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Does ‘Criss-Cross Apple Sauce’ Make Yoga Secular? Opponents of Yoga in Public Schools Have a Point

…ittee members that yoga is a religious practice.” Although it would be simplistic to equate yoga with Hindu religion, neither is the association baseless. Setting aside the legal question, Dr. Godfrey does, in fact, have support for his statement about yoga’s religious content from some unexpected places. One of the most significant influencers of modern American yoga culture is the Indian Hindu Shri Krishna Pattabhi Jois (1915-2009), reputed deve…

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There’s Nothing Wrong with ‘Prayer’; But There’s Every Reason to be Skeptical of Pence’s Coronavirus Prayer Circle

…use of the term “regular American” might not play directly into the nationalist Christian supremacism that’s fueling the destruction of American democracy, such as it was? Or that words like “regular,” “real,” and “normal,” in this context are often code for “conservative white Christians”? Might Merritt have devoted a thought or two to the possibility that American criticism of “thoughts and prayers” responses to real-world problems have everythi…

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Jerry Falwell Jr. Is Corrupt, but Liberty U’s Problems Go Far Deeper

…aggressive rhetoric is not unique to him. It partly stems from a fundamentalist Christian worldview which is as much of a political movement as it is a religious one. It’s how the 81 percent of “born again” Christians who voted for Trump in 2016 can justify their support of the president’s malicious xenophobia and crude remarks about women while supporting a purity culture that requires abstention from sex and claims to prioritize respect and civi…

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Is the Satanic Temple Just an Elaborate Prank? 10 Questions for the Author of ‘Speak of the Devil’

…riously thought about what these commitments might actually mean in a pluralistic society. I was disturbed to read some of TST’s Christian opponents openly renouncing religious freedom if it meant respecting the freedoms of Satanists. I also think TST is forcing the public to think more critically about what “religion” is. They are directly challenging the popular notion that religion is really about supernaturalism. I met several Satanists who ha…

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Whistleblower Alleges $100B Hoarding Scandal by LDS Church; But There’s An Easy Fix

…t the church from hoarding this wealth (though other provisions of the tax code do). Transparency would simply require the church to disclose the details of their cache. Sunlight does not burden religious liberty, it cures fraud and abuse. Asking for transparency from every nonprofit is perfectly legal, but Congress has not acted. In an era of congressional gridlock and where civil rights laws demanding equality are maligned as anti-religious libe…

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Catholic Anti-Nuke Activists Looking at 20 Years in Prison a True Test for Religious Freedom

…ons, such as a Sikh who successfully sued the Army in 2015 over a grooming code that would have required him to shave his beard and remove his turban. Justice, not to mention old wisdom about geese and ganders, demands that our judicial system should treat like cases alike. Either sincere religious conviction should be a defense, or it shouldn’t. There should be a healthy debate about the place and extent of religious exemption in contemporary, pl…

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Is God a Winning Strategy for Democrats?

…News Service in a story about some campaigns hiring faith engagement specialists: “In coming years, Democratic candidates in particular may need to focus on hiring a ‘nones engagement’ specialist alongside a faith-based one.” Invoking religion is unlikely to convince conservative Christians to come over to liberal Christianity. It may, however, energize conservative Christians, white evangelicals, and Christian nationalists while turning off the “…

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Democratic Hopeful Pete Buttigieg Makes Faith 101 Misstep

…t Buttigieg (and all the other candidates) to read Niebuhr’s Moral Man and Immoral Society, and internalize its lessons. Social leaders who want to effect meaningful change are condemned to represent the interests of their group, even though doing so might contradict their personal moral code. The short version of Niebuhr is that you can lead or you can have clean hands, not both. In 2019 America, that means you can embrace the people who are actu…

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What Does Satanism Have to do With QAnon?

…aren’t so much sober accusations of individuals’ crimes than an insiders’ code for ‘elite liberals.’ The Satanic abuse panic of the 1980s and 90s led to the persecution and false convictions of many innocent people and caused traumatic rifts in communities. The panic involved gothic stories of bloody ceremonies conducted by community-members in black robes, including graphic claims of child and adult sexual abuse and rumors of specific “cult” loc…

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Religious Freedom Battle Is Far From Over: Here’s What to Look for in 2019

…, when a federal judge in Wisconsin found the relevant portions of the tax code to be unconstitutional, but the three judges on the appellate panel did not tip their hand, although they showed few outward signs that they agreed. The regulation at issue is more than sixty years old, enacted in the 1950s to ensure that ministers at churches who could not afford to provide them with housing could nevertheless benefit from the same tax breaks as minis…

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