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Can a Greek Monastery Be Ground Zero of Global Financial Meltdown?

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…nister of Finance was forced to conclude in exasperation “that it would be cheaper and more efficient to put all of Greece’s rail passengers into taxicabs.” The public schools operate with surprising inefficiency, with students scoring the lowest numbers in Europe despite having four times as many teachers as Europe’s highest ranked system, in Finland. There are there separate government owned defense corporations. As for Greek health care, it is…

With Methodist LGBTQ Vote and GOP Support for Trump, White Protestantism Has Hit Bottom

By Peter Laarman

…ose reading of Scripture is cramped, at best. Seen in this context, it’s a cheap dodge for liberals within the UMC to blame churches and delegates from the Global South for the vote to retain (and even heighten) the denomination’s ban on all things queer. Yes, the UMC does have a much heavier Global South representation in its governance than any of the other “sisters”; fully 41% of the delegates in St. Louis represented churches outside of the Un…

This is Not a Religion Column: Christian Candidate Quiz Bowl

By Jeff Sharlet

…the story survives. It must; it’s as old as the nation, and there is no America without fundamentalism. That’s not to say that America was founded as a Christian nation, as fundamentalists claim, or that fundamentalism contributes something essential to democracy. Hardly; it strains against democracy, longing not for the will of the people but for the strong hand of the Lord. But its ethos has been with us since the beginning. If the proto-fundame…

Dylann Roof Was Wrong: The Race War Isn’t Coming, It’s Here

By Willie James Jennings

…s the demographic wave moves across this country eroding a white-washed America and transforming a white majority to a historical fact discovered only in archives. This may help explain Dylann Roof’s actions but it does not explain away the horror he enacted. I will forever be haunted by two things. First, by his presence in the intimate space of that bible study, sitting there at a table with these saints of God who were seeking to hear a holy wo…

The Bible is a Good Book, But God Didn’t Write It

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…t they are doing is raising consciousness. I also think it’s dangerous. America reminds me of France before the revolution in the 18th century. What you get is polarized politics with an increasingly right-wing mentality and then you get a left-wing reaction, the center disappears and that’s what leads to civil wars. We’re in a down economy, there’s a lot of anger. It was a depression that brought Adolph Hitler into power—and he had a victim he co…

Changing the Jewish State and the State of Jews: J Street and the Future of Israel

By Mark LeVine

…Israeli Ambassador to the United States, is clearly very worried about American Jews losing faith or even interest in Israel. As an American himself, he knows that while support for Israel is extremely broad within the Jewish community, it is not necessarily that deep, and has to be reinforced continually to insure it is there when needed. And so, since his arrival as Ambassador, Oren has had a sharp eye out for dissent in the Jewish community, e…

Fear of a Catholic Ghetto

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…their rituals the subject of ridicule. They were suspected of being un-American, loyal to the Pope, incapable of liberty. At times Catholics were prevented from holding public office. In the mid-nineteenth century, while the number of Catholic hospitals was growing, the Know Nothing party organized around shared fears that Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Germany were overwhelming the country and acting against white Protestant interests. So…

Must We Burn Something to Get Attention?: 50 Years After the Catonsville Nine

By Jason C. Bivins

…ternational Religious Freedom, when Robert Jeffress is the poisonous voice sanctifying the American embassy’s relocation in Israel, when the Vice President of the United States understands Christianity as a “get out of jail free” card used to freely exercise open bigotry, it can seem pretty conclusive that power has prevailed over justice. But consider some other words of Daniel Berrigan’s: “Redeem the times! The times are inexpressibly evil. Chri…

Can I Get Some Birth Control Pills With That Slushie?: Unpacking the Contraceptive Mandate Rollback

By Sunnivie Brydum

…usly espoused this idea that contraceptives are so widely available and so cheap that the mandate was unnecessary. He said “all you have to do is walk into a 7-Eleven or any shop on any street in America and have access to them.” Opponents of the mandate have consistently belittled the idea that contraceptives are a significant health care cost for women despite the fact that, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, birth control comprises betw…

When Being “Christian” Means Supporting Trump: An Argument For Hiding Your Faith

By Jonathan Malesic

…nity to offer a public witness that doesn’t just coincide with strict partisanship. If being a Christian in America necessarily means supporting a racist, misogynist, xenophobic, untrustworthy and volatile wannabe dictator, then count me out. I am not arguing that Clinton is the obvious choice for Christian voters—as if there were such a thing as the obvious choice—just that Trump isn’t it. And in fact, not every Christian conservative leader has…