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Book Burning and the Scapegoating of Islam

By Eric Reitan

…nation (and much of the world) watched Terry Jones, pastor of a minuscule Florida congregation, threaten to burn copies of the Qur’an on September 11, then abruptly change his mind only to have notorious hater Fred Phelps jump into the gap. But while much of the media attention to this story has actually revolved around, well, the media attention itself, this is a good time to ask ourselves what it means, historically and symbolically, to burn a…

Mike Huckabee’s Fox News Problem

By Sarah Posner

…cal conservative.” Then, Lewis maintained, when the candidates moved on to Florida, “Fox News reported that Huckabee wasn’t campaigning there.” Sean Hannity, she continued, “said it on his radio show and wouldn’t correct it” and it was an “outright lie.” “You could’ve made a case for election tampering,” she added. I haven’t, naturally, reviewed all of Fox News’ coverage of the Florida primary. But according to these women, the alleged snubbing of…

WikiLeaks Strikes the Vatican, a Camel in the Pews, and Luke Skywalker Tolerance

By Michael J. Altman

…na College. She worked in the school’s finance office. In West Palm Beach, Florida, a camel fell into pews full of spectators during a church nativity play. No people or animals were injured, though the camel will not be part of the Christmas pageant when it opens this weekend. A donkey and sheep will still take part. Elsewhere in Florida, a dispute in Boca Raton is raising questions about whether or not a menorah is a religious symbol. But the Lo…

Electionpocalypse, Part II: The Mythical Jewish Vote

By Sarah Posner

…population, but are overrepresented in some sought-after swing states like Florida, Ohio, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. Memories of hanging chads and an election decided by 537 votes have prompted a frenzy of Yiddish: from the Republican Jewish Coalition’s “Oy” billboards in Florida to the pro-Obama “Call Your Zeyde” video released this week. The historian Jonathan Sarna has chronicled the trajectory of the Jewish vote since Reconstruction and notes a…

The Failure of Obama’s Faith Strategy Revealed

By Sarah Posner

…as reached out to Mr. Wallis, Mr. Hunter and three other ministers for telephone prayer sessions and discussions about the intersection of religion and public policy. Here’s the corner Obama painted himself into: in a 2008 effort to appeal to evangelicals, he reached out to and surrounded himself with anti-gay, anti-abortion ministers who nonetheless touted their concerns with other issues such as poverty, the economy, and the environment. It’s no…

Clergy Come Out as Atheists

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

I really do sympathize with Teresa MacBain. The Tallahassee, Florida United Methodist Church pastor has just recently come out. No, she’s not a lesbian. This is how she explained it to NPR recently: “I’m currently an active pastor and I’m also an atheist,” she says. “I live a double life. I feel pretty good on Monday, but by Thursday—when Sunday’s right around the corner—I start having stomachaches, headaches, just knowing that I got to stand up…

Jews and Christians for Santorum?

By Sarah Posner

…ipture: Overcoming the Lies of Homosexuality.” “URGENT: Stop Sharia Law in Florida.” “Obama Withholds Important Opt-Out for Christian Groups.” “EXPOSED: High School Student Club Linked to Terrorism.” “NEW SERIES: 10 Reasons Why Obama is not a Christian.” “School Board Defends Islamic Indoctrination.” “Will You Let Obama’s Death Panels Determine Your Fate?” “The Mormon Elephant in the Room.” “Radical Islam Infiltrates Florida Public School.” “Three…

Marco Rubio: Mormon

By Joanna Brooks

McKay Coppins of BuzzFeed reports this morning that Florida Senator Marco Rubio was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was eight years old and was an active and “enthusiastic” member of the faith during his youth. In fact, Rubio’s name remains on the membership records of the LDS Church to this day. Rubio’s family encountered Mormonism after moving to Las Vegas, a town with deep Mormon roots and a signifi…

White Christian Nostalgia Strikes Back

By Daniel Schultz

…u look down at the bottom, in the strip of Sun Belt states from Arizona to Florida, you’ll notice that many of them are much lighter than their northern counterparts. In the lightest of them—Arizona, New Mexico, Texas(!), and Florida—Democrats did much better than anticipated this year. That’s of course due to the rising presence of black and Hispanic voters in those states. But those same voters are significantly more religious than their white c…

Beyond the Miniskirt-Wearing Nun: What Catholic Reform Looks Like

By Colleen McDannell

…your interest? Several years ago, the Catholic church my parents go to in Florida decided to renovate their sanctuary. What had once been a spare, modernist space was transformed into a traditional one with the addition of a large crucifix, statues of the saints, and Stations of the Cross. It seemed to me that I was witnessing the disappearance of “Vatican II Catholicism” even before scholars had clarified what it was that was disappearing. The S…