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How Does an Atheist Come to Believe in God?: An Interview with Jacob Needleman

By Lisa Webster

…n’s living room in the Oakland hills, I fished in my bag for the tiny microphone I planned to use with my iPhone, to record our conversation. “Is that what you’re using?” he asked, with great interest. He held up his own phone. “I just got one of these. Will this really work?” He sat next to me on the couch as I pointed him through the app store on his phone. “There it is,” I said, pointing to iTalk. “That’s what I’m using.” He tapped the screen,…

How To Talk To “Nones” and Influence People: Rob Bell’s Transrational Experience

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

….” He thinks of himself as a pastor without a church—without, that is, a building. Buildings come in for a lot of flack from Bell. At most megachurches, he says, preachers preach sermons to fill seats, to win donations, to “buy a new building.” Although Bell’s original authority comes from his status as a megachurch pastor, these days he seems to get equal status from his choice —whether voluntary or under pressure—to leave that setting. Whatever…

What Can a Real Life Haunting Tell Us About American Religion? [Updated]

By Daniel Wise

…ouse. She reported that, whenever she tried to speak to this friend on the phone in the house about the haunting, the phone connection would be interrupted. As a busy woman with two kids, Maria doesn’t always have a lot of time to devote to spirituality, but when she does, she often relies on intuition. In the case of the haunting, she reports that her intuition pointed her toward the conclusion that it’s the land on which the house was built that…

Conservative Rep Grills Oklahoma Personhood Sponsors

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…d death certificates? It’s entirely possible to think abortion is wrong, while still being bothered by the potential consequences of turning blastocyst-Americans into legal rights-bearing persons. But meanwhile, those who are most invested in getting a personhood bill passed won’t be pleased with any exception or compromise. They’re hoping personhood legislation will get them a court challenge that results in Roe v. Wade being overturned. So conse…

Godly Game or Godless Satire? Countering Biblical Ignorance with Heretical Humor

By Betsy Shirley

…the Old Testament because they’re long and boring…” Here pauses. “Granted, Numbers is like…” “I like Numbers, but anyway…” mumbles Caleb. “The real impetus for the game,” Thomas resumes, “is to get people to engage in Scripture and read stories they’ve never read before. When a concubine is cut up into twelve pieces, that imagery is really offensive. But a lot of people didn’t even know that story existed in the Bible.” I suspect they’re right; re…

Where Polls and Surveys Fall Short: A Conversation with Robert Wuthnow on “Inventing American Religion”

By Andrew Aghapour

…] answers to questions that are not very thoughtful, because polls are hastily done by telephone rather than in person. If you’re a respondent in a poll, you’re being asked anywhere from four to five complex questions every minute. They’re throwing questions at you so rapidly that you often have no idea whether you really gave the right answer that you really believe or not, and then they only have an 8% response rate anyway, so you have no idea w…

End-Times Watcher Sees Satan in an Energy Drink

By William R. Black

…anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.” The author of Revelation meant that 666 was a person’s name turned into a number via the Jewish numerological practice of gematria. Since every Hebrew letter was also a number, the letters of a name could be added up to produce that person’s number. Here’s an example of gematria using an alphabet we’re more famil…

Global LGBT Recap: Nigeria Jails Gays, Russian Orthodox Spox Calls for Criminalization Referendum

By Peter Montgomery

…dite Polish Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who has been accused of abusing children while he was serving in the Dominican Republic: The Vatican is reportedly conducting its own investigation, but a statement from the Holy See to a Warsaw prosecutor said “Archbishop Wesolowski is a citizen of the Vatican, and Vatican law does not allow for his extradition.” Zimbabwe: High Court Judge Upholds Work of Gay and Lesbian Group Zimbabwean President Robert M…

Hajj Journal: Door Number 89: The Door with No Name

By Amina Wadud

…d inside the mosque one day, I came across Bab raqm tis’wa thamanin, “door number 89,” literally. The door with no name. Facing the mosque at door number one, bab maalik ’abd-al-’Aziz, this door is off to the left. Looking at the mosque floor plan, this is where the building structure of the mosque is deepest. This is “the women’s section.” I noticed as I was walking through the first floor toward door number one, the kings’ door, on my way out af…

Build the Muslim Community Center at Ground Zero

By Donna Schaper

…but without the mandate for burial. I personally saw a finger on a windowsill in Tribeca. I will never forget it. Terrible violence yields terrible memories. Murder, especially murder by sudden terror and violence, has a long reach into a person’s future. A community center on the site of the bombing would create another picture of another kind of future, one with respect and hope at its heart. What about forgiveness? It can be such a cheap word….