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Hajj Journal: The Journey Begins and Ends

By Amina Wadud

…rt hub for Saudi Arabia, this flight has all types. Now, I’ve been on many planes, but this is the first time I’ve been on a plane where 50% of the seats are business- and first-class. Sorta gives you an idea who comes to the Kingdom, among Muslims and non-Muslims alike: big business. Okay, so the flight is not exclusive to hajjis, but when we arrive they announce for us hajjis to remain on the plane and disembark last. Let the other passengers, m…

Glenn Beck’s Cheap Grace

By Karyn Carlo

…way from the hard work of repentance, who tickle our ears with promises of cheap grace, and offer a vision of the cross of Jesus that has nothing to say to the crosses, and lynching trees, of history. But, if we do, we will be settling for the gospel of Caesar, not the good news of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is time to put down the chalk, stop drawing pyrotechnical conspiracy theories that play into our worst fears and listen, instead, for the diffi…

A Palin Pastor Primer

By Esther Kaplan

…or domestic partners, but once governor did not block implementation of an Alaska Supreme Court ruling that ordered the state to provide the same benefits to same-sex partners as to heterosexual couples. Nor, as Gay City News point out, has she tried yet to advance legislation forcing the teaching of creationism in schools or eliminating standard sex ed in favor of abstinence-only. Then again, she’s only been in office for 20 months. Most troublin…

Fighting Demons, Raising the Dead, Taking Over the World

By Bruce Wilson

…ly of God pastor in 2000. In August 2005, Bishop Thomas Muthee returned to Alaska and gave a weeklong sermon series at the Wasilla Assembly of God. The August 16, 2005 ceremony at the church was made notorious when footage of it surfaced during the 2008 presidential election. In it, congregants watch as Thomas Muthee blesses Sarah Palin against “every spirit of witchcraft.” Several days later after that 2005 ceremony, Palin launched her campaign f…

The Contested Religious Powers of Baseball on Display in Cuba

By Sean O'Neil

…PN journalist Dan Le Batard, who writes, My grandmother put my mother on a plane believing they might see each other again in three months. It took 12 years. Grandma put her on a plane because she couldn’t stomach the idea of both of her children being in jail at once—her son for his politics, her daughter for trying to go to church to honor the dead. Days after she fled, three militia members with machine guns broke into the house at 3 a.m. looki…

Should Christians Confess to Plants? A Cranky Meditation

By Greg Carey

…t to participate. If liturgy asks people to pray or sing things that raise reservations, they find themselves in a quandary. It feels wrong to participate, and it feels equally problematic to refrain. Although I very much appreciate innovative worship, I have experienced this situation too many times. To be sure, I feel uncomfortable with worship every week. I’m asked to affirm things I desire to believe when the truth is that I carry doubts and r…

AFA: Native Americans Lost their Land for Not Being Christians

By Daniel Schultz

…ht of conquest.” Fischer went on to blame poverty and alcoholism on Indian reservations on Native Americans themselves, because they “continue to cling to the darkness of indigenous superstition” and refuse to come into “the light of Christianity” and assimilate “into Christian culture.” How Christianity would have helped Native Americans adapt to confinement on reservations is anybody’s guess. Fischer was apparently propelled into his diatribe by…

The Faith that Faith Produced

By Haroon Moghul

…ty of indiscriminate violence. Too many people—not just dentists on Virgin Airlines—make statements like, “Muslims don’t do enough to reject terrorism.” It’s probable many of them have never met Muslims. If they tried, they might be surprised. In fact, the reaction to my essay—you’ll read an excerpt below—has surprised me, too. I wish I could find my airline companion and give him this book, to surprise him, too—in a good way. (I would accept La…

Corporations Have Consciences and Contraceptives Are Cheap: Hobby Lobby at the Supreme Court

By Sarah Posner

At oral argument in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties, Inc. v. Sebelius this morning, the Supreme Court justices spent a great deal of time questioning the lawyers in the case about whether corporations have a religious conscience, and whether Congress intended to protect it when enacting the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). What was most striking, though, was how all three female justices, Sonia So…

Are Evangelical Films Destined to Leave Secular Audiences Behind?

By Daniel Silliman

…questioned his big budget production. Jenkins dismissed the productions as cheap, church-basement movies. LaHaye sued for breach of contract, saying the sale of the rights to make the film had been contingent on making a good film. The point of making a Left Behind movie was to reach a wider audience. The books had reached a wider audience, selling millions of copies and reaching the top slot of the New York Times bestseller list. The films should…