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Hey Hey, Ho Ho White Jesus Has to Go… But The Issue is More Complicated Than You Think

By A. E. Brooks-Key

…EGYPT” not Denmark (Europe). King is relying on a cultural trope in African-American religious history called Ethiopianism found throughout African-American Christianity, Black Judaism, Black Islam and Anglo-Caribbean religious traditions such as Rastafarianism, with the reference to the Biblical passage: “Princes shall come of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God” (Psalms, 68:31). This verse was seen by some as a prophecy tha…

Robert Bellah’s Powerful Legacy: A Mixed Blessing for Religious Studies?

By Ivan Strenski

…e made a point of situating his notion of civil religion in a specifically American context. Bellah’s American civil religion appealed explicitly to Biblical archetypes like “God,” “Election,” “Providence” and such. They fit comfortably into the vocabulary and practices of American civil religion because of the very different historical conditions of the American founding. A notion like sacrificial death, for instance, found ready appeal at a time…

American Conservatives, Jewish Law, and Israel’s New Abortion Policy

By Sarah Posner

…s founding. On the American conservatives’ silence, she said, “most of the American anti-choice groups are not made up of Jewish women of any stripe, so most don’t really care what Israel’s policy is.” On the other hand, the views of Eli Schussheim, the head of the ultra-Orthodox Israeli anti-abortion group Efrat, are controversial in Israel, as are the group’s activities. As I wrote in Moment magazine last year: In January, according to Haaretz,…

Mitt’s Jesus, Barack’s Jesus, and Why Christ’s Color Matters

By Joanna Brooks

…“card-carrying Christians” took the image as their own defense of a middle-class American way of life against its atheist competitors. The 1960s’ battles over Jesus’ race and class that came from the freedom struggle, liberation theology, and countercurrents against both replayed many of these same image battles. In the era of rising income inequality, the Tea Party, and Occupy, there is no reason to think that contending groups on the political…

In Trump Era, Young Muslims Question Respectability Politics of Mosques

By Hebah H. Farrag

…ntinued vilification of Islam in the American public sphere since September 11th, American Muslim houses of worship and organizations have worked against policies that visibly target Muslims such as profiling, denial of First Amendment rights and harassment by law enforcement. In doing so, these institutions work to gain public recognition, inclusion and representation, as well as the ability to help shape public policy. This narrow focus on “Musl…

Why Did a Muslim Civil Rights Group Oppose Democrats’ Plans to Confront White Nationalism?

By Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and Brannon Ingram

…s as jihad-waging foreigners, Islamophilia sees them as peace-loving, apple-pie-baking neighbors. Or, more precisely: this is who they must be to be included. But Islamophilia can also perpetuate the interests of American militarism: American Muslims’ military service and love of country become prerequisites for inclusion. The terms of such inclusion were never laid out more clearly than by Bill Clinton at the 2016 Democratic National Convention:…

Catholic ‘Soul-Searching’ as Ireland Votes on Marriage; Churches, American Activists Join Kenyan Anti-Gay Group’s ‘Family’ Confab; Indian Mom Seeks Spouse For Gay Son; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ting and exacerbating homophobia in Jamaica. Lewis explained that since the 1970s, American evangelical churches have become entrenched in Jamaican society and are no longer viewed as outsiders. In contrast, advocacy on behalf of the human rights of LGBT people is seen as a cultural import. In 2013, the Jamaican Coalition for a Healthy Society and the Lawyers’ Christian Fellowship organized a conference that included outside speakers such as Peter…

Why Taking Offense at Santorum’s “Tri-Faith” Nation is a Good Sign

By Rachel Gordan

…uch as the Academy Award-winning film Gentleman’s Agreement, enshrined the American-ness of Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism, it became apparent that not all faiths were acceptable. In Gentleman’s Agreement, Gregory Peck’s character, explaining American religion to his son Tommy, says: “See, you can be an American and a Catholic or an American and a Protestant or an American and a Jew.” Buddhists and Muslims and others were clearly not part…

Bachmann’s Law School Mentor Asserts Biblical Roots of American Political System

By Julie Ingersoll

…biblical roots (Calvinist, actually) of the American political system and American Law. At the American Vision conference, he presented a belabored discussion of what a church can and cannot do within the guidelines of the IRS rules. He cited the part of the code that prohibits influencing legislation and labeled it “legalese,” before a lengthy parsing of what counts as legislation and then what counts as influencing— none of which substantially…

God’s Law is the Only Law: The Genesis of Michele Bachmann

By Sarah Posner

…of the history of slavery that at once celebrates it as a heyday of African-American family life, and engages in revisionism about the founders’ view of it. She recently signed a “marriage pledge” in Iowa that included the statement (since removed): “sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African American baby born after the election of the USA’s first Afr…