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An Open Letter to Black Clergy on the Disdain for Protest

By Rev. Osagyefo Sekou

Advent is upon us as we await the coming of the world’s most famous Palestinian—Jesus of Nazareth. In this time that’s dedicated to a poor child born to an unwed mother, my conscience has forced my hand to the page. The disdain for protest within our blessed community has troubled my spirit to the point that I cannot sleep. It is with great trepidation that I write you as your son—heavy-hearted and ashamed. Having been baptized into the faith at…

‘We’re all in this together’: The Perils of Kumbaya Rhetoric

By Peter Laarman

…ng enough: Disease and death in this pandemic overwhelmingly afflict communities of color (e.g. despite making up just a third of the state’s population, 70% of the dead in Louisiana have been African American; in Michigan the numbers are 14% and 40% respectively, etc). The crisis has already condemned low-income families to a shocking level of food insecurity, with one-fifth of American kids now at risk of going to bed hungry each night. Many of…

Hajj Journal: Tawaf: How I Fell in Love…

By Amina Wadud

…thing. WOW! The way the city has built up around the Ka’abah, which was originally constructed in a valley between surrounding hills, there is no way to get a view by accident. Furthermore, the mosque is now built around it and so you have to make your way through this mammoth elaborate and beautiful structure to get your glimpse. You might see that mosque, Masjid al-Haram, but only after you have approached it by some distance. Especially the mi…

The Bible is a Good Book, But God Didn’t Write It

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong is used to being a lightning rod for religious debate. Known affectionately as “Jack” to his friends, Spong has been taking religious literalists to task for over 40 years. The bishop made a big splash a couple of years ago when he issued a “Manifesto” in which he declared: “I will no longer debate the issue of homosexuality in the church with anyone.” Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohle…

A Shining City: The Occupy Movement and the American Soul

By Elizabeth Drescher

…gathered in the shadow of the St. Louis Gateway Arch, symbol of a bygone vision of American progress, economic hope, and nascent global expansionism. Women wore shiny off-the-shoulder dresses and ridiculously high-heeled shoes. They sipped from splits of cheap sparkling wine while their tuxedoed companions swilled the local brew, Budweiser—that, too, a faded American icon, sold off in 2008 to the Belgium-based multinational, InBev. No, of course,…

Richard Dawkins’ Atheist Academy of Unguided Truth

By Paul Wallace

…has toyed with opening his own state-sponsored school, though under the British system he would have to come up with matching money. But it would not be a school for atheists. The idea horrifies him. A child should skip down an idiosyncratic intellectual path. “I am almost pathologically afraid of indoctrinating children,” he says. “It would be a ‘Think for Yourself Academy.’” Dawkins is expanding on a point made in his 2006 bestseller, The God D…

Gas For Two Bucks a Gallon? Bachmann Taps a Pipeline to the American Sacred

By Rosamond C. Rodman

…e sense, a car is just functional arrangement of glass, metal and gears; driving just a matter of getting from place to place. But human beings are hardwired to address questions of meaning. Sacred meanings are conferred when they (are made to) imitate the sacred, according to religion scholar Mircea Eliade. One of the ways to achieve this conferral of the sacred is to enact “the symbolism of the Center.” Very ancient myths, says Eliade, share in…

Fear of a Catholic Ghetto

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…it appropriate that Catholic health care institutions want to be full participants in the U.S. health care system, while retaining the right not to provide contraception—a part of health care that nearly all sexually active adults use? The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops say yes, in a recent statement calling for the rescission of the “contraceptive mandate” provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. And in this recent pie…

On Eve of Sudan Split Clashes Continue

By Ashley Makar

…he Islamist regime in Khartoum, the final step in the process that will officially end a half-century of civil wars. But the prospects of a peaceful independence day look bleak. There is renewed conflict in two distinct regions on the border between Northern and Southern Sudan; Northern troops have re-occupied Abyei, contested territory neither side wants to give up, while nearby, in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, the Sudanese army is bombi…

Build the Muslim Community Center at Ground Zero

By Donna Schaper

The Cordoba Initiative, led by Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, wants to build a Community Center at Ground Zero. The Initiative is an established mosque in Tribeca, the New York City neighborhood around the corner from Ground Zero. For 23 years they have worshipped in the neighborhood and been a part of it. So far the wider community response is loud, mean and ugly. “No,” they say. Such an act would be sacrilegious and involve the people whose loved ones…