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Why an Orthodox Anti-Gay Declaration is Actually Good for the Gays

By Jay Michaelson

…ulness which are at the bedrock of authentic Judaism. (Exodus 20:16, Psalms 101:7-8, Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1:9) However, the Declaration backs its signers into a theological corner. Once they admit that a loving God could never want the tyranny of the closet, they are indeed left with few options. And once the data about ‘Reparative Therapy’ becomes better known, they will be left with only one: to follow the venerable rabbinic practice of reading…

New Atheism Produces Another Curiously Uncurious Science v. Religion Book

By Michael Schulson

…e faithful don’t have the evidence on their side? Maybe. But Coyne doesn’t manage to demonstrate that his book is a necessary addition to that little canon. Instead, Faith Vs. Fact consists mostly of rewarmed arguments from other New Atheist writers. Coyne’s analyses of religion are largely confined to tired smackdowns of marginal groups. The Mormon origin story doesn’t quite make sense! Nation of Islam stories sound weird to outsiders! Islam in g…

Overcoming Good Muslim/Bad Muslim Dichotomy

By Hussein Rashid

…rgument presented in the pieces I quote. To address your specific concerns: 1. You are conflating two separate issues. The AMC has an important voice and contribution to make to the American landscape. When institutions are silent there must a voice. You can see I have done something similar here on RD with respect to torture. I am not denying that. I am focused on the framing of your argument as described above. 2. The Ahmadi community is not the…

Why Romney Won’t Stand up to the Bigotry of Bryan Fischer

By Joanna Brooks

…omarily a Mormon thing. Dr. Michael Stevens, a professor of Human Resource Management at Weber State University, has conducted studies documenting rates of passive-aggressive behavior at least twice as high among cultural Mormons as among our non-LDS counterparts. Mormon essayist and Brigham Young University professor Elouise Bell once wrote about legendary Mormon “niceness” and the darker feelings it cloaks. Analyzing what she identified as a Mor…

Ebola and Us: The American Roots of Liberia’s Trauma

By Peter Laarman

…igenous people (with occasional help from the U.S. Navy) for an astonishing 133 years—1847 to 1980. It was only the Samuel Doe-instigated bloody civil wars that finally toppled Little America. The catastrophic civil wars are what in turn left Liberia a profoundly broken place with a barely functioning economy and essentially no public health infrastructure. You could say, as President Lincoln eventually did, that all the wealth piled up here on th…

Elena Kagan and her Socialist Thesis

By Janine Giordano Drake

…ies their only hope.” I can hardly imagine Kagan passing this assignment in 1981 without some indication of these sentiments. As leftists began to notice that the 1970s were over and some liberals were now supporting Reagan—fragmentation! was labor historians’ resounding prognosis. Were I a journalist tasked to deduce something deep and telling about this essay, it would be that Elena Kagan was the sort of student who willingly reflected the senti…

C Street Scandal, the Media, the Future of the Family: An Interview with Jeff Sharlet

By Bill Berkowitz

…everybody wants to be in the news, Coe isn’t seeking publicity. Way back in 1966, when he first began assuming leadership of the organization he’d come to re-brand as the Family, he sent out a memo declaring that the time had come to “submerge” the group’s public profile. In a rare interview, he admits that the National Prayer Breakfast—owned and organized by the Family since its founding in 1953, despite its official appearance—isn’t “one tenth o…

New York Times Columnist Peter Steinfels’ Letter To RD; With Author Response

By Mark D. Jordan

…scription of our recent debates.” What exactly is he talking about? Between 1988 and 1993—oh, what a distant era!—I covered debates over homosexuality in several religious denominations. But I have not been a reporter since 1997, when I left the staff of the Times. I did not cover the struggle within the Episcopal Church following the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson, or the Religious Right’s mobilization to pass state constitutional amendments…

Kosher Nukes: Israeli PM Consults with Radical Rabbi on Iran Strike

By Shalom Goldman

…e expulsion of Gush Katif, he encouraged Sharon to expel Gush Katif… We had 15,000 people expelled here [in Israel], and there in America 150,000 were expelled. It was God’s retribution… God does not short-change anyone. Back then, in 2005, the secular Israeli reaction to Rabbi Yosef’s reading of world events was swift and sharp: Knesset Member Ronny Brison said: “What, is God cross-eyed? He metes out punishments at the wrong place? We’re sick and…

Elephant Orphans and Ecological Spiritualities: An Earth Day Reflection

By Jacob J. Erickson

…Elephants: An African Love Story. Once a day, strictly between the hours of 11AM and 12PM, the orphanage opens to the public for a visitor’s fee of 500 Kenyan shillings (a little under six U.S dollars at the moment). That strict time is a kind of compromise—a minimal amount of human contact for the orphans so the orphanage can raise some necessary funds for their care. The human animals arrive, line up, pay their dues, at eleven the crowd is let i…