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Pawlenty Stars in American Civil Religion: The Movie

…d images of Pawlenty himself. Pawlenty sets up himself and these “everyday Americans” as the symbols of the Puritan-American work ethic. Finally, our exceptionalism and our hard work give Americans a special destiny. The third myth in the ad is Manifest Destiny, the narrative from American history that argues a special purpose for our country to spread its influence around the world. In the 19th century, Manifest Destiny meant expansion out west….

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Let’s Get Lost: Mapping Religion in the 21st Century

…ch as Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’s Digital Atlas of American Religion—to the narrow—the Hindu American Foundation’s map of Hindus worldwide (with accompanying demographic information comparing “Hindus/Asian/Indian” favorably on various socioeconomic rankings to other racial and nationality categories). Unlike other kinds of maps, maps of American religion must negotiate the difficulty of that term—what counts, what doesn’t,…

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On Zion’s Mount

…re essentially Christian Zionists. Their “homeland” mentality was quite un-American. True, many American groups, not just hyperreligious ones, have looked upon the United States as a providential nation; a place prepared for them by God. But a providential nation is different than a providential homeland. The word “homeland” has become so charged—and now so banal—since 9/11 that we have forgotten that the United States is, in terms of political sc…

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Will the Religious Side with Workers?

…ideology has always been a major factor in maintaining a distance between American religionists and American trade unionists. In the minds of many of the faithful, taking collective action to raise a barn is just fine, thank you. Taking collective action to preserve your dignity and make advances at the workplace is an entirely different matter. It smacks of an un-American and vaguely socialist mindset. See below. A still-active “Protestant Ethic…

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Israeli Right Demonizes Israeli Left, With American Money

…lamed some conservative Israelis who see it as a fifth column supported by American liberals. Many of these American liberals prefer not to publicly criticize Israel (not just about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also on issues of human and civil rights, economic justice, immigration, and the environment). Instead they support NIF, which promotes on-the-ground change. But the attack by Im Tirtzu signals an end to business as usual. Following…

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Two people on a podium with a board that reads "Project 2025 kills democracy"

Project 2025: How Trump Loyalists and Right-Wing Leaders Are Paving a Fast Road to Fascism

…gressive gains merits more than our attention; it calls for action to help Americans understand just how dramatically right-wing reactionaries intend to transform American society, and how to effectively mobilize resistance to their well-funded schemes.   Endnotes [1] Jill Covan and Bill Barrow, “Trump vow to only be a dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric,” Associated Press, December 7, 2023, https://apnews.c…

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Reading Beinart and Lerner as Gaza Burns

…s astute as Beinart and Lerner, who have contributed so much to the Jewish American turn toward peace, stumble a bit at that second step. They do us a great service when they focus on the crucial role of the Jewish narrative of victimization, which so many American writers tend to overlook (while Israelis as well as Palestinians routinely see it as the crux of the problem). But in subtle ways both of these authors show themselves not quite able to…

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Robert Bellah’s Powerful Legacy: A Mixed Blessing for Religious Studies?

…e made a point of situating his notion of civil religion in a specifically American context. Bellah’s American civil religion appealed explicitly to Biblical archetypes like “God,” “Election,” “Providence” and such. They fit comfortably into the vocabulary and practices of American civil religion because of the very different historical conditions of the American founding. A notion like sacrificial death, for instance, found ready appeal at a time…

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American Jews: From Holocaust to New Age Hasidism?

…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’…

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American Indians Irate over Bin Laden Code Name “Geronimo”

…braves, warriors, and Geronimo are only part of the rich history of Native Americans. Until that history and its lessons are woven into the fabric of the American consciousness, we will continue to squander precious resources around the world failing to hear the same message over and over again. Steven Newcomb, a Shawnee Indian, said it best in a column in Indian Country Today: What the hell were they thinking… the code name was based on an extens…

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