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How We Got to Super: Grant Morrison’s Visionary Gnosticism

By Jeffrey J. Kripal

…e—ours. Both the supernormal and the paranormal were later picked up by an American writer of glorious talent and wicked humor named Charles Fort. Charles sat in the New York Public Library every day for decades, reading pretty much every periodical in French and English back to 1800 as he looked for reports of “super-constructions in the sky” (what we would now call UFOs) and paranormal people. He found plenty of both. In works like The Book of t…

Politics in a Fallen World: Lying, Fact-Checkers, and the Future of Civilization

By Michael Schulson

…ing, the 2016 election has highlighted the enormous diversity of ways that Americans perceive honesty. But the territory of lying has always been contested. Even when the truth is clear-cut, certain questions remain slippery: what exactly does it mean to lie? When is it okay to lie? And what are the social, moral, and spiritual consequences of deception? To understand these issues better, I called up a historian of lying. Dallas Denery II is the a…

Ross Douthat: Trump Is Women’s Fault for Not Having More Babies

By Patricia Miller

…own descendants make. If those descendants exist. But for many native-born Americans there are fewer of them—fewer children and, as birthrates drop and marrying age rises, still-fewer grandchildren or none at all. This, in turn, says Douthat, has created a sense of alienation that is only further fueled by the decline of working-class communities and gives rise to “a grim vision of the future, in which after you’ve passed, your few kids and grandk…

Ponzi Pastor, Bacon Terrorism, & Spiritual Jewelry

By Michael J. Altman

…er he defrauded parishioners in a Ponzi scheme. Archaeologists unearthed an 1800-year-old statue of the Buddha in India. In Iowa, a pastor is praying that the IRS comes after his church for his political campaign against three Iowa Supreme Court judges who ruled to allow same-sex marriages. The American Family Association has joined in the campaign against the judges. Finally, the words of one of the Chilean miners rescued after 69 days trapped in…

‘We’re all in this together’: The Perils of Kumbaya Rhetoric

By Peter Laarman

…, 70% of the dead in Louisiana have been African American; in Michigan the numbers are 14% and 40% respectively, etc). The crisis has already condemned low-income families to a shocking level of food insecurity, with one-fifth of American kids now at risk of going to bed hungry each night. Many of those forced to work—especially women of color—will sicken and die in a too-rapid “reopening” aimed at saving businesses. The rapidly widening divide be…

Today’s Inauguration Was a Reconsecration of Sacred Space

By Peter Laarman

…rine Band playing some of the same “airs” it played for Thomas Jefferson in 1800. Compared to royal coronations, American inaugurations are remarkably simple affairs. But our ceremonies retain their own majesty and are capable of projecting a strong sense that something sacred is happening. Our inaugurations have always reflected a mashup of civil religion—invocations of our secular sacred texts, appeals to mystic chords of national memory—and bit…

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

…gressive gains merits more than our attention; it calls for action to help Americans understand just how dramatically right-wing reactionaries intend to transform American society, and how to effectively mobilize resistance to their well-funded schemes. Endnotes [1] Jill Covan and Bill Barrow, “Trump vow to only be a dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric,” Associated Press, December 7, 2023, https://apnews.c…

If it’s Really About “Religious Freedom,” Why Mention Just One Belief?

By Sunnivie Brydum

…ce of an acceptable limitation of religious freedom: nobody can be refused service based on their identity—even if the service provider is religiously opposed to or refuses to acknowledge that identity. So let’s call it what it is: a challenge to where we draw the line on religious freedom, not whether or not we have it. That lowers the stakes considerably, and is far more accurate… And seeking accuracy in language was where this whole conversatio…

Scope Bacon, Twttr Hoaxes & Joel Osteen’s Big Reveal

By Deborah Whitehead

…gn and promotional website including a promo video that went viral, that a number of customers were disappointed and angry to find out that it was a fake. Part of the confusion seems to have been that the launch occurred on March 28, not the customary April 1. But just as important was consumer demand. Enough people were convinced by the slick product rollout that they actually wanted to try it. “That’s not funny. I really wanted a sample,” compla…

Rage or Courage?: YouTube Terrorism Take Two

By Bruce B. Lawrence

…iquitous, and indispensable, cell phone, when I was approached by a Libyan customer. After learning that I was an American he said “Thank you for helping liberate my country from the dreaded dictator, Gaddafi. May he burn in hell! And as for those who killed your ambassador, may they burn in hell with him!” “They are a disgrace,” he said of the makers of the inflammatory video, “but they are not the cause for such outcry. Others are fomenting wha…