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James Foley Prayed, But He Was Not a Martyr

By Alana Massey

…espite good intentions, it was somewhat off-putting when Frank Weathers at Patheos described Foley as a Christian martyr in his death. Not only because he was killed explicitly for his nationality and not for his religion, but also because the prospect of the hellscape that is the battleground on which ISIS fights becoming a destination for competitive martyrdom can do no one any good. In the absence of any evidence, we cannot know whether James F…

Maybe The Question Is: Should Shabbat Be The New Yoga?

By Michael Schulson

…rand and media company inspired by Jewish culture and open to all.” The company evolved, in part, out of Pop-Up Shabbat—a kind of mobile, ritual-infused restaurant—that Shults ran in New York. Maybe the most significant player here is Reboot, a nonprofit that creates unconventional Jewish programming, including an iPhone app designed to help people disconnect and unwind on Friday afternoons. The organization has a simple, ten-principle Sabbath Man…

Gay Marriage Bill Totalitarian Says Head Bishop

By Peter Montgomery

…ality proponents within one vote of a majority—and apparently stirred some panic among anti-equality activists who have up until now been confident of victory. Today, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) urgently called on its supporters to get more phone calls into Senate offices. NOM is urging Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos to use his power to keep marriage from coming to the floor for a vote. Meanwhile, Archbishop Timothy Dolan is g…

Becoming Forever Lonesome: How Violence Changes Us

By Amanda Robb

…dful of super lucky, sobbing teenagers were waiting for their super lucky, pale parents on a stage in an auditorium. Other parents, having checked and re-checked a sign-in list of bubbly teenage scrawl for their children’s handwriting, stood sentry outside—on rocks, on fences, anywhere to get a first glimpse of the busloads coming from the school. The mother prayed. Maybe superstitiously she decided not be selfish about it. She didn’t ask God to l…

Star Trek: Politics Anti-Matters

By Nathan Schneider

…t these films tend to get deeper with age. Politics has always been an inseparable part of the Star Trek universe (the introductory international relations class at my college, in fact, was full of Star Trek references.) There were multitudes of races and cultures and alliances; to get by, the good guys had to learn how to deal with them, sometimes violently, but usually peacefully. The central challenge of that universe, since our heroes were rep…

ACLU and Thomas More Law Center Rush to Terry Jones Defense

By Lauri Lebo

…ones has any brains at all – and I’m not saying he does – he’ll get on the phone to the ACLU right now, begging its attorneys to take his case. What’s so incredibly stupid about all of this is that it seems like the community couldn’t have more bungled the handling of this raging bigot. Now, Jones – who is obviously one of the biggest spotlight-seeking jerks out there – will be made into a martyr and now stands to make a lot of money from the taxp…

White House Position
on Exemption from Contraception Coverage
“Not a Done Deal”?

By Sarah Posner

…e Care Act, so they can decline to offer insurance that covers, free of co-pays, contraceptives for employees. The Bishops argue that such coverage violates their religious conscience. Yesterday I reported that pro-choice groups expected Obama to side with the Bishops, as does the anti-choice group Democrats for Life. When asked for comment on Jacobson’s report that the administration believes it “owes” the Bishops, a White House spokesperson dire…

The Many, Not the Few: An Anthem for Occupy

By Elizabeth Drescher

…e a video of the performance, despite a Secret Service prohibition on cell phones, because Makana’s guitar is tuned with a smartphone app. Or, reporters are interested in how Obama, his guests, and security detail responded—or didn’t, as it turned out. But this misses the heart of the story, as Makana’s set at the APEC dinner was less dissenting performance than performative utterance—the songs he played, the protest t-shirt hidden beneath the com…

Meet the “New Age” Stephen Colbert

By Andrew Aghapour

…w are you going to announce it over social media if you don’t have a smart phone? And smartphones: they are helpful, but they are also limited. I’m working with some of my guides to develop what’s called a WisePhone, and it’s smarter than a smartphone. What are some of the features of the WisePhone? You won’t lose it anymore because it won’t be influenced by gravity, so it won’t fall down the cracks of your couch. It will also be able to tweet or…

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

By Chip Berlet

…movements appear periodically throughout US history during times when the participants feel they are being “displaced” and losing political, social, or economic power. Scholars like Margaret Canovan, Martin Durham, Kathleen Blee, Michael Kazin, and Rory McVeigh have studied this process extensively. Based on what we saw in the 1990s, Matthew N. Lyons and I wrote a book about the history of right-wing populism in the United States. We found that r…