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Putin’s Violent Holy War Rhetoric Made it to the Christian Right Fringe — And There’s Reason to Believe it’ll Go Mainstream

By Thomas Lecaque

…st the antiChrist?” Now, Rick Wiles is a known entity—he’s the founder of Tru*]}*News, a pastor of a Florida church whose fundamentalist Christian platform has a long history of antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-LGBTQIA+ messaging, and which rambles on in ever more hysterical apocalyptic tirades while begging for money and preaching extreme conspiracy theories. And while this kind of language is militant and weird, it’s not (yet?) a normative part of f…

Sometimes Dialogue is Not the Answer and Neutrality is a Trap: An Interview with the Authors of ‘The Neutrality Trap’

By Chrissy Stroop

…rence. We have to hold onto this if we’re going to engage in a sustained struggle for a better world. Of course, there are times when we may feel despair—and we shouldn’t try to suppress this—but we should find within ourselves the capacity to hang in there by continuing to hold onto the belief in our own individual and collective agency. CS: Is there any specific advice you would give to activists and advocates for social justice now that we’re i…

Festivus, Atheist Santa, and the Invention of Blasphemy

By Anita Little

…brate with them during certain times of year. We need these rituals in our lives and these times to gather. So put up a Christmas tree or a Festivus pole or go to an atheist Sunday Assembly. They all hit on basic human needs. The Starbucks cups incident is a great example of that. At no other point in history, could we have made such a huge deal out of a such a simple thing. It’s totally dependent on the mass media—that’s what turned it into an ev…

Why Zubik is Especially Important for Women of Color

By Elizabeth Platt and Kira Shepherd

…not afford to travel the long distances needed to reach a clinic. A recent New York Times article found that clinic closings appear to be closely linked to the uptick in searches for illegal, self-induced abortion. In addition, women who have unintended pregnancies are more likely to abuse substances while pregnant and less likely to seek prenatal care, which can negatively impact the health of the fetus. Some unintended pregnancies cost women of…

Romney: “A Life Balanced Between Fear and Greed”?

By Joanna Brooks

…weekend’s news cycle brought important stories in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Boston Globe about how Mitt Romney does business. The picture they paint is not entirely new, but it is consistent: Romney extracted value while, and sometimes by, outsourcing and destroying jobs, at times financing deals through “leveraged buyouts” that added substantially to the debts of companies trying to stay afloat. One source close to the GOP…

Among the Problems with Trump’s Proposed Ban: Who is a Muslim?

By Michael Schulson

…ump and other right-wingers talk about Islam, what do they even mean? In a New York Times op-ed last December, scholar Hussein Ibish framed the problem that no one else seemed to be addressing: An overwhelming majority of commentators on all sides, ranging from the most vicious Islamophobes to the most radical Islamists, wrongly assume that we all know, or can easily discover, what Muslims do and think that distinguishes them from other people. Th…

Egyptians Rejecting Religious Leadership, But Not Religion

By H.A. Hellyer

…pt would turn into an Arab version of Iran — a fear that was repeated many times over the last few days by the right-wing press all over the world. There have been other things said relating to religious figures or organizations that are to be taken with a heavy dose of salt. Some in the Egyptian pro-Mubarak camp argued that Hizbollah from Lebanon were the ones responsible for opening the prisons in Egypt over the past week, and others played up t…

Philadelphia Man Blames Bible for Stoning Death

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ivining rod. Instead, it is a collection of writings from wildly different times, cultures, and points of view. In fact, it contradicts itself from book to book, and sometimes from chapter to chapter. To say, “the Bible says …” as if it settles an argument once and for all is a terribly naïve way to read a very complicated text. Instead, one must be trained to actually read the Bible in a responsible manner – preferably, as Hauerwas states, within…

House Health Care Bill Discriminates Against Religious Freedom

By Gordon D. Newby

…Joined The Jewish tradition values life. The biblical commandment to “be fruitful and multiply,” repeated over ten times, is taken as one of the most important commandments among all varieties of Jews, and the ritual importance of parenting is central to a Jewish life. Nevertheless, abortion is neither forbidden nor regarded as murder in the Rabbinic Jewish system. In Judaism, the fetus does not have the status of “person” with a separate juridic…

How a 15th Century Book on Witchcraft Helps Make Sense of Trump’s Bizarre Baby Execution Story

By Karen E. Park

…is telling the story of a crime which he claims has already occurred. The New York Times, Vox, MSNBC, and other outlets called the story “false,” “inaccurate,” and “misleading,” but Trump isn’t merely “lying” here (something he has done more than 10,000 times since taking office). Instead he’s creating a new and lurid narrative based on hatred. The language of truth and falsehood is misapplied in this case, since Trump’s statement about “beautifu…