Search for "cheap airline tickets from fl phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Is the Satanic Temple Just an Elaborate Prank? 10 Questions for the Author of ‘Speak of the Devil’

By Joseph Laycock

…e people assume that I must be either morally defective or under demonic influence to have even written a book about Satanism. There are also more sympathetic people who still assume TST is an elaborate put-on. There is a degree of smugness that accompanies this view: People who assert it imply they have “figured out the joke” and everyone else is still catching up to them. It’s true that TST began with a series of prank-like political actions. Bu…

“Hey You! Anti-Semite!”: A Jewish Krewe does Mardi Gras

By Barbra Barnett

…oversized Energizer Bunny (“He Keeps Coming”) with a giant erection. Other floats focused on civic grievances—one float mocking Governor Jindal’s health care policy. Another float predicted the death of local journalism with an altar of skulls and the riddle: “What’s Black and White and Dead All Over?” The smaller and lesser-known “Krewe Delusion” followed with its own share of satire and adult themes. And then there was the Krewe du Jieux, a marc…

Sarah Palin and the Politics of Victimization

By Randall Balmer

…nt. The second book in the Sarah Palin œuvre, however, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, crosses the line from cute puppy bouncing on his back legs to mangy cur relentlessly humping a visitor’s leg. By all accounts—and especially Palin’s own account—the former governor of Alaska is a busy person these days, appearing regularly on Fox News, starring in reality television, and hop-scotching the lower 48 by private jet to make…

The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right

By Frederick Clarkson

…schools), efforts to place controls on gun ownership, desecrations of the flag, unassimilated minorities, artistic license, dissident and unusual behavior of all sorts that could be labeled antinational or decadent. That said, Neiwert slams those who misuse the term for “cheap political theater,” writing that “inappropriate comparisons tend to obscure the reality of what’s taking place.” So what is the reality? Neiwert recently spoke with Religio…

Churches Can No Longer Hide the Truth: Daniel Dennett on the New Transparency

By Andrew Aghapour

…lly – or I would say more – awe-inspiring discoveries of science. Gods and flaming chariots are nothing, they’re cheap comic book fare, compared to what we actually have learned about stars and galaxies and the like. I think that there’s a sort of mirror image, an opposite of scientism, which has a real tin ear for the breathtaking awesomeness of science. All you have to do is listen to David Attenborough or Carl Sagan or other brilliant expositor…

Springtime for Ross Douthat?

By Daniel Schultz

…y now), Gustavo Gutierrez, Marcus Borg, James Cone, Sallie McFague, or any number of other thinkers and theologians that Douthat does not recognize. The only people who want to bring back Niebuhr are conservatives. (I’m an admitted fanboy, but that’s about coming from the same church background as Niebuhr as much as anything.) And that doesn’t even get to the worst of it. Douthat misunderstands Francis’ amazing, charismatic realignment of Catholic…

Despising the Holidays: When Christians Led the ‘War on Christmas’

By Ed Simon

…ed up small, grande, and venti cups with (obviously secular) images of snowflakes and reindeer, 2015’s version has replaced this festive decoration with a minimalist, crimson blood-red design. Supposedly this has enraged a portion of the Christian right, who view this decision as a rejection of Christian values. This portion of conservative Christians – exactly how many remains vague in media coverage – apparently views the crimson cups as evidenc…

On Eve of Sudan Split Clashes Continue

By Ashley Makar

…ing for cover in Nuba Mountain caves, William does not believe that the conflict between Northern and Southern Sudan will end with separation; independence, he says, will just be “ice on the fire.” The current conflicts in Abyei and Kordofan arise over the same fault lines as the civil war: race, religion, and resources. The Arab Muslim government in Khartoum has a long history of violently suppressing liberation movements in Central, Western, and…

Evangelicals Clutching Pearls Over Student Debt Relief: Lord Have Mercy!

By Peter Laarman

…nefit analysis, and weighing of unintended consequences as we pursue human flourishing and the common good. This, too, is a standard maneuver in the evangelical world: an appeal to “pursue the common good” without getting too specific. But what really got my attention is how Stefani McDade and her CT editors let the Cato Christian get away with a bald-faced lie that comes directly from the Republican playbook. This is the canard, unsubstantiated a…

Of Zionism and Anti-Zionism: The Ultra Orthodox and the Settler Movement in Israel

By Shaul Magid

…estimates have an average Haredi family in Israel with 6-7 children—think FLDS). Committed to study and devotion, many men do not work, or work part-time, meaning they have little financial means. Yet in many cases they live middle-class lives that seem incommensurate with their incomes. This is due in part to a complex network of Haredi charities and Israeli government subsidies for large families. The solution: develop Haredi communities in the…