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A Catholic’s Eulogy for the Harvard “Black Mass” Controversy

By Craig A. Ford Jr.

…he doing of good. But with respect to the black mass we have rejected that spirit and capitulated to a culture of abjection and hysteria. We heard the words “Satanist” and “black mass,” and quickly turned our eyes, ears, and hearts away from these people, assuring ourselves that we knew exactly what was going on, and that we wanted nothing to do with them. But what did we actually “know”? Much of the discussion in the Catholic world surrounding th…

The Sacred and the Dead: Truckin’ as a New American Pilgrimage

By Varun Soni

…igious moniker, the band members all have spoken in great detail about the spiritual foundations of the Grateful Dead universe. Reflecting upon the music and message of the 1960s, Garcia said, “For me, the lame part of the Sixties was the political part, the social part. The real part was the spiritual part.” For Garcia, the Grateful Dead’s music could serve as a “signpost to a new consciousness” by challenging the listener to become “an understan…

Why So Many American Christians Don’t Understand Protest

By Leah Pannell

…ord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). I’m thankful for the men and women trying to bring order and an end to the violence and unrest. Graham had much to say about the Charlotte protesters and the violence reported, but he didn’t seem to prioritize the violence the protesters were responding to. Graham and Swinney’s responses are representative of the sentiment I encountered from many in my Christian c…

Bachmann Weaves Own Salvation Story into Christian Nation Mythology

By Sarah Posner

…hool, God gave her a “life verse,” 2 Corinthians 3:17 (Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.) And she used that “life verse” to wrap her own salvation story into an Christian American exceptionalism narrative. Liberty, said Bachmann “is the great animating principle of this nation.” Jesus, she went on, “came to set the captives free.” That, she went on, “is the essence of the founding of this nation.” B…

The Many, Not the Few: An Anthem for Occupy

By Elizabeth Drescher

…nce between his stage and that of the protesters, but Makana sees the same spirit of aloha—a spirituality lost, like so many Hawai’ian protest songs, on many outsiders—as animating even angry dissent with love: It takes great courage and self-sacrifice to protest something that you feel is unjust and is causing harm to people… All I can do is look at what’s going on and envision in my heart that people come from a place of love and kindness—all pe…

Yes, Virginia: There IS a War on Christmas: Its Revolutionary Meaning is Inverted in the Winner-Take-All Era

By Peter Laarman

…dered efficient (in Harvard Business School terms) as it fuels the porcine spirits needed to propel a robust capitalism. Likewise, nothing brings the reality of the lives of the poor home like spending even the tiniest amount of time with people who are not making it at all: with people who are living in unheated tenements or living rough on the street. Children, for God’s sake, suffering exposure and malnutrition right under our noses in This Gre…

Black Episcopal Congregation Celebrates Lesbian Marriage

By Rev. Irene Monroe

…e than one way to look at each one of those verses. If we believe that the Spirit continues to guide the church in the interpretation of scripture, as was done with respect to slavery and the status of women, then we have to consider the possibility that the Spirit is speaking today, as the hearts and minds of so many people at so many levels of Bible scholarship no longer read those verses as a blanket condemnation of same-sex relationships, or a…

Rethinking Religion After Latest Holistic Death

By Joseph Laycock

…mulate the experience of birth. The therapists received prison sentences of 16 years. In 2009, two people died in a poorly constructed homemade sweat lodge during a five-day “Spiritual Warrior” retreat organized by James Arthur Ray, a self-help expert who appeared on Oprah and in the film The Secret. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation consulted Dianne Casoni, a criminologist from the University of Montreal who studies “cultic groups,” including…

Loving Uganda to Death: The Global Reach of Far-Right Christian Hatred

By Peter Montgomery

…wing same-sex couples to get married would unleash “sexual insanity” and a spirit “more demonic than Islam.” Williams does not delve deeply into IHOP’s dominionist worldview, but IHOP officials tell him about the ambitious goals they have for their 1,000-person staff: a vision of one million new Christian soldiers who will win one billion souls—and raising one trillion dollars to make it happen. They tell young followers, “You’re going to take ove…

Does Record Number of Religious “Nones” Mean Decline of Religiosity?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…percent of all adults.” (Emphasis added.) Does this mean that Nones eschew spiritual community? My own research for a forthcoming book on the spiritual lives of Religious Nones suggests otherwise. Though my research is very preliminary at this stage, the desire for community in which religious or spiritual concerns can be shared consistently emerges from interviews with self-identified Nones. That doesn’t, however, mean they’re looking for a commu…