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Soccer and the Sublime in the Shadow of Apartheid

…further death threats, back-door deals, and fundamental greed, all at the expense of locals. Which brings us to the paradox of it all. The tournament starts today. For good or ill, the tournament’s eminence has vanquished concerns of these less noble attributes, even for the locals of Nelspruit. The game will unify people, and mollify hardship for the present. It will not end it, but it provides a respite. Some might call it tragic delusion—opiate…

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A Real-Life Truman Show?

…or their families, but the group of eight- and ten-year-olds sat silently except for the sound of them slurping from their juice boxes. Finally, the woman gave up and began the prayer herself. She thanked God for all his blessings. She made no mention of the oil spill disaster or of the people whose lives had been destroyed by it. Rather, she asked God to continue to bestow his bountiful blessings on the children and their families. Later, I learn…

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Glenn Beck’s ‘Social Justice’ Heresies

…Party of today—primarily because the Progressive Socialist Party doesn’t exist (unless his purview now extends to Lebanese politics). It’s impossible to discuss the history of the social justice movement without bringing in the father of the social gospel, the theologian Walter Rauschenbusch. But while Beck and Barton ignore Rauschenbusch, Beck does bring up Father Coughlin—to whom Beck owes a debt for his invention of hate radio—because Coughlin…

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Pat Robertson’s Women Warriors Leading Spiritual Warfare In Zimbabwe

…to include or permit same-sex unions to be prohibited,” as well as for “sexual relations between partners of the same-sex, bestiality, and other perversions to remain a criminal activity.” Both Mugabe and Tsvangirai agree that homosexuality should remain illegal. Mugabe has, for example, called LGBT people “worse than dogs and pigs” and his regime has harassed, censored, and interfered with members of the nation’s only LGBT rights organization, G…

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Still Trying to Get Creationism into Science Classes

…the Dover trial, she was its most damning witness. In her testimony, she exposed how the intelligent design textbook Of Pandas and People was initially a creationist text. But following the US Supreme Court’s 1987 decision in Edwards v. Aguillard, in which the teaching of creation science was ruled unconstitutional to teach in public schools, its editors simply replaced the phrase with “intelligent design.” Forrest also unearthed the quote of DI…

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Growing Up Gay in 666: Fred Phelps in Retrospect

…christ. The fact that the US Postal Service assigned “666” as Topeka’s zip code prefix the year I was born underscored my destiny as ultimate evil; even if Phelps said that about all homosexuals. Phelps is currently making his case about homosexuality to the US Supreme Court in Snyder v. Phelps. Legal scholars think the case is about First Amendment freedoms of speech and religion; military families think it’s about honoring our war dead; and many…

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God Bless Islam with Courageous Leadership

…ely and help people think imaginatively? Or does he focus on impieties and promote the virtues of paraphernalia like the dress code and the mandatory length of facial hairs? If the imam is as wise as the religious leader in the Canadian sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie, it will be a huge step up. Mosque committees share their burden of responsibility too. Often they appoint preachers by applying the lowest and cheapest standard; theological div…

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Islamic Intellectual Leadership at a Crossroads

…t ideas, and right actions, iman wa al-‘a’mal al-salihah. The relationship between orthodoxy and orthopraxis has come under attack recently, and by these three scholars in particular. If you challenge some of the presumptions about orthodoxy, you effect change in orthopraxis and all of these men were vanguards in this respect. Islam is built upon ideas. If we contribute to the world of ideas in any way, but in particular in such a way that everyon…

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‘Atheizing’ the Dead, Religious Doughnuts, & Tax-Free Witching

…to the billboard as poking “a finger in your eye.” Federal prosecutors are suing the city of Walnut, California for refusing a zoning permit to a group building a new Zen center. In Rockland County, New York, authorities are expecting sanitation violations by Orthodox Jews who perform the ritual of kaparot—which involves slaughtering a chicken. The ultra-Orthodox community in the county has rung up $15,000 in fines related to the ritual since 2007…

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Values Voters Summit: Preaching Wins the Morning

…tray constitutional rights as divinely ordained, and a government that is exceeding authority they claim was given it by God. See my dispatch from Ralph Reed’s conference last weekend. But to win over this crowd, the presidential hopefuls — and tea party king- and queenmakers like Michele Bachmann and Jim DeMint — have to know how to preach it. That was something that some speakers this morning — DeMint and Bachmann, as well as Mike Huckabee and M…

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