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Selling the Idea of a Christian Nation: David Barton’s Alternate Intellectual Universe

By Paul Harvey

…n life in the twentieth century, and through the epochal court cases of the 1940s through the 1970s. The Christian Nation “debate” is not really an intellectual contest between legitimate contending viewpoints. Instead, it is a manufactured “controversy” akin to the global warming “debate.” On one side are purveyors of a rich and complex view of the past, including most historians who have written and debated fiercely about the founding era. The “…

Beyond Tolerance: Helping Religions “Come Out”

By Mychal Copeland

…how an LGBTQI identity could possibly coexist within a distinct religious, spiritual, or cultural framework. An underlying paradigm for these circles of support is the Hebrew word, “shalom.” Usually translated “peace,” the word comes from a root meaning “wholeness.” We cannot be at peace until we are completely whole, bringing the entirety of ourselves to our spiritual lives. The need for forums to explore intersections between sexual or gender id…

Civil Rights’ Roughneck Preacher, Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth (1922-2011)

By Anthea Butler

…, to give up his body regularly to violence. He survived a house bombing in 1956; a beating with bike chains by the KKK in 1957 when he tried to enroll his children in a white school; and being beaten into unconsciousness—two times. He was arrested 30 to 40 times by his own account, but who can count when you’ve been hosed down, beaten, and wished dead by Bull Connor. Still, Shuttlesworth kept on keeping on. Many do not realize that Shuttlesworth’…

The Theological Terrors of Easter

By Jess Peacock

…ek the The Walking Dead brought its fifth season to a close with a stunning 15.8 million viewers, an accomplishment once unimaginable for a horror franchise. In a thought-provoking coincidence this finale kicked off Holy Week, a sacred period for Christians that culminates symbolically in a particularly terrifying narrative. In general, the horror genre is about the inversion of the natural – and thus sacred – order. Consider Victor Frankenstein w…

This Year’s Best Books in African American Religion

By Jonathan L. Walton

…rning: this book should have come with a Parental Advisory sticker affixed! 1. Barbara Diane Savage, Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion, Belknap Press, November, 2008 Many have contested the uncritical use of the term “black church.” And others have even identified the religious, theological and political plurality that causes many contemporary scholars to feel guilty every time we employ this heuristic shorthand. But I ha…

Wilma Mankiller: On the Passing of a Legendary Leader

By Johnny P. Flynn

…of Indian Affairs. She was elected Principal Chief in her own right in both 1987 and 1991, in a landslide election where she garnered 83% of the vote. Her election and tenure as an elected official of the Cherokee was not without controversy. During her early campaigns she received death threats and had her tires slashed, but she prevailed. And I recall that her elections electrified women and girls throughout Indian Country, inspiring them with t…

A Valentine for the World…and for the Church I Left

By Carolyn S. Briggs

…only tether between us? And my scripture, handy-dandy rolodex of the Holy Spirit, flips up this verse: What does the believer have in common with the unbeliever? Light cannot be yoked with darkness. I know. I know. I’d say I’m the devil’s advocate, but I’m afraid you’d take me seriously. Look—you’re drawing the boundaries between us again. Let me ask for a huge favor: can those borders at least consist of a dashed line, one with some space betwee…

The Religious Reason Many Americans Refuse to Wear Masks

By Kate Blanchard

…ere inspired by Mark’s gospel (the wackiest of gospels, full of high-drama spirit possessions and demon warfare) to prove their faith in God by “taking up serpents,” or even drinking poison. Doing these dangerous things was—and still is—a way of being fearless, being willing to risk great sacrifice, making room for “signs and wonders” by giving themselves over wholly to God’s control. Some of these folks perish as a result, but more of them live t…

Progressive Christian: Wallis “No Longer Speaks for Us”

By Sarah Posner

…personally know 26 of them. Out of those 26 people, I personally know that 17 of them are very LGBT affirming. Out of those 17, NONE have spoken up to defend the LGBT community in opposition to Sojourners and Jim Wallis since this gaff happened. UPDATE #8: On its Facebook page, the Beatitudes Society writes: In the spirit of Jesus who invited ALL God’s Children to the banquet, please join with our colleagues at Believe Out Loud and join the Milli…

The Children of Bellow and Roth: New Book of Short Fiction Takes On the Male Jewish Experience

By Stephanie Russell-Kraft

…who left Poland right before the Holocaust, dies. He is taken over by her spirit and can suddenly speak Polish and Yiddish. Is there a shift in American Jewish identity as we get to a point where the last of the Holocaust survivors are dying or have died, and there are fewer connections to the people who fled Europe? That’s probably the most Jewish story, obviously. I wasn’t really conscious about it when I was writing, but after I was like, oh t…