrick Lamar, Black Hebrew Religion, and Black Suffering

By A. E. Brooks-Key

…condemnation through its use of highly confrontational street preaching demonstrations. This group has splintered over the past two decades into offshoots such as IUIC, which are located throughout major American cities and have a considerable presence in social media. Hip hop is no stranger to marginalized iterations of African American religion. Early hip hop was imbedded with Islamic references from Sunni Islam, the Nation of Islam and the Nat…

Why We Need a Public Black Theology for the 21st Century

By Vincent Lloyd

…ok the absence of Black Christian public intellectuals because many of the most prominent Black public intellectuals are scholars of religion. Undoubtedly the most famous is Cornel West, but Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Perry, and Eddie Glaude wrote dissertations on topics related to religion, and specifically to Christianity. Derrick Bell, bell hooks, Henry Louis Gates, and Robin Kelley have all discussed religion or spirituality in their s…

Health Care Post-Mortem: Left is Right, Right is Left and Public is Loser

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…often volatile, deliberation. It takes a lot of talk, some of it strident, most of it not, to get things in line. These town hall meetings should have been conducted before any bills were drawn up, but perhaps they will provide the prelude to more meaningful legislative initiatives down the road. The White House has shown itself, arguably for the first time, less than astute at grassroots organizing. They’ve simply been out-flanked, as well as out…

Archbishop Retracts Videotaped Criticism of Fellow Bishops

By Frances Kissling

…s who dissent from anything he considers non-dissentable. As Archbishop of St. Louis Mo. He was one of the first bishops to use communion as political battering ram against then candidate John Kerry. He announced that if Kerry came to St. Louis, he would not permit him to receive communion. Shortly after that he said that Catholics who voted for pro-choice candidates were committing grave sin and needed to go to confession before they could receiv…