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Holey Holey Holey: The Problem with a New Study Valuing Religion at $1.2 Trillion Per Year

…etter-balanced understanding of the impact of religion on American society today.” But equating “the production of economic value” with “positive impact on society” seems disingenuous. And that apparent desire to overcorrect may have led to the study’s biggest problem. Other than a brief mention in their introduction and conclusion, the study doesn’t consider ways in which religion might detract from economic production. Devoting a half dozen sent…

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Before Breitbart: How Right Wing Media Transformed American Politics

…mainstream journalism created a space for conservative media to grow while promoting the notion of liberal media bias. This is how we wound up where we are today, with a plurality of Americans believing media are biased toward liberalism, and conservative media stronger than ever. It certainly seems like conservative media are stronger than ever—and maybe ultra conservative media especially. What do you make of the rise of Breitbart and comparable…

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Thoughts from the “Bad Hombre” Debate

…ht I’d feel better once the debates were over. I’d been looking forward to today as the beginning of the end of this interminable campaign—the moment when the light at the end of the tunnel came into view. In an election that’s seen sexual assault allegations, endorsements from white supremacists, and infiltration by Russian hackers take center stage, it’s no wonder that the most common comments I hear are variations on the same theme: are we ther…

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“Freedom” vs. “Liberty”: Why Religious Conservatives Have Begun to Favor One Over the Other

…erg, a linguist who teaches at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Even today, liberty still has 18th century connotations. “It’s a word that wears a three-corner hat,” said Nunberg. Following its starring role in the Declaration of Independence, liberty has slowly slipped out of common usage. By the middle of the 20th century, the United States was solidly the land of freedom, its politics marked by turf battles over the proper use of the word…

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Race, Reparations and the Search for Our Molecular Soul

…ience, and then you add to that DNA, which has been called things like the code of codes, the holy grail. We give it this kind of supernatural significance. So, I think it’s a combination of being a society that values data, being a society that equates progress with scientific development, and being a society that thinks that genetics—in part because DNA comes from you, from us, from we—is the ultimate information, the ultimate data. It’s like th…

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American Nuns and the Vatican: More Pain than Promise

…Roman officials smiled on her. While variety is good, efforts like this to promote one way to be religious and eclipse go against the grain. Feminine Genius or Feminist Genius? A close look at the text leaves me disconcerted on three additional fronts. First, there is the essentialism. Women’s “feminine genius” is a patriarchal fiction. Yet, it is trotted out time and again by Pope Francis and those who would curry his favor. In this report, “comp…

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Conservative Catholic Elites Oppose Trump… as He Rides Catholic Vote to Victory in Michigan

…?) And who were similarly silent when the party tried to capitalize on the coded racism of the anti-Obama forces in 2012 or upend the Affordable Care Act, even though the Catholic Church has been advocating for universal health care since Model Ts were on the road. And it’s even funnier that those who helped put Bush and Cheney in office and watched as they led the nation into endless, unwinnable wars, and justified torture to prevent an ever-pres…

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White Supremacy, Mental Illness, or Society: What’s to Blame for Religious Violence?

…specific set of institutions and political positions, is regularly used as code for “most of Islam.” And those who obsesses about Islamism often flirt with more bald-faced statements of Islamophobia. Critics of white supremacy and patriarchy, on the other hand, point out that these ideologies are pervasive in the culture at large. The blame casts a wide net, not in order to single out a minority group, but in order to implicate a culture that’s be…

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Anti-Gay Forces On Offense in Europe; ‘African Islam’ Challenged by Extremists; Irish Marriage Foes & ‘Sounds of Sodomy’; Global LGBT Recap

…der families and practices, comprehensive sexual education in schools, and promoting principles of gender equality. All those are claimed to be a result of imposed equality and de-naturalization. “Gender ideology” does not require additional explanations, for it essentially works as a threat: “Gender ideology preys on your children!” However, the concept of “gender ideology” has lately been criticized even from the theological circles; the hollow,…

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Corporate Personhood Was a Radical Notion… In the 11th Century

…ligious freedom. In the terms of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, these corporations are called “churches,” their “integrated auxiliaries,” and “conventions or associations of churches,” where churches are defined as a “subset of IRC 501(c)(3) organizations organized and operated for religious purposes.” Necessarily, such entities are artificial or fictive persons under the law, subjects capable of claiming rights and bearing respon…

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