Search for "cheap airline tickets to daytona beach phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Where Polls and Surveys Fall Short: A Conversation with Robert Wuthnow on “Inventing American Religion”

By Andrew Aghapour

…s pretty much it. Evangelical leaders themselves didn’t believe the Gallup numbers were right, and [they thought that] the best way to combat those Gallup numbers was to ask Gallup to do another survey. And so in 1978, Christianity Today, a leading periodical for evangelicals, paid Gallup to do a big survey and in addition to just asking the born-again question, they asked questions about belief in the Bible, belief in Jesus, and intent on convert…

End-Times Watcher Sees Satan in an Energy Drink

By William R. Black

…anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.” The author of Revelation meant that 666 was a person’s name turned into a number via the Jewish numerological practice of gematria. Since every Hebrew letter was also a number, the letters of a name could be added up to produce that person’s number. Here’s an example of gematria using an alphabet we’re more famil…

Global LGBT Recap: Nigeria Jails Gays, Russian Orthodox Spox Calls for Criminalization Referendum

By Peter Montgomery

…sion talking about the LGBT people being less than human. For example, the number two person in the state broadcasting company – actually now he’s the number one person – hosted a show devoted to the question of whether it was enough to protect our children to ban homosexual propaganda or whether more needed to be done. He argued that more needed to be done. He said and we need to outlaw blood and sperm donations by them. And if they die in car ac…

Hajj Journal: Door Number 89: The Door with No Name

By Amina Wadud

…d inside the mosque one day, I came across Bab raqm tis’wa thamanin, “door number 89,” literally. The door with no name. Facing the mosque at door number one, bab maalik ’abd-al-’Aziz, this door is off to the left. Looking at the mosque floor plan, this is where the building structure of the mosque is deepest. This is “the women’s section.” I noticed as I was walking through the first floor toward door number one, the kings’ door, on my way out af…

The Non-Existent Tea Party-Religious Right God Gap

By Sarah Posner

…a of America — the America that McDonnell described as founded at Virginia Beach when colonialists planted a cross in the sand and said “we claim this land for Christ” — is the “most radical idea since the Gospel,” said Reed. Tea party events don’t necessarily emphasize this view — although many people who speak at tea parties do. And as Michelle Tennery, an activist who told me she’s been at every D.C. tea party event since the 2009 tax day prote…

Gingrich’s Faith Leaders “Not Aware” they’d been Enlisted in Campaign

By Sarah Posner

…n Sunday, Pastor Scrivner Damon of New Life Community Church in North Palm Beach, who was listed on the January 28 announcement, looked at me, bewildered, when I asked him about the coalition. “Was I?” he asked, when I told him he was listed as a member. I showed him the announcement, and as he read it, he shook his head. “I have not done anything,” he said. “I haven’t even made up my mind who I’m going to vote for yet.” When I called Pastor Doug…

‘Late Night With The Devil’ Reflects the Role of Talk Shows in Sensationalizing the Satanic Panic of the 1980s

By Joseph Laycock

…dio learned of the story, reported in The National Jesuit News, a producer phoned Patzelt to ask if they could film his next exorcism. Patzelt refused, but he did appear on NBC’s The Tomorrow Show as part of a panel of priests discussing The Exorcist, which Patzelt dismissed The Exorcist as “a junky movie.” But he was able to parlay his appearance on network television into a speaking tour, traveling to Fordham and other universities around the co…

Running Against the Devil: Trump’s Conspiracy-Laden Fight Against Powers of Darkness

By Carmen Celestini

…connected conspiracies came to a climax at a Trump rally held in West Palm Beach, Florida, in mid-October. In that speech, which gained even greater notoriety over the weekend as the audio used in his controversial final ad, Trump brought the specter of a controlling “global power structure” into the public spotlight. Media outlets and social media instantly reacted with accusations of Trump evoking classic/historical anti-Semitic themes, and in d…

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Heretic: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Jihadis?

By Haroon Moghul

…organization by the United Arab Emirates.” Exactly. 2) “Muslims … use cell phones and computers without necessarily seeing a conflict between their religious faith and the rationalist, secular mindset that made modern technology possible.” Driving on an interstate highway? You can probably thank the Nazis for that. What about nuclear power, radioactive isotopes, etc.? Guess who got us started there. First man in space? Circumnavigation of the glob…

WikiLeaks Strikes the Vatican, a Camel in the Pews, and Luke Skywalker Tolerance

By Michael J. Altman

…rk’s Iona College. She worked in the school’s finance office. In West Palm Beach, Florida, a camel fell into pews full of spectators during a church nativity play. No people or animals were injured, though the camel will not be part of the Christmas pageant when it opens this weekend. A donkey and sheep will still take part. Elsewhere in Florida, a dispute in Boca Raton is raising questions about whether or not a menorah is a religious symbol. But…