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Obama to Cave on Bush Tax Cuts: Letter to the Washingtonians, Chapter 1

By Daniel Schultz

…l data was routed through the Trade Center. “The printers are spitting out page after page of garbage,” she said before she rushed back to the office. I met a young Marine in the back of the coffee shop, nodded to him, knowing he would soon be at war. Traffic stopped, there were no planes in the sky, the phone didn’t ring. I supported the war to come, with only the reservation of who held the keys of command. Still, the enemies of the good must be…

Dear Scientists: Please Stop Bashing Free Will!

By John Horgan

…grabs things (including other people) without any conscious intent on the part of its mortified owner. Neurosurgeons preparing the brain of an epileptic before surgery can make the patient’s arm pop up like an eager student’s by electrically stimulating the motor cortex. The patient often insists that she meant to move the arm and even invents a reason why: She was waving to that nurse walking by the door! Neurologists call these erroneous, post-…

Why I Won’t Leave the Mormon Church Alone

By Holly Welker

…I studied its texts, learned its doctrines. I went through the temple and participated in the rituals there. I served a mission, learning Mandarin Chinese so that I could teach the Mormon gospel in Taiwan. Given the depth of my attachment to Mormonism, the decision to leave was correspondingly agonizing. As I know from discussing the topic with former Mormons from England, Belgium, Germany, and South Africa, the rupture can be harrowing even for…

Gen X, Gadgets, and God

By Elizabeth Drescher

…p the interactive nature of new digital media, which invites both vertical participation between traditionally authoritative sources (like clergy) and laypeople of all ages and horizontal participation across affiliated sectors (such as young adults, Gen-Xers, and so on). Once the novelty of the new church toy wears thin, the falseness of its claim to cultural relevancy is revealed. An MP3 player loaded by the pastor is just a weird grownup’s mix…

Ricky Gervais: Why I’m an Atheist

By Lauri Lebo

…ou need to know to keep on reading? I’d cheerfully watch that man read the phone book. So, when my buddy Rev. El Mundo sent me the link to the comedian’s message, I eagerly clicked on it. I was surprised when I saw this wasn’t a clip of his latest hysterical stand up, but an essay he penned for the Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog. The topic of his essay was how he came to be an atheist. The whole piece is here. While there is humor in the pie…

Pope Invites his Flock to Join Facebook: Is the Digital Reformation Here?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…to me,” I thought, as I headed to the backyard with a cup of coffee and Il Papa’s latest digital missive. “New Forms of Shared Awareness” I couldn’t possibly have expected the day to offer much more than a thumbs up from one of leading thinkers and activists on education, spirituality, and social change. But it turned out that the Pope seems to have cribbed much of my commentary on his 2010 letter on digital social media. Whereas that letter focus…

Looking For Answers at the Oscars: A Guide to This Year’s Contenders

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…w media—but also in social institutions at all levels. Pope Benedict XVI apparently agrees, (as noted in these pages by Elizabeth Drescher last month) and has stated recently, “I would like then to invite Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible.” As if Zuckerberg’s kudos from Time weren’t enough, one of the year’s top films made him a hero…

Mitt, the Marriotts, and Porn

By Joanna Brooks

…n knowledge that porn was the major driver of internet technological and capacity innovation before the advent of the smart phone. And if we want to start a serious conversation about where presidential candidates get their money and how ethical that money is, let’s do it. I have a laundry list of labor, environmental, feminist, and human rights issues with multinational corporations I’d love to start working through. But don’t give me a thin, o…

Lila Rose Targets Planned Parenthood with Lies

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…in to bring about a greater good. That point was made in oh, say, the 1968 papal encyclical reaffirming the Catholic Church’s ban on artificial birth control. “Neither is it valid to argue,” the encyclical states, “that a lesser evil is to be preferred to a greater one… [I]t is never lawful, even for the gravest reasons, to do evil that good may come of it[.]” (Humanae Vitae II.14) Awkward. Now, that’s not to say that all of Live Action’s employee…

“God Created You”: Bishop Supports Gay Ugandans, Defies Death Threats

By Jocelyn Edwards

…by Kato. “According to the suspect, he negotiated with the deceased to be paid money as he was to be used as a sexual partner,” said Kayihura. But the LGBT community in Uganda has said that they fear a cover-up by a government trying to downplay the homophobia in the East African nation. The proposal of last year’s anti-gay bill in the country’s parliament provoked a firestorm of criticism in the international community, with donors—who account f…