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Hajj Journal: Tawaf: How I Fell in Love…

By Amina Wadud

…getting ever more taut. Soon, she just disappeared. At another point, an African guy circled close enough to me from behind that his elbow stayed square in my back for more than one of the sides; and so, I told him, in English too, “remove your elbow from my back,” and he did, and then he too disappeared. At the 6th round, I was certain that we would not get close enough to touch the black stone, touch the Ka’abah, kiss the black stone, or even se…

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…

Seeking Broad Appeal to US Christians, ‘God & Country: The Rise of Christian Nationalism’ Glosses Over Critical Context

By Chrissy Stroop

…er, the author of White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, not only provides sharp analysis, but also unequivocally states that theocracy in America is possible and refreshingly rejects the narrative put forth by the vast majority of the documentary’s Christian interviewees. “One of the biggest fallacies about religion and especially Christianity in particular is that somehow it’s going to make you meek, and docile, and under…

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…

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…

National Association of Evangelicals Supports Immigration Reform, But Elsewhere Discord Reigns

By Donna Schaper

…are suffering under our current immigration system’s inflexible and categorical laws with no allowance for individual circumstances. I believe that my faith calls me to work to change those laws, stop unjust deportations, give those worthy would-be Americans a chance. Those realities simply don’t match the realities seen by the CIS panelists. They call my version naïve; I think their version is too often just plain mean. Yet we all claim the same…

Want a Slurpee with Your Birth Control?

By Patricia Miller

…rd, all you have to do is walk into a 7-11 or any shop on any street in America and have access to them—is that right to access those and have them paid for, is that such a towering good that it would suffocate the rights of conscience?” It’s one of the bishops’ favorite arguments: that birth control is so cheap and so widely available that it isn’t even a question of whether the religious freedom of objecting organizations should be burdened by…

Religion Profs Critique PBS’ God Documentary, Call it Simplistic

By Matthew Avery Sutton

…en the academy and the public has dramatically grown. At the same time, Americans’ faith in (and their tax dollars contributed toward) American higher education has dramatically shrunk. Scholars are simply not doing a good enough job of making their research accessible and relevant to the public. Meanwhile, we have successfully mastered the art of boring people. PBS (especially its American Experience series) has stepped into the academy-public ga…