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Build the Muslim Community Center at Ground Zero

By Donna Schaper

…uch xenophobia is the source of the original inane and insane bombing, the Community Center should be welcomed at Ground Zero. Why? Because it is a sign of hope, forgiveness and peace. These are big words — hope, forgiveness and peace. They rarely have the megaphone that the party of “nope” enjoys. Nevertheless, they are words that religious people need to protect with all our hearts and souls. We too need a department of homeland security and its…

Why Taxing the Rich is the Godly Thing

By Peter Laarman

…Amos in upbraiding the filthy rich as “cows of Bashan”—much as I would welcome some prophetic indignation in Obama’s mouth. All he needs to do is present a compelling narrative about how progressive taxation came into being and how it remains an essential tool in maintaining a national purpose and a sense of unity. He could weave in some helpful teaching about the estate tax as well. If he did this he would surely find a receptive audience among…

Israel’s Immigration Debate: “Where is the Jewish Spirit?”

By Mati Wagner

…ael’s situation is more precarious. Half of all guest workers are illegal, compared to just one-third in the US and less than that in the EU. Foreigners make up 8.5 percent of the total workforce in Israel compared to just 6% on average in OECD countries. Israel has also integrated some 350,000 non-Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union and tens of thousands of Falash Mura, descendents of Jews who converted to Christianity. Some 130,000 Pa…

With Methodist LGBTQ Vote and GOP Support for Trump, White Protestantism Has Hit Bottom

By Peter Laarman

…or role in its conversion to a gay-positive position. Rejecting reason and common sense, only the American Baptists* and the United Methodists still take the view that committed gay relationships are unacceptable. It is surely no coincidence that both of these bodies have a straight white man problem: too much power in the hands of straight men who aren’t especially interested in the rule of reason and whose reading of Scripture is cramped, at bes…

The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right

By Frederick Clarkson

…ional 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 Religion Dispatches about violent rhetoric, imprecatory prayer, and eliminationism. Religion Dispatches: You begin the book talking primarily about the excesses of media personalities like Rush Limbaugh,…

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

By Shaul Magid

…inancial 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 territories where housing is cheap (through government subsidies), where they can maintain a lifestyle separate from secular Israel, and where their communities can continue to grow…

Pop-Eye: Meat The Wrestler

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…ibed Randy’s body in metaphorical terms: Randy’s heart attack was really a comment on his loneliness, a broken heart over his daughter’s estrangement, and the utter lack of any other community. Reviewers persisted in maintaining this dualism, that the double identities Randy and Cassidy both share ultimately want to get to some core non-physical identity, some materially transcendent spirit, some individuality that is more about the myth of modern…

Playing Hooky: Will Boycott of Catholic Church Spur Reform?

By Nathan Schneider

…f you have to, start praying in your church as a group and refuse to leave. (Sitting on top of pillars was a favorite attention-getter for ancient saints trying to lead worldly people out of their stupor; so, actually, was celibacy.) But then come to mass, together with the whole community again in peace, to show you are not against the church but for it. We need it, and it is us. If we Catholics want to help make our church better reflect the hop…

Can a Greek Monastery Be Ground Zero of Global Financial Meltdown?

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…, trading what was for their purposes a worthless lake that generated no income into commercial (or at least commercializeable) real estate that would. By the time they had finished with their full-court press in Athens, the monks at Vatopaidi had been awarded 73 different government properties in exchange for that lake. They were even given the site of the old gymnastics venue from the 2004 Athens Olympics, which they immediately set about conver…

Fear of a Catholic Ghetto

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…her different from ghettoization, isn’t it? You’re put into a ghetto under compulsion. If you uncompromisingly believe something that almost nobody else believes, that’s not ghettoization, it’s just the reality of holding a tiny minority opinion. Michael Peroutka didn’t miss out on the presidency because his supporters were ghettoized. He lost because a whole lot of people wanted someone else to be president instead of Peroutka. And having a mino…