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Trump’s Evangelical Support in the Gut, not the Theology

By Donovan Schaefer

…ohnson addressed this question in a recent RD post linking Trump to the bad-boy habits of evangelical macho-pastor Mark Driscoll. Johnson argues that it’s simply a mistake to assume that evangelical politics will align with religious teachings on sex and society. Instead, she concludes that Trump’s ascendance, like Driscoll’s, is based on an affective politics, not on a doctrinal convergence. “Best to consider Trump and Driscoll’s seemingly parado…

In Praise of Failure: Is Defining Religion Such a Good Idea?

By Ivan Strenski

…ng of the academic debate. Without trying to speak too much with some God’s-eye-view of this issue, permit me to offer some observations about the Oppenheimer-Linker démarche. Is Defining Religion Really Such a Good Idea? A word first about the demand for definition. There are many words that we use quite happily and productively which have no precise meanings, or for which we do not demand precise meanings. Think about the words we use every day…

Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism

By Jonathan L. Walton

…false-consciousness. Black religious broadcasters convey a message of self-love, self-determination and personal transformation that many find empowering. This is not to suggest that deceit and manipulation are not part of the game. The huckster image is not completely unfounded. But we cannot deny the moral agency or critical posture of participants who turn on the television, purchase a DVD, or attend these megachurches who bring possess their…

New Mormon Anti-Gay Policy Sparks Mass Exodus From Church; Christian AID Workers in Africa Refuse to Help Gay Refugees; Ukraine Rejects, Then Accepts EU-Required Gay Rights Law; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…in Germany. He was assigned a dormitory room in a small city in North Rhine-Westphalia which “is situated among the mountains and my dorm is at the highest point.” Cavid has a disability that causes nerve pain and impairs his mobility. He walks with a cane. Isolated by language barriers and the landscape, bereft after his losing his partner, Cavid was pushed to his limits when Azeri immigrants recognized him and began threatening him. “I had to ru…

Christians of Color Are Rejecting “Colonial Christianity” and Reclaiming Ancestral Spiritualities

By Deborah Jian Lee

…nd demonizing the people they came from; and then there was me, the Chinese-American journalist who spoke at a Virginia Christian college where a white man verbally attacked and followed me prompting the provost to hide me in a secured room. Among my dinner companions there was no need to explain the specter of racial violence and erasure lurking in our lives. Understanding came immediately, as did suggestions for coping in such a hostile climate:…

Muslim Voices Festival: Story-telling For a New Millennium

By Hussein Rashid

…r complaints. Perhaps the biggest problem of the evening was the poor super-titles for the performance. They was almost non-existent. While a direct translation may have been difficult for a text that seems to change slightly each performance, better real-time summaries were needed. Farooqi’s vision for reviving the dastangoi tradition is an admirable one, and his expert staging and acting show the value of the art form in a way simply reading abo…

Unauthorized Catholic Immigrants will Renew a Christian America, Archbishop Says

By Marie Friedmann Marquardt

…f the territory that forms part of the United States. He explains (with not-so-subtle reference to our current political landscape), “Long before the Boston Tea Party, Catholic Missionaries were celebrating the holy Mass on the soil of this continent.” In summary, he argues: This is the real reason for America, when we consider our history in light of God’s plan for the nations. America is intended to be a place of encounter with the living Jesu…

The Holocaust and 9/11 Museums: A Tale of Two Controversial Films

By Todd Fine

…produced and written by Sandra Wentworth Bradley, had been “reviewed by the 17-member museum’s church-relations committee, which consists of theologians and historians both Protestant and Catholic.” Eventually though, permanent exhibition curator Steven Luckert emailed Michael Horowitz to say that the museum would engage in what the National Catholic Reporter described as “an extensive review.” With little fanfare, in the spring of 2000, the museu…

Rumors of the Suicide of the Liberal Church Are Exaggerated: A Response to Chris Hedges

By Mark Hulsether

…vists—advance his agenda. Rather he offers an instructive example of an all-too-common genre: radicals who, in effect, echo right-wing talking points about the dysfunctions of the Protestant left: fomenting conflicts, exaggerating weaknesses, and presenting dilemmas in the least flattering light. I wanted to like this article because Hedges’ good guys are about the same as mine—peace and justice activists and intellectuals with a foot in religious…

Two people on a podium with a board that reads "Project 2025 kills democracy"

Project 2025: How Trump Loyalists and Right-Wing Leaders Are Paving a Fast Road to Fascism

By Peter Montgomery

…2024, November 1, 2023, https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47/agenda47-the-american-academy. [66] Charlie Savage, Maggie Haberman, and Jonathan Swan, “Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans,” The New York Times, November 11, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/11/us/politics/trump-2025-immigration-agenda.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9kw.UOlp.p34arIyCA4G7&smid=tw-share. [67] The Heritage Foundati…