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

By Joseph Laycock

…icy debates such as, “What if Satanists wanted to lead prayer in public school?” and then they were actually doing them. It reminded me of the George Bernard Shaw quote that, “All progress depends on the unreasonable man.” As I continued to study TST, I realized this wasn’t just a daring rhetorical move but the birth of a new religious movement. What’s the most important take-home message for readers at this cultural moment? TST is changing the pu…

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

By Barbra Barnett

…lly had to see for myself: the Krewe du Jieux. It was a warm, sunny afternoon, Saturday, January 19, and the streets of the French Quarter were teeming with day-drinkers long before that night’s parades lined up. Krewe du Vieux is one of the best loved and crudest of carnival season spectacles. The parade’s theme was “Krewe du Vieux Comes Early,” playing on the early date of Mardi Gras this year and the adult themes of many of the parade’s sub-k…

Sarah Palin and the Politics of Victimization

By Randall Balmer

…o visit the author’s church, Wasilla Bible Church. I remember pulling the book surreptitiously out of my satchel and opening the cover with some mixture of dread and resignation, figuring that I might someday be able to make a case that the hours spent reading the book should count as a credit toward Purgatory. The autobiography was, as I suspected, pretty insubstantial, filled with morality-play vignettes from childhood and recitations of the aut…

The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right

By Frederick Clarkson

…th a better example to illustrate a major theme of David Neiwert’s latest book, The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right. There has been much discussion of the culture of incivility lately, epitomized by the recent indecorous outbursts of Rep. Joe “You Lie” Wilson (R-SC) during President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress, tennis star Serena Williams toward a linesman at the US Open, and rapper Kayne West at the…

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

By Andrew Aghapour

…different life forms in response to some new change in the world. Oxford zoologist Andrew Parker argues that the increased transparency of the ocean made eyesight possible, and this changed everything: now predators could see prey, and prey could see predators, and this set off an arms race of interactions. Well, we think something similar is happening in human culture. Institutions—not just religions but also universities, armies, corporations—a…

Springtime for Ross Douthat?

By Daniel Schultz

Ross Douthat’s latest column offers proof of Godwin’s law in the headline—and goes downhill from there. And the headline (a sly reference to The Producers‘ “Springtime for Hitler”) isn’t even the worst thing in the article. To be fair, journalists don’t write their own headlines [Dan didn’t write this one, for example. –the eds]. Also, I should point out that Douthat’s first three paragraphs go off without him tripping over his own shoelaces. The…

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

By Ed Simon

…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 evidence of secular humanistic creep, and the replacement of Christianity with a pluralistic perspective that…

On Eve of Sudan Split Clashes Continue

By Ashley Makar

[Parts of this essay first appeared in Tablet Magazine.] Sudan will soon split in two: an African Christian-majority South and an Arab Muslim-majority North. On July 9, the Southern Sudanese government is expected to declare independence from the 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 i…

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

By Peter Laarman

…with Bible verses having to do with debt. What I like best is the Can we proof-text this? We probably shouldn’t. But let’s try anyway! aspect of it. Not to mention the dominant focus on rival passages in the Hebrew Bible without much, if any, attention paid to how Jesus responded to debt peonage in his time and place. Stefani McDade begins her Christianity Today roundup of evangelical responses by reporting on the top four Bible verses being cited…

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

By Shaul Magid

…e less strident forms of its religious branch), its religious ideology is loosely based on these core principles. Settler Zionism has been enormously successful but it always had a population problem. Its longterm success depends on creating sufficient “facts on the ground” in order to prevent any peace agreement that would include territorial compromise. To subvert any such agreement it needs to populate the territories (it refers to the West Ban…