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“You Lie!”: Messing with American Mass

By Ben Brazil

…or less. In a nation that seems bereft of any unity, and that has a nationalist and militaristic streak, the notion of a meaningful civil religion carries a whiff of the ridiculous or the dangerously naive. Yet prophetic reformers from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Frederick Douglass have relied on it when they called on the nation to pay more than lip service to our highest ideals. In fact, it was his voicing of these sentiments at the 2004 Democra…

Zeitgeist A Blend Of Skepticism, Metaphysical Spirituality, and Conspiracy

By Michael J. Altman

…iversal humanity. Such a vision dates back to American metaphysicals like Ralph Waldo Emerson and 19th century utopian communities. It’s a vision that Walt Whitman called “the divine ideas of spirituality.” The religion in Zeitgeist draws on multiple sources in an American tradition of metaphysical religion that is skeptical of organized (often Christian) religious institutions and hopeful in its spiritual vision. But it is also a film that draws…

Mental Health is a Spiritual and Religious Issue

By Joanna Brooks

…ue leadership. Stricter gun control regulations? Slim chance. Improved mental health services? An impossibility in cash-strapped states like Arizona. I’m sort of ashamed to admit it now, but in the first hours after the shooting, I went to the internet—then awash in conflicting reports about the fate of Gabrielle Giffords—with one question in mind: was the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, a Mormon like me? In Arizona, where 6% of the population is LDS…

Creationism and Evolution are Competing ‘Myths’

By Kelly E. Hayes

…gh the earth itself only assumed its present geological form after the global flood described in Genesis 7-8, the story of Noah’s ark. For the present discussion, one of the most interesting aspects of the museum is its efforts to discredit evolution as a false story while promoting the creation account in Genesis as both authoritative and scientifically credible. According to Lincoln, there are several ways that mythic discourse can be deployed…

Missouri Pastor Goes Viral on Gawker: ‘Separation of Church and Hate’

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…ly taking place in our city about the ordinance. I saw an article from the Miami Herald that helped jump start the process, and soon thereafter I came across a sermon preached by Bob Jones on Easter Sunday in 1960, in which he (as I understand it) was partly responding to Billy Graham’s move toward advocating for social reforms in the South. I did a bunch of Google searches related to strings like “sermons on segregation” or “sermons supporting ra…

May We All Be More Like Dick Molpus

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…“classic Dick Molpus” might actually be. And then, by all means, go and commit all the classic Dick Molpuses your little heart desires. The world will be better off for it. First, some background: The Daily Show lampooned former Mississippi Secretary of State Dick Molpus on its Feb. 20 episode. It seems that when Mississippi finally voted, in 1995, to ratify the 13th amendment outlawing slavery, Molpus’ office neglected to send a copy of the legis…

The Year in Mormons: Top 7 Stories of 2012

By Joanna Brooks

…t behind Romney, setting aside longstanding antipathy towards Mormons. Never mind the random anti-Mormon postcard mailings from roadside ministries in Florida. The big names in evangelical Christianity pretty much agreed as of September 2012 to support Mitt Romney. Even Billy Graham scrubbed an anti-Mormon “cult” reference from his website. And the rank-and-file pretty much followed, turning out in greater proportions for Romney than they did for…

National Catholic Reporter Endorses Women’s Ordination

By Megan Sweas

…nts out the case of Sr. Carmel McEnroy, and Sr. Louise Lears also comes to mind. Bill Callahan is another case in point, though the excuse used for expelling him from the Jesuits was not as clear as in Roy’s case. And there have been countless others. But I’m left to wonder: Did the persecution of a man make a difference? OK, maybe not, but I’m just wondering. It’s a valid point, NCR’s editor Dennis Coday told me, but it wasn’t about Father Roy. T…

Church Uses Facebook for Sacramental Scrutiny at its Peril

By Elizabeth Drescher

…last few years, the Roman Catholic Church continues to struggle with digital ministry practice, particularly where new media intersects the Church’s medieval sacramental structure. In 2011, a new smartphone app aimed to support preparation for and the practice of confession ended up generating more confusion than contrition when a not particularly social design invited people to conclude that absolution was granted by way of the Confession app i…

Savita Halappanavar’s Heartbreaking Death

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…y Ms. Halappanavar’s request for an abortion was denied. (University Hospital Galway, where she died, is not a Catholic hospital.) Those who defend Ireland’s abortion ban have suggested that she may have died from the delayed administration of antibiotics, and not, strictly speaking, for lack of an abortion. (Which… I mean, I’m not that sort of doctor. But this person is, and she says that the standard of care is “hastening delivery by the safest…