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Church Synod Recap: Micromanaging the Morals of Others

By Mary E. Hunt

…d up the language on LGBTIQ people before anyone thought they should be welcome? It was as if gay gremlins in the Vatican had inserted it in the first place. It was just like the old days before Google Translate, except now more people can see the shenanigans in real time. While the Vatican claims transparency all of a sudden, I respectfully inquire what their options are in an age when hacking happens and electronic bugs are the order of the day….

Countering the “Countering Violent Extremism” Program

By Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

…ersations about radical Islam on the internet. CJ is not on the verge of becoming the first ever West Point-educated member of the Islamic State. Quite the opposite: his Facebook activity is sanctioned by the State Department and the Combatting Terrorism Center at West Point. Last week, for the third semester in a row, the State Department hosted the P2P: Challenging Extremism finals in Washington. It’s the culmination of an international “peer to…

What Robot Theology Can Tell Us About Ourselves

By Michael Schulson

…as so fascinated by automata as a boy that he wrote a treatise in which he compared the outcomes of God’s natural laws to “the results afforded by the Calculating Engine.” Babbage, in other words, conceived of God as a kind of computer programmer. Is it ethical for people to have sex with robots? How should we treat anthropomorphic computers? Should there be a limit on how human-like, or how pervasive, a particular digital technology can become? G…

Mississippi Businesses Say No To Religious Discrimination

By Sarah Posner

…ippi and across the nation were watching and waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Defense of Marriage Act case. The time to leave Mississippi has passed for Eddie and Justin. They are committed to staying and making Jackson a thriving place for the gay community to live and, hopefully, in which to marry one day.” The trailer is below: Yep, I’m buying….

The Mormon Version of Infallibility

By Holly Welker

…y is to have us believe that unquestioning obedience to the principles and commandments of God is blind obedience. His goal is to have us believe that we should be following our own worldly ways and selfish ambitions. This he does by persuading us that “blindly” following the prophets and obeying the commandments is not thinking for ourselves. He teaches that it is not intelligent to do something just because we are told to do so by a living proph…

Is Coverage of Liberal Religion a Media Fail?

By Sarah Posner

…rofess to be religious appears to be a conservative pastime. Conservatives complain about mainstream coverage of their religion, but one thing you never hear, or don’t hear very much, is liberal religious people complaining about coverage—or lack thereof—of their activities. Which leads me back to Kilgore’s lament: does the media ignore liberal Christians (or liberal religious people in general)? Does it have—to borrow from the conservative grieva…

Why All the Jesus Films?

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…ng a little off-putting about their public displays of affection (scan the Google images page here), as if they just can’t let go of each other in the face of the big media world. But of course its part of the iconography that must be maintained, that happy loving couples working on a project together is good for business. Just in time for Lent, and having had success with The Bible on the History Channel, Downey and Burnett found a key market at…

Transforming Sports Culture: Sochi and the NFL

By Darnell Moore

…inst the gay community, which has led to a spike in hate crimes. Larsoon’s comment illuminates yet another facet of the complex proliferation of anti-homosexuality discourse within Russia, namely, the ostensible force of religiosity. The Russian Orthodox Church, which recently proposed a referendum on banning same-sex sexual relations, is also evidenced as an institutional body that is shaping public thought on sexuality and the establishment of l…

The Creepy Surveillance of Elf on a Shelf

By Kelly J. Baker

…e, especially in schools. The goal is to see everything. Hypervisibility becomes expected and naturalized. All things must be seen. The panopticon is here. The space of childhood is also the haven of things unseen, magic, enchantment, and endless possibility. Monsters could exist under your bed. Santa can deliver gifts to all children in only one night. And now, magical elves can report your naughtiness, so you better be nice. Surveillance is a d…

Time To Call a Satan a Satan?

By Peter Laarman

…poor—which has long been the traditional rural-urban tradeoff in enacting compromise farm bills. Student Debt: Let the financial markets decide, and we are not concerned with the actual devastating burden laid upon the future workforce. (In fairness, here the Wall Street Democrats are also a big problem.) Universal Health Care: Hell no! Just repeal the damned thing!! If it is implemented it might actually allow poor “takers” to live a little bit…