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Angry Voters, Right-Wing Populism, & Racial Violence: People of Faith Can Help Break the Linkages

By Chip Berlet

…lications and radio talk shows on the political right were warning of an invasion of jack-booted foreign soldiers dropped from UN black helicopters to seize guns as a prelude to the establishment of a totalitarian, fascist, socialist society integrated into a global New World Order. Some Christian Right commentators implied it might be a sign of the arrival of the Antichrist in the End Times. As rhetoric heated up, researchers in a network of huma…

Confessions of a Hater

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ly a white pride parade. The red-faced, fist waving man in the picture was flanked by two little girls sitting in the back seat, arms crossed with very pronounced frowns on their faces. “They don’t look all that happy,” I remarked to my student. “Those are my daughters,” he said with fatherly pride in his eyes. “They weren’t happy because the haters were along the sidewalk, yelling at us.” That’s when it hit me. The haters. In his world, that woul…

Scolding Those Who Choose Pets But No Children Pope Misses the Rainforest for the Trees

By Sarah A. Bowen

…p older adults with dementia curb loneliness. We’ve also learned that cultivating compassion for animals in our homes can increase empathy for wildlife and the Earth. On the flip side, there is some potential selfishness in living with animals. “Pet keeping” doesn’t always benefit animals, and it is a complicated and controversial topic. Human desires to live with other species downplay their rights to live independent lives. Pets are not always t…

Can You Make a Comedy About UFO Cult Mass Suicide?

By Joseph Laycock

…king jabs at society.” Inspired by comedians like Larry David and Ricky Gervais, Jones sees humor in portraying the daily banalities of running a UFO religion. By doing so, he hopes to challenge the distinction between religion and cults. An agnostic, Jones explained, “To me, all organized religion is a cult.” He added that institutions like beauty pageants for toddlers were far more disturbing to him than unusual religious groups like Heaven’s Ga…

Suicide Leads to Calls for Improved Treatment of LGBT Mormons

By Joanna Brooks

…ut also in the hereafter. Alone in his home in North Carolina, Bryan was devastated. His parents flew out to be with him, then brought him back to Arizona for intensive treatment for depression. After a few weeks of therapy, Bryan convinced his parents and his therapist that he was stable enough to return home to North Carolina, so he could look after the family home. Back in North Carolina, on Saturday, September 10, Bryan bought a gun at Wal-Mar…

Refusing Religion, Claiming the Future: A Roundtable Discussion on “The Nones Are Alright”

By Peter Laarman

…y we shouldn’t take their religious claims with any sense of authoritative validity.This, coupled with the American cultural values of individual choice in all things, leads to a general dissatisfaction with the available options for religious/spiritual seekers. So if you take Kaya’s explanations and combine them with my claims, you have a situation where religious organizations—particularly older forms—are operating in a world that increasing num…

Walking Dead and Zombie Ethics, or “Don’t Fight the Zombies. You Can’t Win”

By Kelly J. Baker

…e, Lane, a former United Nations investigator becomes the key to global salvation. The disruption of this white middle class family’s life appears alongside global collapse, and I am unsure which the film wants us to care about more. Zekes are clearly a dangerous threat, and the film plays on existing fears of global pandemics, terrorism, and the breakdown of governments and infrastructure. World War Z does not attempt to humanize the monsters, no…

“Even the Rich Suffer”: An Interview with Google’s Jolly Good Fellow Chade-Meng Tan

By Max Zahn

…ple toward change. Yes. At the same time, the fact I’m doing it actually reflects a limitation on my part. For example, I don’t know how to teach children. I’ve never taught prisoners; I’ve never taught the disadvantaged population. I don’t know how to do those things. What I can do is teach the engineers and leaders at Google. If you look in from the outside, it looks like I chose the population for its impact, which, in a way, is true. But I did…

Mitt, the Marriotts, and Porn

By Joanna Brooks

…effort to protect Romney against another round of flak from socially conservative and evangelical voters in Iowa, where the Marriott-porn issue flared up for a brief moment in July 2007. (Back then, Romney even came in for criticism from the LDS Church-owned Deseret News, in an editorial with the unfortunate title “The nasty taint of porn.”) I don’t buy it. Anyone who understands the traction of evangelical anti-Mormon sentiment knows that most…

Departure of the Queen

By Amina Wadud

…itual practice and the option to pray there brings me joy and comfort. I reflect back to the height of the weekend when guests and locals overflowed in the mosque, even spilling out to a tent set in the yard out front. Perhaps what I am feeling is a loss from all this company celebrating this time with the Queen. She has not yet departed after all, and we are still honored by her visit. Perhaps it is the deafening silence of being so removed from…