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Jesus Has Left the Building: Celebrating the Next Reformation

By Donna Schaper

…eran or Presbyterian was. Now most people who still believe with a gracing Spirit don’t really care what they are in the first place. That applies unless you are the type of conservative Christian who has a theology of blame and shame or what I call “punishmentalism.” Then you still want to “get it right.” The mainlines are the old lines, and the evangelicals’ dogmatism will soon be there as well. Gratia always escapes religious tendrils and chain…

UK Muslims & the “War on Christmas”

By Svend White

…o-way street. Christians are going to celebrate Christmas and their higher numbers in society are going to naturally translate into a higher cultural profile for their festivities, but that doesn’t absolve the majority from its responsibility to recognize and strive to accommodate the sensibilities of other, non-Christian communities and traditions. When that responsibility to be open to diversity is systematically neglected, otherwise innocent ex…

Paranormal Vodka, Exorcists and a Demonic Doll: Welcome to Paracon, Based on the Work of the Demon-Hunters Who Inspired the ‘Conjuring’ Series

By Eric Harrelson and Joseph P. Laycock

…uding a self-proclaimed archbishop and a reiki-practicing nun. Any and all spiritual beliefs seem to be welcome, even though Ed Warren constantly warns about the dangers of meddling with “the occult.” According to Ed, demon possession doesn’t just happen, it has to be invited. This happens in what he calls the first stage of possession, or Encroachment: “First occurs the encroachment—or permission—stage, where a negative spirit is given access to…

Running Against the Devil: Trump’s Conspiracy-Laden Fight Against Powers of Darkness

By Carmen Celestini

…ecipice of the ultimate battle between good and evil came with Wikileaks’ “Spirit Dinner” tweet alleging that Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta was invited to a satanic “Spirit Dinner” where human blood, breast milk and semen would be included in the meal. Wikileaks, and the media response to this accusation, brought forward the conspiratorial link to Hillary Clinton working for Evil, and Donald Trump as the hero for Good. The linking of cons…

5 Reasons That Cartoons Are the 21st Century’s Great Metaphysical Playground

By Ilana E. Strauss

…hishi, which is set in a world where a man named Ginko solves Shinto-esque spirit-related problems So what makes the medium so ideally suited to metaphysical musing? I can think of at least five reasons: 1. There are no physical limitations. You can make cartoon characters grow, shrink, turn into things, toss around the Sun like a football—whatever you want. Any thought experiment that can be visualized can be animated. For instance, in one episod…

Why It’s Heresy to Read the Bible Literally: An Interview with John Shelby Spong

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…us. When Elijah ascends into heaven he sends a double portion of his human spirit onto his human disciple. When Jesus ascends into heaven he sends the infinite power of God’s holy spirit on the whole gathered community sufficient to last through all of time. You’ve got to see the connections between these stories before they make sense. It gives you an alternative to biblical fundamentalism. That’s not original to the text. We imposed fundamentali…

Sikh Prof. Prabhjot Singh Was Not The ‘Victim’ of a Hate Crime

By Simran Jeet Singh

…ral passage, is likewise illustrated in the following account. In the early 18th century, Sikhs became targets of state-sanctioned persecution. The ruling elite in Punjab offered a reward for every Sikh captured, dead or alive, and official policies barred Sikhs from congregating in public settings. In the 1730s Bhai Mani Singh (1737 CE), a prominent Sikh leader, petitioned Governor Zakariya Khan for permission to gather in the historic city of Am…

Heresy, Bad Taste, or Capitalist Adventure: Is it Still Pentecostalism?

By Anthea Butler

…various New Testament Texts (including I Corinthians 12:8-10, I Corinthians 12:28, and Romans 12:3-8). These gifts/practices include healings, exorcism, speaking and interpretation of tongues, words of wisdom, and prophetic utterances. Speaking in tongues, or glossolialia, has been considered the primary practice of Pentecostals. Today, despite the occasional outbursts of televangelists, a substantial number of Pentecostals do not engage in the pr…

Cafeteria Christianity in the Age of Social Media: What’s Old Is New Again

By Kate Blanchard

…o Germanic Christians; the break-up between Eastern and Western churches in 1054 was largely a matter of Roman intolerance of Eastern variety; and medieval inquisitions existed for the purpose of cracking down on unlawful Christian variations. This is to say nothing of the picking and choosing unleashed in the 16th century by Luther and his ilk. (What could be more ironic than any Protestant pointing fingers at anyone about picking and choosing?)…

Mitt’s Jesus, Barack’s Jesus, and Why Christ’s Color Matters

By Joanna Brooks

…quite intention. Madison Grant (the spokesman for “Nordic whiteness” in the 1910s and 1920s) discussed explicitly Jesus as “Nordic” as part of his attack upon immigration from Asia and Southern and Eastern Europe. Klan members of his age, likewise, linked the racial body of Jesus to their racial national view. Of course, other times, the imaging is unintentional or at least never spoken. When Mormons erected the Christus statue in the middle of th…