Search for "Best Deals 1800-299-7264 "

From Organized Religion to Organizing Religion: Brian D. McLaren Wants Christians to Be Better

By Peter Laarman

…e end, is up to us in creatively seizing opportunities. I’ll keep doing my best to do so, in the company of many others. Of course I think your theological section is exactly on point, but I’m reminded of how many people I’ve known who go to church precisely because of their attraction to the idea of God as an all-powerful king with zero tolerance for sin and sinners. How to you respond, pastorally, to people who say that you are reducing God to m…

Israel at 60: Zionism’s Fatal Flaw

By Ira Chernus

…hers had been Zionists since the movement’s beginning. They imbibed their ideals from the movement’s founders, whose ideals were set forth at great length; there is no mystery about what the Jewish state was meant to achieve and signify. Zionist Ideals In the first generation of Zionists, a large majority shared one overriding goal: They wanted to live as “normal” people in a “normal” nation. The Zionist project began when they asked why Jewish li…

Pagan Martyrs, Murderous Monks: Agora Hits US Shores

By Nathan Schneider

…ncile—not least because of Hypatia’s inconvenient celibacy—is also Agora’s best hope. It comes as a welcome contrast, for instance, to HBO’s Rome, which turns figures like Cicero and Cato into wimps compared to a muscular Mark Antony, with no mention of the intellectual feats by which we now know them best. Ancient world or this one, big ideas don’t easily compete on screen with messy power struggles and lustrous bodies. But it’s worth a try. “I b…

Netanyahu’s (Republican) Esther Moment

By Sarah Posner

…0 copies. It had occupied the No. 1 position on the Wal-Mart inspirational best-seller list, showed up on Wal-Mart’s list of top 10 best sellers for seven weeks, and made the USA Today top 50 best-seller list for six weeks. Hagee, who serves as head pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, hosts his own television program that is seen twice a day on TBN. He argues that the United States must join Israel in a pre-emptiv…

The Mother of Christian Feminist Ethics, Beverly Wildung Harrison: 1932–2012

By Mark Hulsether

…cs.” Eventually her students helped her collect these essays in one of the best books ever published in feminist religious thought, Making the Connections. Many chapters from these books warrant book-length treatment, but she published just one such monograph: Our Right to Choose: Toward a New Ethic of Abortion. Although Bev’s interests ranged widely, this book is a good example of how she taught her students to frame issues—to think concretely ab…

Inauguration Day: Re-imagining Ourselves

By Anthony B. Pinn

…recognition of “change” as necessary and as a fundamental part of what is best about our democratic ideals. It required something of a leap of faith by supporting a relatively new political figure, and it required a willingness to avoid the easy political rhetoric, and demand more of our nation. But there is more ahead of us. We have not fully recognized and exorcised the worst of our inclinations and patterns of behavior. We have not embraced in…

Mormon Milk Author to Gay and Lesbian Kids: “God Does Love You”

By Adele M. Stan

…w will the people be controlled? In his remarks upon winning the award for Best Original Soundtrack for his work on Slumdog Millionaire (winner of the Best Picture award), Indian composer A.R. Rahman said in Tamil, “All glory and fame is to God.” A convert to Islam in a country known for deep sectarian violence between Muslims and Hindus, Rahman added, “I always had a choice between love and hate in my life. I chose love and I am here.” Didn’t som…

FRC’s Perkins Selling Straight Hot Sex

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…g to sell the younger generation on the intrinsic value of marriage as the best way to raise children, they’ve decided to back up a few steps and instead pitch the great baby-making sex that straight married couples apparently have. “Those who worship God weekly have the best sex,” asserted Patrick F. Fagan, Senior Fellow and Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI) at the Family Research Council. Interestingly, however, th…

The Pastoral is the Political: Let’s Stop Hyde-ing

By Harry F. Knox

…decisions about pregnancy. God trusts and empowers each of us to make the best decisions that are best for our families and ourselves. The law would remove federal, state and local legislators’ ability to interfere with this by preventing them from outlawing abortion coverage through private insurance. Removing the Hyde amendment and passing the EACH Woman Act are critical for advancing justice and liberty in America. We know, too, that there wil…

Battling for the Soul of the Democratic Party

By Sarah Posner

…k, former-DNC-chair Terry McAuliffe blasphemously didn’t know; Jim Wallis, best-selling author and activist who lambasts the religious right for its petty intolerance and the left for “not getting it”; and Joel Hunter, the Florida megachurch pastor who infamously turned down a stint as the president of the Christian Coalition, and author of A New Kind of Conservative. FIPL has taken a lead role in promoting the “broader agenda” of some of these ev…