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Where’s Wallnau? A NAR Apostle Takes Aim at Swing Counties in ‘The Battle for the Mountain of Government’

By Frederick Clarkson

…gence apps” including As One America, which contains the name, address and phone number of Christian neighbors “who are not showing up to vote or who are not registered.” He then showed a map with big red arrows pointing to precincts “within striking distance” from Vida Church to the precincts that are “where the devil’s got a stronghold that God wants to break up.” The app was developed by Superfeed Technologies, which has also designed apps for…

‘Calling’ Rick Warren to Task on Anti-Gay Ugandan Law

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…nterviewing conservative evangelical Christian leaders and getting a behind-the-scenes look at the religious right for the past several years for her soon to be released movie, For Such a Time as This. The documentary seeks to bridge the gap between anti-gay Christians and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community. In her travels, she had become fast friends with A. Larry Ross, who serves as Rick Warren’s publicist. “I knew this was go…

From The Virgin Mary to a Housewife in Queens: Inside The Seer of Bayside

By Joseph Laycock

…e study of American religious history away from what has been called a “two-tier” model of religion. Historians like Robert Orsi have argued that scholars have implicitly made a distinction between “true religion” and various subcategories like cults, folk piety, superstition, etc. I don’t think the Baysiders are a “side show” in the field of religious studies and I think the history of the Baysiders helps us to think about how we tacitly make the…

“God Created You”: Bishop Supports Gay Ugandans, Defies Death Threats

By Jocelyn Edwards

…was passed. As a result, Bishop Senyonjo is skeptical of the suspect’s all-too-convenient confession. “What was said, to me, is very suspicious.” While he admits he isn’t exactly sure what happened to his friend, Senyonjo still believes that Kato was targeted as the result of the hate stirred up by the Rolling Stone. “I think he has been among the people hunted down.” “The Threats are There, But the Struggle Will Go On” Senyonjo’s work on behalf…

Giving Up God—Not Just a Spiritual Stunt

By Becky Garrison

…de Botton and Ronald Dworkin have been influential in my thinking about so-called atheistic religion. I’d like to know more about the social phenomenon of the rise of the nones and emergence of atheist groups. People in general now seem to be more comfortable expressing their non-belief. Why didn’t you just go with a more liberal mainline denomination? Not too long ago I felt there was a thinning out of authentic faith. Seems some churches want i…

Satanic FOIA Reveals Deep Confusion About 1st Amendment

By Joseph Laycock

…fact, reading through the files, I felt sympathy for this assistant, who dutifully relayed all phone messages from constituents to the legislature. This resulted in e-mails like: [John Doe] at [555-555-5555] from Durant, OK. is opposed to the statue being erected. He will personally come up, rope those devil horns and pull it down 🙂 Thanks, [Executive Assistant]…

Christian Atheism: The Only Response Worth its Salt to the Zimmerman Verdict

By J. Kameron Carter

…entails social, political, and intellectual struggle, not against some god-in-the-abstract, but rather against a specific or particular god: the “American god.” What I hear in Dr. Butler’s term the “American god”—and what, I think, we all must hear—is not a condemnation of America as such, but rather the courage to name its idolatries so that we can be a different, more just United States of America, “not a perfect, but a more perfect union,” as…

“What Kind of Islam Is That?”: Talking With Refugees From ISIS

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…recognized his former customer among the ISIS fighters. The customer-turned-ISIS-fighter looked down and tried to avert the gaze from his former neighbor. The negotiations soon broke down and the Arabs were told that they would not be harmed as long as they did nothing to impede ISIS’ authority and if some of the men would volunteer to fight on their side. The Kurds were not given any assurances, and fearing the worst most of them slipped away tha…

Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with Jesus: 1946-2011

By Lauri Lebo

…ors.” Also, I love his description of being punished in Bible school as a 5-year-old boy, unable to understand his transgression, and the lifelong conflict his religious upbringing instilled in him. (My Bible school failing was my inability to memorize the 23rd Psalm.) Bageant is a kindred spirit for those of us who have turned from our religious upbringing, but still, for reasons he articulates so sweetly, are forever being drawn back to it on so…

Qaddafi Dies; Should it Matter How?

By Haroon Moghul

…in. He vowed to hunt down his people like rats, street-by-street and house-by-house. In the end, they hunted him down, chasing him from his palaces and attacking him in his own gaudy vanity projects. He made his last stand near the buildings he had lavished Sirte with. He who accused al-Qaeda of being behind Libya’s revolution ended his life releasing audiotapes only the Syrian government dared share. What do we learn from that? He was apparently…