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‘Soul of Yoga’ at Stake in Texas Regulation Push

…businesses more than corporate ones, the licensing requirement would limit free enterprise, which is acceptable only when the public good or safety is at stake. And modern yogis often avoid the term “religion” in order to avoid associating yoga with any authoritative institution or doctrine. But as a scholar of religion, I’ve been trained to think more broadly about how to define religion than most people would. And I would say that yoga, whether…

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Is the Satanic Temple Just an Elaborate Prank? 10 Questions for the Author of ‘Speak of the Devil’

…rbed to read some of TST’s Christian opponents openly renouncing religious freedom if it meant respecting the freedoms of Satanists. I also think TST is forcing the public to think more critically about what “religion” is. They are directly challenging the popular notion that religion is really about supernaturalism. I met several Satanists who had been hostile to the idea of “religion,” until they discovered TST and re-imagined what a religion co…

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The Sad Saga of a Compromised Rabbi

…eal of trust exists between us. Just as we do not plagiarize, we honor the code of privacy and do not make public that which was meant to remain private. For me, that trust was broken in the midst of this passionate debate in a way that tells me we have crossed a line. Writing a Facebook wall comment in response to a May 3rd debate between Gordis and Peter Beinart at Columbia University, I referred to Rabbi Gordis as a “tribal fascist.” The tribal…

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Art(ful) History in Texas

…s to the curriculum, but it also downplays the struggles that countless Americans have made against oppression. McLeroy said his goals have always been: Students should learn about “divine providence” and “In God We Trust”; children should understand the Constitution; they must understand that the United States is a “Constitutional republic”; and they must be taught the principles on which this country was founded, including “American exceptionali…

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The Secret History of Easter

…by comparison. These kinds of arguments are politically useful to anti-clerical movements like the French Revolution (and Lenin, who became a mythicist after reading Arthur Drew’s The Christ Myth). But they’re especially popular with right-wing Protestant conspiracy theorists, such as Jack Chick, who claims that Catholic communion wafers are actually “death cookies” that take their shape from Egyptian sun worship. The Dawkins Foundation’s claim a…

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Why Is Obama Reaching Out to Ravening Wolves?

…d landscape. As far as I can tell, Obama is accommodating the scaremongers today mainly because they have the inside muscle to force him to their table. He needs to make a show of engaging their concerns about a looming structural deficit. But Peterson’s insider muscle-flexing cannot fully account for Obama’s independent announcement that he will seek to halve the federal debt load (in relation to GDP) by 2013. Although the White House isn’t sayin…

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Dear President Bush

…done, and I am afraid you may be closer to that than you realize. When Hurricane Katrina happened you stayed on vacation (I just learned today my tax money paid for you to spend one year, 1/8th!, of your presidency at your ranch in Texas) instead of getting to work. And then with black people floating on New Orleans’ streets you said you couldn’t wait to chill on the racist Trent Lott’s new porch. It made me wonder if Kanye West was right. Do you…

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What This All-Star Christian Movie Gets Wrong About Christianity

…e. I have not been able to find reference to them in the criminal or civil code of Illinois, where the movie is set. I did learn that many EMTs in Chicago are employed by private companies, in which case such an employee would not be violating the establishment clause by proselytizing.) This is the movie’s big theological problem: a firm certainty that if it seems Christian to you, it probably is Christian, and is therefore a good thing in exactly…

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Religious Freedom Battle Is Far From Over: Here’s What to Look for in 2019

…ination, has only a thin and ambiguous record on cases involving religious freedom—will come out. And only time will reveal whether the rhetoric of religious freedom will remain a rallying cry on the right, or become one on the left. Already reports are suggesting that some moderate evangelical groups are preparing to follow in the footsteps of the Mormon church by supporting LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws in return for rigorous religious freedom pr…

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Conservative Catholics Unhappy About New Book on LGBTs and The Church; and More in the Global LGBT Recap

…an political class is ashamed of it.” Tanzania: Government cracks down on ‘promoting gayism’ At BuzzFeed, Edith Honan reviews the country’s crackdown on LGBT people and any groups deemed to be “promoting gayism” and the consequent threat to public health. Gay sex has been a crime in Tanzania, punishable with life in prison, since British colonial rule, but there is no record of anyone serving serious time for it. LGBT Tanzanians have always been a…

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