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Why “Religion or Politics?” Is the Wrong Question

By Kate Blanchard

…cient tradition with practitioners who believe in one God, pray and try to live their lives in accordance with a scripture.” Such an understanding of religion is apparently distinct from understandings of “politics,” “political-social ideology,” “political movement”—or indeed anything having to do with how people live their actual lives. “Certainly, some Muslims may believe that faith touches all parts of their lives, including their political inv…

No God but Country: The Religion of John McCain Has Something Important to Tell Us

By Kathryn Lofton

…thentic by keeping it inside,” writes voter Eric Gorski in a letter to the New York Times, “He doesn’t wear religion on his sleeve because he comes from a generation and upbringing—Episcopalian—that tends not to.” Such a socially determinist explanation might apply if McCain had not made an abrupt move to a different church in the early 1990s. Although his campaign lists his affiliation as “Episcopalian,” McCain corrected a reporter in 2007, comme…

Trump May Be the End of the World As We Know It—But For Some Evangelicals, That’s Just Fine

By Nelle Smith

…cal support. A distinct subset of evangelical Christians know that Donald Trump is bad news for the entire world—and they’re really, really excited about it. I know this because I used to be one of them. Back in the ’90s, I was bright-eyed, home-schooled, and evangelical on a farm in rural Ohio. Although my family’s church attendance was spotty—we didn’t really trust the church system—we were very Christian and the Bible was the last word in scien…

Condoms and Common Sense

By Frances Kissling

…Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, who told the program: The AIDS virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoan. The spermatozoan can easily pass through the ‘net’ that is formed by the condom. These margins of uncertainty… should represent an obligation on the part of the health ministries and all these campaigns to act in the same way as they do with regard to cigarettes, which they state to be a danger. The World Health Organi…

Magic v. Science: Doctor Who Part III

By Gabriel Mckee

…ed-shirted bit player he meets. Otherwise he could burn through all of his lives in short order, and save the universe far fewer times. Alternatively, perhaps the companions’ relatively excellent chance of survival is part of the reason he chooses them. He clearly has a knack for choosing exceptional and underappreciated people. Not just every mundane office worker can save the universe with the panache Donna Noble can. But I’m still left with two…

‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa Receives Threats; ‘Blood Test’ for ‘Degeneratism’: Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family. Elisabetta Povoledo wrote in the New York Times that “in Francis’s new, more forgiving church, these otherwise familiar domestic arrangements were not considered an impediment.” No same-sex couples were included. Vatican watchers said the public marriages, the first by a pope since 2000, were meant to send a message, something Francis has done previously to soften the church’s image on social issues. Durin…

How the Christian Right Can Save America from Donald Trump

By Sarah Posner

…writing glowing accounts of Trump’s appeal to evangelicals, is out with a new Trump interview, during which the real estate mogul utters many words about the Bible but, once again, doesn’t appear to actually know much about it—or what evangelicals believe about it. “There’s so many things that you can learn from it (The Bible). Proverbs, the chapter ‘never bend to envy,’” Trump told Brody, who didn’t press him to cite chapter and verse. (Brody do…

The Chilling Response to the Pelosi Attack isn’t Simply a Matter of Partisanship, it’s a Sign of the Right’s Embrace of Fascism

By Annika Brockschmidt

…n primary candidate for New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District, tweeted: “New day, new narrative.” Fox News contributor David Webb said: “Look for what’s missing and what doesn’t add up.” His colleague, Jesse Waters, meanwhile claimed it was outrageous that Pelosi’s attacker had been charged with kidnapping and attempted murder—and that if he hadn’t attacked a member of the Democratic elite, he would already have been out on bail. “A lot of peopl…

Vatican Sexual Abuse Meeting Is Destined to Fail—To Stop the Problem or the Decline

By Mary E. Hunt

…ads of national bishops’ conferences are the last people needed for a constructive conversation on sexual abuse. Their collective inattention, coverups, and tepid excuses are a major source of the problem. Why are there no lay people involved in this meeting? Just one would make headlines. A meeting of lay people and clergy, victims and perpetrators, young people and elders, people of all genders and sexual orientations would signal seriousness of…

Thanksgiving Reveals More About Us Than About 17th Century Events

By Ed Simon

…igions can repurpose the holiday. Jodi Eichler-Levine writes about the congruences of Judaism and Thanksgiving when the holiday happened to coincide with Hanukkah in 2013, the last time that’s on the schedule for 78,000 years. One USA Today headline phrased it perfectly: “Thanksgivukkah stirs thanks, angst.” As a scholar of religions, I see Thanksgivukkah as a phenomenon to unpack, not to judge. As a Jewish American, I am seduced by the joys and k…