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From Licking Floors to Praying for an Inept Government, Churches React to C-19

By Daniel Schultz

…o knowing that in particular service workers will need the money in coming weeks. Tomorrow our son will go to school for one last day, and I’ll keep a coffee date. Life goes on, one way or another. At the same time, it seems spectacularly incompatible with the declared teachings of most religions to act so recklessly when so many lives are in the balance. So I’d like to propose a variation on Pascal’s famous wager: if you act as though COVID-19 we…

Modern Vampires: Your Neighbors and Spouses

By Joseph Laycock

…raeger, release date: May 30, 2009). What inspired you to write Vampires Today? What sparked your interest? Some people think I study vampires simply because they are unusual. I’ve even been asked if I am a vampire myself. The reality is that I became interested in the vampire community when I learned of a massive survey being conducted by the Atlanta Vampire Alliance (AVA). Their project was relevant to the sociology of knowledge: instead of defi…

The Year of the Abusive Priest

By Anthea Butler

…stitutions for youth will be stripped bare because of lawsuit payouts, and number of vocations, already low, will become even lower because of the stigma attached to being a priest. The test of Moral Credibility has been found wanting, and the handwriting is on the wall. Even the National Catholic Reporter’s editorial page has called for the Pope to provide answers. No doubt about it, this is perhaps the second biggest crisis in “Christendom,” out…

American Christianity Is Changing Fast: Five Stories to Watch in 2016

By Richard Flory

…ken a much more adversarial stance to LGBT acceptance. However, increasing numbers of evangelical churches are accepting LGBT individuals as members. This development is not without its opponents, however. Many evangelical organizations—most significantly colleges, universities and seminaries—are mobilizing to retain their “religious right” to discriminate against LGBT individuals. More than 30 evangelical higher education institutions have petiti…

Aasif Mandvi on Islamophobia, Acting, and the Long Shadow of Jon Stewart

By Haroon Moghul

…better, or is it getting worse? We are definitely seeing more diversity today, in television and in movies. Probably more than we ever have. There are certainly more Asians, more South Asians, more people from the Middle East, portrayed on television today, as compared to when I started out. But in Hollywood, Caucasian is still the norm. Your heroes are still Caucasian. So that is somewhere we need more diversity, in terms of who’s creating the s…

The 17th Century Roots of Roy Moore’s Refusal to Concede the Election

By Karen E. Park

…atch for Moore’s God, whose will trumps all election results, and will someday overthrow all human institutions, if the faithful are patient. According to the laws of the state of Alabama, Moore lost the election Tuesday night, and whether or not he eventually demands a recount, he is likely to remain the loser. But his theocratic mindset has not been vanquished, and is shared by far too many American Christians whose idea of government resembles…

The Sacred and the Dead: Truckin’ as a New American Pilgrimage

By Varun Soni

…rateful Dead 50 years ago, especially in terms of the dramatic rise of the number of Americans who are no longer affiliated with traditional religious institutions or denominations. In the absence of traditional religious affiliation, people are increasingly turning to popular culture to explore and interrogate the ultimate questions of meaning and purpose in their lives. That is why in the United States, there is now a Church of Elvis Presley and…

Sex and the Chosen People: Be Fruitful and Multiply, Etc.

By Mandy Van Deven

…d on pleasure. What role does feminism play in changes occurring in modern-day Judaism? It’s been said that feminism is the single biggest contemporary threat to Judaism, and I think that’s true. I also think, more to the point, that feminism (and, I’d argue, queer- and trans-liberation) has the ability to save Judaism, to help it return to our highest ideals. Religion can and should help us to live our greatest aspirations, and any time that it f…

Loving Uganda to Death: The Global Reach of Far-Right Christian Hatred

By Peter Montgomery

…of their words and deeds is a major goal for director Williams. In recent weeks he has screened the film at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and in New York.* At Fuller, he says, people were sharply critical of IHOP’s training and missionary style. The people at IHOP, he said, are planning to release a statement in response to the film. While he knows the people running IHOP are not going to change their view of the Bible, Williams hopes t…

Americans Say Religion is “Losing Influence”

By Diane Winston

…“the most negative evaluation” of religion’s impact since 1970. Writing today in Religion Dispatches, I have to wonder about the future of any publication with “religion” in its name. Is it time for a mission overhaul or simply rebranding? It’s not that RD has been oblivious to the trend. An interview with Siviku Hutchinson on the racial politics of atheism, a book review of The Bonobo and the Atheist, and Elizabeth Drescher’s ongoing coverage of…