Search for "Offers 1 800-299-7264 Cheap American Airlines"

Why Taking Offense at Santorum’s “Tri-Faith” Nation is a Good Sign

By Rachel Gordan

…, explaining American religion to his son Tommy, says: “See, you can be an American and a Catholic or an American and a Protestant or an American and a Jew.” Buddhists and Muslims and others were clearly not part of this inner circle. What was less clear was how much these believers in “Tri-Faith America” were willing to acknowledge the fundamental differences between the three American religions; did accepting Judaism as part of Judeo-Christianit…

Leper Messiah: A Jesus Freak’s Search for the Meaning of Bowie—A Critical Novella

By Mark Dery

…lingworth, “Cha…cha…cha…changes: A journey with Aladdin,” Melody Maker, May 12, 1973 Crowd: Will you touch, will you mend me Christ? Won’t you touch, will you heal me Christ? Will you kiss, you can cure me Christ? Won’t you kiss, won’t you pay me Christ? Jesus: Oh, there’s too many of you, don’t push me Oh, there’s too little of me, don’t crowd me Heal yourselves! —“The Temple,” Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) • On July 3rd, 1973, Bowie ceremonially…

Bachmann’s Law School Mentor Asserts Biblical Roots of American Political System

By Julie Ingersoll

…biblical roots (Calvinist, actually) of the American political system and American Law. At the American Vision conference, he presented a belabored discussion of what a church can and cannot do within the guidelines of the IRS rules. He cited the part of the code that prohibits influencing legislation and labeled it “legalese,” before a lengthy parsing of what counts as legislation and then what counts as influencing— none of which substantially…

God’s Law is the Only Law: The Genesis of Michele Bachmann

By Sarah Posner

…lf over to tyranny—your health care decisions made by bureaucrats.” “Real” Americans Bachmann’s history of questioning Barack Obama’s American-ness, or of espousing “normal people values,” is rooted in the Reconstructionist conception of “American-ness.” Not just Christian, but their kind of Christian; one who would obey God, exercise “dominion authority,” and, most crucially, is one of their “brethren.” Titus, founder of Bachmann’s law school, ha…

Obama’s Supposed “Religion Dilemma” and American Exceptionalism

By Sarah Posner

…versus-them package: that Obama doesn’t understand the divine roots of the American founding, probably because he’s not really a Christian and not really an American, and only by electing the likes of Michele Bachmann or Jim DeMint can we ensure that the Christian nation ship can be righted again. By framing the confrontation of this narrative as an “uphill battle,” Democrats make the enormous and unnecessary mistake of placing themselves in the p…

Lying About Our Religion, And Other Problems With Polling

By Michael Schulson

…rn between 1982 and 2000 would be one single unit, the millennials? Why not 1992-2010, or 1985-2005, or some other range? The term gets thrown around so much, and by such reputable institutions, that you can forget that it was invented in 1991 by a pair of marketing consultants, whose methods were, at best, sketchy. The persistence of these categories shouldn’t surprise anyone. Generalizations are appealing. They make good copy for journalists. “P…

New History Finally Recognizes Afro-Creole Spiritualists

By Paul Harvey

…to the popular audience. A recent Harris poll reported that 42 percent of Americans believe in ghosts. Whether one believes in ghosts or not, Americans are fascinated by them. A century and a half before the popularity of ghost-hunter shows on the SyFy Network and NBC’s award-winning show “Medium,” belief in spirit communication was serious and widespread in the United States. New Orleans in particular is known for ghosts and spirits, and this bo…

American Jews: From Holocaust to New Age Hasidism?

By Martin Kavka

…aism, on a sociological note. Given the rate of intermarriage among Jewish Americans and the ways in which American culture no longer is content with prescripted roles for varying ethnic groups, Magid infers that American Jews now live in a postethnic culture. The ways in which Jews perform their particularism vary widely. In one way or another, all Jewish Americans today are Jews by choice, defining their identity as opposed to accepting others’…

American Indians Irate over Bin Laden Code Name “Geronimo”

By Johnny P. Flynn

…eing hunted during the last of the Indian wars in Arizona and Mexico in the 1880s it was said to cost the American military over one million dollars to kill each Apache. Compare that cost to the nearly one and a half trillion dollars the United States has spent since 2002 tracking down Osama bin Laden and the two or three hundred members of al Qaeda said to be fighting from the mountains of the Afghan/Pakistan border. It’s safe to say the United…

New Study: Three-Quarters of American Giving Goes to Religion

By Jay Michaelson

…nt for several reasons. First, it highlights the importance of religion in American philanthropic life. Religion is where American give, and a reason why they give. Along with the 73% statistic, the study revealed that 55% of Americans say that their religious orientation (a weird locution, but one the study chose) motivates their giving. That may not seem like a lot, but just crunch the numbers for a minute. The study found that 65% of religiou…