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The Sacred and the Dead: How an Iranian-Jewish Angeleno Discovered Her Tribe

By Saba Soomekh

…applied for a green card and immediately left. We knew we had to leave as soon as we could, so we left everything behind: our home, our business, our land, clothing—everything. We arrived with nothing more than our suitcases and memories. Like most Iranian Jews, my family settled in Los Angeles. My sister and I immediately were placed in a Jewish day school, and it was in this little family-oriented cocoon of a school that I prospered and lived my…

The Racist Message of Do-Nothing Religion, Courtesy of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

By Kevin Healey

…n the wake of widespread protests against police brutality, Americans are looking to their leaders for a message of unity. As pastors and elected officials get their footing and issue responses, a familiar pattern is emerging. Perhaps it’s best captured in a recent headline from the Texas Tribune which read, “Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says America must turn to God to heal racism.” Is this the spiritual wisdom that will bring us together, or more of the…

7 Women Scholars On the Gender Divide in Religious Studies, the Power of Mentors, and Leading While Female

By Rebecca Barrett-Fox

…t, having been raised in a non-religious, culturally Protestant family. I took a highly recommended theory of religion course my freshman year and was impressed by the complexity of religious thought and thought about religion. I decided I needed to investigate my assumption that religion was a psychological “crutch” for the weak minded, so designed an independent study with a religion professor in which I read Freud, Kierkegaard, and Tillich. CON…

Op-Ed: A Few Things I Wish Barack Obama Had Said

By Garret Keizer

…is it that I am a traitor to my country for seeking to improve Chicago schools in common cause with a former saboteur of American buildings, while John McCain is a great reconciler for seeking to improve international relations in common cause with the former torturers of American troops? In fact, I do call John McCain a great reconciler for his bold initiative toward Vietnam. In regard to the charges leveled against me, I call him and his runnin…

Welcome to the (New) Gilded Age: Supreme Court Delivers the Goods to Corporations

By Peter Laarman

…on. Far more remarkable, however, is that the doctrine of corporate personhood, which subsequently became a cornerstone of corporate law, was introduced into this 1886 decision without argument. According to the official case record, Supreme Court Justice Morrison Waite simply pronounced at the outset that “The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids…

The Convergence of Passover and Easter Can Leaven (or Unleaven) the Interfaith Family’s Holiday

By Samira K. Mehta

…nyone still have a wall calendar?) realizes, Passover begins this year on Good Friday, and ends the following Friday or Saturday depending on your tradition. While the combination of Christmas and Hanukkah gets more play in the media (with over four decades of articles on the December dilemma and special attention last year, when Hanukkah started on Christmas eve), Easter and Passover are, in many ways, a more challenging combination for many inte…

Allowable Discrimination?

By Jonathan L. Walton

…minate against the folks you serve or the people you employ. Let’s hope this is just a political ploy insofar as the president would rather do away with this discriminatory allowance behind closed doors rather than announcing it at yesterday’s National Prayer Breakfast. Because appropriating tax dollars to bigoted faith groups is hardly, “Change We Can Believe In.”…

Virginians may Vote in Elections, But in Counties with Militias Democracy Hangs in the Balance

By Carolyn Gallaher and Priya Dixit

…e with democratic government. It’s where they vote in elections, attend schools, visit the library, and call 911 for help with emergencies. When they have disputes with neighbors, county courts resolve them. The Public Eye, Fall 2023/Winter 2024 (Issue 108) “Democracy Under Attack—And How We Fight Back,” examines antidemocratic forces on the Right and pro-democracy efforts to counter them. Inform your resistance: Subscribe now! Much like their fed…

Hamlet’s Wager, or, The Ghost of Capitalism

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ow (and how not) to engage in a “war on terror.” But then the philosopher took Hamlet’s question in an entirely unexpected direction. He went back to the beginning of the play, back to Hamlet’s encounter with a ghost. To be Modern, the philosopher suggested, is no longer to believe in ghosts. Descartes’s entire philosophy of doubt was intended as an elaborate exercise in philosophical exorcism. And Modern science was grounded both in a naturalism…

Oh Say, Can You See?: 9/11 Flag Displays and the Flag’s Symbolic Power

By Spencer Dew

…cipalities employ full-size flags, resulting in a spectacular scene. Oak Brook, Illinois, another Chicago suburb, is erecting a “Healing Field” of evenly spaced flags, covering two and a half acres. One immediate goal with such an arrangement (as with analogous displays of white crosses in protest of abortion or the array of wooden angels to commemorate the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre) is to convey the enormity of the loss…