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The Jihadi Revolution is Dead (But Bin Laden’s Death Didn’t Kill It)

By Mark Juergensmeyer

In the first moments after the announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed by an American military raid in Pakistan, some commentators observed that the War on Terror was also, now, officially dead. The imagined war of the Bush era may indeed be over. And the jihadi insurrection associated with bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization may also be dead. But I suspect that the real perpetrators of their deaths may not have been the elite Ameri…

Prosperity Gospel and Foreclosure

By Sarah Posner

A headline caught my eye this morning: “Indiana’s Largest Megachurch Faces New Foreclosure Proceedings.” It made me think of Steve Munsey, an Indiana prosperity preacher I watched in a Decatur, Georgia television studio in 2007, pleading for audience members and viewers to give their money to the Trinity Broadcasting Network. As it turns out, the story is about Munsey’s church, Family Christian Center, which claims to have a weekly attendance of…

A Matter of the Heart: Talking to Gay Christian Rocker Jennifer Knapp

By Kristin Rawls

…genre’s biggest star between 1998 and 2002, when—citing burnout—she walked away from the industry. Eight years later, Knapp returned with a mainstream rock album called Letting Go. And she came out publicly as a lesbian [as Douglas Harrison covered at that time, here on RD –Eds.]. Recently, I caught up with Knapp to discuss what motivated her to return to music and what she struggles with being both gay and Christian. We also discussed the public’…

Crisis in Sudan: ‘If the World Stands Idly By This Time, They Will Bring Genocide’

By Frederick Clarkson

If Anglican Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail of Kadugli, Sudan had not been in Denver receiving medical treatment in early June, he might be in a mass grave now. He certainly thinks so. Andudu shared his thoughts on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan in an interview with Religion Dispatches as he drove from Denver to DC, where international media, members of Congress, and human rights groups waited to hear his story. The Sudan Armed Forces invaded the pro…

The Pundits and the Dominionists

By Julie Ingersoll

…blican presidential hopefuls, “dominionism” has garnered a good bit of media attention—Michelle Goldberg’s piece “A Christian Plot for Domination?” at the Daily Beast, Ryan Lizza’s piece “The Transformation of Michele Bachmann” at The New Yorker, and a piece at the Texas Observer, “Rick Perry’s Army of God,” by Forrest Wilder. The increase in coverage of the religious right’s longterm strategy to transform American culture has led to a number of…

Pat Robertson’s Women Warriors Leading Spiritual Warfare In Zimbabwe

By Sarah Posner

…iritual warfare,” the idea that God has anointed his “generals” to defeat Satan and bring the world to Christ. During this pre-conference prayer session, the group prays for a “mega-breakthrough” and for God to “take down the enemy.” It’s not a war of flesh and blood, conference speakers are quick to point out, but against the evil evident everywhere around us: in the “total moral decay” of America; in the nearby “liberal” Indiana University; in t…

Students at Conservative Catholic College Speak After Sudden Cancellation of Pro-Gay Speaker

By Rob Shryock

…T-unfriendly, it prides itself on fostering dialogue. In that spirit, nine academic departments at Providence co-sponsored a lecture by John Corvino, a pro-gay-marriage philosopher whose website is called “The Gay Moralist.” Corvino’s lecture, “The Meaning of (Gay) Marriage” was to be given on Thursday, September 26th, and would be followed by a critical response from Providence theology professor Dr. Dana Dillon. What happened next has been wide…

Report from Paris During COP21: Let Us Not Commit Global Suicide

By Donna Schaper

…flyways for birds, open sourcing markets as great as the old silk roads. Managing feedback loops. What happens next? Old fertilizer is a negative feedback loop. Compost is a positive one. Complex systems thinking, which knows that even the rich are just a part of the picture. Nesting governance, decisions made locally and then nested. Encouraging ongoing learning. The resilience of the skateboarders will save us. The world’s leaders may not. Many…

Dirty Money in the Appalachian Church: Six Years After Deadly Coal Mine Disaster, Where Are We Now?

By Michael J. Iafrate

…nd the neck of its own credibility. People of faith who seek justice in Appalachia, and who are conscious of the role that King Coal plays here, have been asking whether dirty money from the fossil fuel industries is compromising the church’s prophetic voice. “Why does [the Diocese] not oppose the coal industry’s death-dealing safety violations, its repeated attempts to cheat retired miners out of their pensions and health care packages, and the o…

Why Changes in Reporting Won’t Fix the Catholic Church’s Sexual Abuse Problem

By Angela Bonavoglia

…iliation at the hands of Catholic priests? Haven’t we heard enough of the salacious details of religiously inspired rape, sodomy, and sadomasochism? Haven’t we spent enough time hearing the canned responses of Catholic spokespeople, full of empty platitudes and repeated requests that we “pray for the priests,” as Msgr. Robert Ritchie, rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, did just a Sunday ago? We know what has to be done and so do they….