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Does the Science Show that Spirituality Will Benefit Your Child?

By Michael Schulson

…tual Child Lisa Miller St. Martin’s Press (May 5, 2015) In The Spiritual Child, Miller draws on decades of research to argue that spirituality is important for children’s well-being and protective against depression, substance abuse, and other dangers. Miller approaches spirituality with a tactical pragmatism. The question here isn’t whether or not spiritual experience is verifiable. Instead, the questions are: does spiritual experience have verif…

Madoff, Through a Glass, Darkly

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…face.” Everything hinges on the architecture, not the architecture of a family, any family, but rather the literal architecture of Madoff’s three-story securities complex. The two boys worked on the 19th floor; the Ponzi scheme was handled on the 17th floor. The boys claim they hardly ever set foot on the 17th floor. Others insist that building floors are very porous membranes indeed. The money, like the guilt, flows freely. The mystery deepens in…

Pro-Choice, Progressive Jewish Groups Weigh In On Kagan

By Sarah Posner

…ll scrutinize her statements and writings to get a sense of her judicial philosophy and temperament and determine whether she will uphold the fundamental values that our Movement supports.” In the statement, Saperstein called Kagan “a trailblazer with a stellar reputation,” and urged swift Senate action on the nomination. In addition, he noted that the RAC had worked with Kagan “on an array of religious freedom, civil rights, and women’s rights is…

As Long As There’s Fear, We Aren’t Ready for Atheism: A Conversation with Theologian and Ex-Priest Daniel Maguire

By Alana Massey

…odus to the New Testament was the conviction that the given is not necessarily permanent. We can transcend it. In the vision of Isaiah there is a new heaven and a new earth, a new possibility, and a new testament. Transform everything in your thinking. Level every mountain, raise every valley. The great heresy of all time is, “There is no alternative.” The hell there isn’t! There are alternatives all over the place. That is what is at the heart of…

Is Pro-Life Cause Célèbre Chen Guangcheng Actually Pro-Life?

By Lindsay Beyerstein

…ation. In 2005 he exposed these coercive tactics. Forced abortions and sterilizations are illegal in China under a 2002 law that gives individuals the right to an “informed choice” in these matters. However, the central government publishes national population targets and holds local officials accountable for meeting them. Some officials resort to illegal and coercive tactics to meet their quotas. These abuses happen primarily in rural areas where…

Praying To The God Of The SUV

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…tember 11 had free will: they used it to hijack planes and fly them into buildings. The people going to work had free will: some called in sick, some had tight shoes and stopped for a Band-Aid. Some got to work early or came in on a day off. If God has granted us free will, then God must stand back and let us use it. Any other action means that we are simply automatons. There would be no need for free will if God is simply manipulating us in each…

Pro-Gay Marriage Mormon Keeps Faith Despite Church Pressure

By Joanna Brooks

…. During the 2000 Proposition 22 campaign in California, she had remained silent but feared that her silence signalled her consent. This time, after prayer, she felt directed to do it differently. So she sat down in a friend’s living room and held up for the camera a picture her three-year-old son had colored at nursery on Sunday bearing the caption: “I will love others.” “Pictures like these are the reasons I go to church,” she said. “So why is t…

A Religious History of American Neuroscience

By Leigh Eric Schmidt

…kind of hermit’s cell, a withdrawal into a narrow cave of isolation and bodily stillness. Would anyone ever expect such technology to generate a picture of the devotee’s commitment to ecclesiastical organizations, social solidarities, sacrificial systems, or gendered hierarchies? While this is a technology that James might well celebrate right along with Abraham Maslow, would it be of any use at all to Durkheim or Mary Douglas or Talal Asad? One o…

Battling for the Soul of the Democratic Party

By Sarah Posner

…eligious America are (and, moreover, in the wake of Obama’s election, who will get their phone calls returned from the White House) certain names keep cropping up. Pastor Rick Warren, who sees no daylight between his views and James Dobson’s, but who, according to Sullivan’s book, former-DNC-chair Terry McAuliffe blasphemously didn’t know; Jim Wallis, best-selling author and activist who lambasts the religious right for its petty intolerance and t…

Hillary Flirting with Fear

By Ira Chernus

…getting power of their “red phone at 3 a.m.” commercial, and they want to pile it on until they get the nomination. But the Clinton campaign is playing a very dangerous game. You can almost hear McCain’s people licking their lips and saying, “A campaign centered on national security and 3 a.m. world crises? Bring it on. Make our day on Election Day.” Because McCain has one card and one card only to play in this campaign: “No Surrender.” It may not…