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

By Barbra Barnett

…he 19th and much of the 20th century, the challenge of the American Jewish community was how to become fully American. But synagogues and Jewish community organizations have a much different challenge today: How to remain Jewish, how to cultivate and nurture strong ties to Jewish community, identity, and culture. We have a long history, deep traditions, and have made many significant contributions to American society. We gave you bagels, for G-d’s…

Why The Advocate‘s Choice of Pope Francis for Person of the Year is a Mistake

By Anthea Butler

…nce. Because he is carefully eliding the church’s teaching and focusing on compassion, many liberals and media pundits—including The Advocate—believe that he is opening a door to a changed theology. That is not the case. What the Pope is doing is opening a door for discussion, but not necessarily change. The group Kairos of Florence, a group of LGBT Catholics, wrote to Pope Francis in June of 2014 asking to be recognized as a “people” and not a ca…

A Truly Fearless Human Being: Rev. Howard Moody, 1921-2012

By Tom Davis

…sdom among today’s self-styled progressive religious leaders that finding “common ground” with uncompromising opponents is the best path to change. In addition to Moody’s work detailed above—most notable perhaps for the way in which he showed great leadership by following and learning from women, and not by lecturing and telling them what to do—the Reverend ran support groups (and memorials) for gay men during the early days of the AIDS crisis (wh…

How To Control Your Ungodly Urges… On a Budget!

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…t an aspirin between your lips! Your epithet, “You’re a nasty skank!” will come out as “You’re a nifty skink!” And who doesn’t love skinks? 6. Willpower! Is magical! 7. Find an accountability partner! Every time you are tempted to sexually harass a stranger, call your partner and make a confession. 8. Wear a rubber band around your wrist and snap it every time you think about harassing a woman! Rubber bands are cheap – mere cents. Why, you could s…

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

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…s basically a center-right to center-left country and if we could rotate a competent center-right with a competent-center left person then I think we’d have a healthy country. I think your book could help people make a critical assessment of how religion is being used in politics because if they understood the Bible then they would recognize when it’s being misused and abused. It seems to me that what the Christian faith says is that every life i…

A Shining City: The Occupy Movement and the American Soul

By Elizabeth Drescher

…conomic margins of society—not just the margins of Islam, but of the whole community—is central. These narratives of faith and wealth are the architectures of new dreams—not fantasies, but dreams—of an inclusive wholeness and a common stability. Thus, in each of the world religions, advocating on behalf of those harmed by oppression, exploitation, illness, or other circumstances that leave ordinary people in the dust is a basic faith practice. We…

Possible Heir to Dalai Lama Cleared of Corruption Charges

By Tsering Namgyal

…the anointing of more than one Karmapa. -Eds.] If there is one positive outcome, it is that the controversy has raised the profile of Karmapa, albeit to an unwelcome level. It has also formally instantiated him into the politics of India, China and Tibet, something, which the Karmapas in the past have avoided. His predecessor the 16th Karmapa, who passed away in 1981, preferred to remain that way. However, given the prospective role—which actually…

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

By Rosamond C. Rodman

…e heady days of $2 a gallon gasoline. When Bachmann promised the return of cheap fuel, she tapped into that mythic connection between Americans and their cars. It isn’t simply that American’s worship the car or make it a sacred object; although one could not be blamed for thinking so. The Los Angeles Times reports that Americans spend almost 100 billion a year on new car purchases alone, not counting used car purchases or maintenance of existing c…

Religion Profs Critique PBS’ God Documentary, Call it Simplistic

By Matthew Avery Sutton

…d we all attempt to craft engaging narratives. In sum, those of us sitting comfortably in our cheap desk chairs in our sterile offices in the nation’s colleges and universities have no higher ground to stand on. While we all labor to maintain an appropriate level of nuance, complexity, and context in our work, there is no doubt that we could write bigger books and assign our students more reading to gain deeper contextualization and fit more peopl…

National Association of Evangelicals Supports Immigration Reform, But Elsewhere Discord Reigns

By Donna Schaper

…s traditions when they issue policy statements that urge compassion and welcome for immigrants, or support comprehensive immigration reform (mischaracterized as advocacy for “open borders”), and that faithful parishioners should not be misled. Edwards argued that religious leaders are, in effect, railroading their flocks, saying that the “self-described ‘compassion’ among religious elites differs from the perspective of most rank-and-file Christia…