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How to Meet Muslims: A (Cinematic) Primer

By Haroon Moghul

…d in the village, sad attempts to forget historic violence and move on, as best as possible. We see in this unsettling film the true cost of extremism, and the ways in which it has undermined, cruelly and uniquely, the religious culture of the societies it does not spring from so much as it consumes from within. If I have a quarrel with the film, it is the suggestion that such extremism can be blamed solely on the 1980s dictatorship of Gen. Zia u…

Every Homo Reptilia is Somebody’s Sister: Doctor Who Part VI

By Gabriel Mckee

…is, you tell people there was a chance, but you were so much less than the best of humanity.” His turn of phrase is a bit prettier (as is his later order to “Be extraordinary”), but I think it’s important—and a sign of Doctor Who’s moral optimism—that this message came from a human being first. The alien Doctor may be this show’s de facto messiah, but the ethical message he brings comes from ourselves first. If it’s just the Doctor telling us to “…

Pagan Martyrs, Murderous Monks: Agora Hits US Shores

By Nathan Schneider

…ncile—not least because of Hypatia’s inconvenient celibacy—is also Agora’s best hope. It comes as a welcome contrast, for instance, to HBO’s Rome, which turns figures like Cicero and Cato into wimps compared to a muscular Mark Antony, with no mention of the intellectual feats by which we now know them best. Ancient world or this one, big ideas don’t easily compete on screen with messy power struggles and lustrous bodies. But it’s worth a try. “I b…

2010: What Did We Believe In?

By Gary Laderman

…to be reckoned with and has myriad forms of expression, commitment, moral codes, and values—just like global Christianity. In the U.S., Muslims are increasingly part of the social landscape, with mosques, community centers, and public figures (including the first Muslim Miss America and the easy reelection of one of the two Muslim members of Congress) who contribute to the fabulous religious mosaic that characterizes the best of American values….

From Organized Religion to Organizing Religion: Brian D. McLaren Wants Christians to Be Better

By Peter Laarman

…e end, is up to us in creatively seizing opportunities. I’ll keep doing my best to do so, in the company of many others. Of course I think your theological section is exactly on point, but I’m reminded of how many people I’ve known who go to church precisely because of their attraction to the idea of God as an all-powerful king with zero tolerance for sin and sinners. How to you respond, pastorally, to people who say that you are reducing God to m…

How Does an Atheist Come to Believe in God?: An Interview with Jacob Needleman

By Lisa Webster

…ut how about the social? What happens when human beings come together? The best and the worst of humanity comes in groups. Think of the difference between a mob and a community. A mob is low level—with no insult intended to animals—but it’s a bestial mass, a herd obeying the coarsest violent emotions, self-suggestions or fantasies. Anger and the mob have caused untold horrors throughout humanity’s history: the mass mind, the herd instinct. When pe…

Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Heretic: With Friends Like These, Who Needs Jihadis?

By Haroon Moghul

…formation. A revival and rethinking of the institutions that attracted our best minds, and helped shape them into leaders, artists, thinkers, dreamers. But to do that, we need to get the cobwebbed and sclerotic autocrats out of the way. There can be no progress without freedom. And there can be no freedom if we are stuck believing in people, like Hirsi Ali and her ilk, who don’t believe in the kinds of analysis that leave room for debate, discussi…

5 Key Moments From the Year of the ‘Exvangelicals’

By Chrissy Stroop

…g with it, with Michelle Panchuk producing an important thread on why the “best practices” document released by the summit organizers doesn’t represent a serious understanding of best practices, and will thus fail to prevent abuse. 2018 is the year that exvangelicals broke through and began to change the national discussion of evangelicalism in a serious and sustained way. Look for more snarky and serious hashtags, Urban Dictionary definitions, of…

Mass Bible-Based Sexual Dysfunction as Root of Culture Wars? Frank Schaeffer Breaks It Down

By Frank Schaeffer

…ke-home message for readers? To be true to what I hope is the heart of the best of the universal religious message, I want to say that redemption through selflessness, hope, and love necessitates a new and fearless repudiation of the parts of holy books and traditions—be they Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or other—that bring us messages of hate, exclusion, racism, ignorance, misogyny, homophobia, tribalism, and fear. To find any spiritual truth withi…

Israel at 60: Zionism’s Fatal Flaw

By Ira Chernus

…ion” is permanently beyond reach, or else a distant eschatological goal at best. Decades of war and occupation have forced them to confront the moral compromises they make to defeat their enemies. To ease their consciences, most reaffirm their conviction that none of this is due to Israeli policy; it is all forced upon them by irrational hatred from the other side of the border(s). Therefore, this thinking goes, they can do nothing to alter the sa…