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Oprah, Terrorist Cells, and the Meaning of Life: An Interview with Paul Froese

By Andrew Aghapour

…that, every December, America collectively visits its family. Every year, millions of families unplug from their day-to-day lives and reunite. Siblings compare their parallel lives. We peruse old photo albums and take mental snapshots of our aging parents, forming a past-and-future flip book of our own aging bodies. We get scared. We tell old stories and overeat. New Year’s resolutions are what happen when bloated Americans go back to their lives,…

Under Water: Waiting for the Flood (of Awareness) in Louisiana

By Drew Konow

…ain invisible, and compound suffering. Once the water levels recede there will be mildew, endless piles of paperwork, jambalaya fundraisers, innumerable hours and countless dollars spent reassembling now-waterlogged lives. The news crews will be long gone by then, chasing someone else’s pain. Some of the stories they will miss are those with the deepest meaning: the next Thanksgiving dinner at my great-grandparents’ table, communities coming toget…

Joyless Primaries Grind On

By Joanna Brooks

…a few free minutes after a church meeting. “Now, I’m going to serve my family,” said the father, bringing the call to a close. “Because that’s what I do.” And Mitt Romney is going to serve his country. Because that’s what he does. Like it or not. That joyless put-your-shoulder-to-the-wheel tenacity is setting the tone for the GOP primaries. Onward grinds the contest, protracted unnaturally by super PAC money, and delivering few surprises: Romney…

Not All American Muslims Feel the Dread I Do

By Huma Mohibullah

…(correctly) at the uncertainty consuming me. Similar messages poured in by phone, email and social media throughout the day. It was as if someone in my family had died and people felt compelled to offer me condolences. The reality of living in a country in which the most blatant expressions of Islamophobia and other forms of hate are normalized does worry me. Even as Trump flip-flops on his promise of a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims ente…

The Banality of Bernie

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…Madoff, like Hitler, could have succeeded but for the strange mingling of ill judgment and ill fortune. The reckless decision to invade Russia. Madoff’s lavish and even reckless spending in 2006 and 2007. The long Stalingrad winter. The economic downturn of 2008. Squillari’s conclusion is very clear: but for the skittishness of his biggest investors, many of whom demanded big-time cash redemptions in late 2008 totalling some $7 billion, Bernie Ma…

These Are the New Battlegrounds for LGBT Rights Under Trump

By Sunnivie Brydum

…d perhaps before), it’s reasonable to assume similar “turn away the gays” bills will be introduced in state legislatures, likely under the guise of “religious freedom.” Take Care of Our Health Care Like most of Trump’s cabinet nominees and advisers, the potential Secretary of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price, has a long history of opposing LGBT-inclusive policies. Price, specifically, is a staunch opponent of the Affordable Care Act, and…

Mother (Nature) Will Eat You: Lars von Trier’s Antichrist

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…rk Film Festival, along with about 700 other attendees. I wish I had their phone numbers; even the disgusted dozens who walked out halfway through. I’d like to call them at 3:00 a.m. and ask what they are thinking about, what they are dreaming, if indeed they are sleeping. I need some therapy. This is one messed-up film. The beauty of Antichrist is in distinct contrast to many of von Trier’s previous films. From the early 1990s until now, his film…

It’s Barack v. the Bible, Says Barton

By Paul Harvey

…hn Fea’s auto-da-fé came not only in the comments section, but in nasty emails, phone calls, and demands for his firing from Messiah College. As he discovered, the culture wars are real, and practiced even on those (like Fea) who largely have been critical of Obama’s actual implementation of his promises about faith-based policies. More important than these blogosphere wars, however, is understanding something deeper about these screeds about Obam…

Global LGBT Recap: Culture War Claims More Victims

By Peter Montgomery

…at criminalizing homosexuals.” Discussing this division among Catholics, William Lindsey writes at Bilgrimage: As Kevin Clarke indicates, the Southern Cross editorial also states flatly, “It would require a very peculiar reading of the Gospel to locate Jesus anywhere else but at the side of the marginalised and vulnerable.” At the Bondings blog of New Ways Ministry, Bob Shine points out that Fides, the Vatican news agency, has now published the S…

Southern Baptist Convention Kicks Out Gay Attendees, Waffles on White Supremacists

By Sunnivie Brydum

…our registration and force us to leave,” Robertson concluded. “I felt the full weight of their fear, and where there is such fear, we can be certain that there is no possibility of love. Phone calls and an email inquiry to representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention were not returned….