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Douthat, Do Tell! Some Questions for a Columnist Longing for the Good Old Days of American Religion

By Peter Laarman

…ike that [old] way. I call your attention to the introduction of the term “American system”: do we hear something just a tad bit proprietary? The legend of the Virtuous Republic has been invoked, the American system is what renews and guarantees the virtue, but that system is now malfunctioning on account of a God deficit. Or perhaps because of a Flag deficit. It’s hard to tell which, because in minds made like Douthat’s the two always run togethe…

Goy to the World: What Does Hanukkah Have to Teach Us About Living in Empire?

By Garret Keizer

…ntling imperial America would require a realization of the extent to which American democracy has been subordinated to so-called American interests, as defined by the moneyed interests now squatting in the civic temple. It would require a radical rededication to the rule of law and to the principle of human solidarity, according to which 3,000 Afghans killed as collateral damage weigh no less heavily than 3,000 Americans killed on September 11th….

Misusing Cesar Chavez in Immigration Debate

By Luis Leon

…ded in framing the practice of legislating racism as a failure not only of American policy, but of Americanism as a Christian cult in particular, and also among good people of all faiths: A powerfully sacred international transcript. Clergy and religious laity issued statements condemning the hatred and discrimination pulsating throughout Arizona’s Christian and Jewish communities (no official word to the large percentage of Mormons was issued). H…

An American and a Muslim: Reading Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf

By Sarah Eltantawi

…the goals of shari’ah. In the end, Rauf argues that there is a version of American Islam that is totally compatible with current understandings of foundational American mythologies, and he had dedicated himself to articulating that vision. Within this scheme, then, to denounce shari’ah would would be to denounce the Constitution. The book is strongest when Rauf movingly conveys the richness and gentility of the Prophet’s example for millions of M…

Putting the “Protest” Back in Protestant: Reclaiming the Spirit of Resistance

By Peter Laarman

…the crags and moors of their windswept aerie; and most significant for the American experience, English Nonconformists (note the term) struggling hard with questions of polity and ultimately breaking with what they viewed as a half-reformed Anglicanism. Christopher Hill remains the historian par excellence on the political significance of dissent among the English. Read him if you have the time, but absolutely do read Kevin Phillips’ The Cousin’s…

Evangelical Groundhog Day: The ‘Times’ Identifies the ‘Religious Fervor in the American Right’ — Around Four Decades Late

By Diana Butler Bass

…eacher Jerry Falwell on the steps of the Trenton State House surrounded by American flags and a church choir. The story began: “The Rev. Jerry Falwell, the leader of the Moral Majority movement, brought his mixture of church meeting and political rally to the New Jersey State House steps today. He proclaimed that his church was a ‘sleeping giant’ that was ‘standing again across this nation.’” That class remains etched in my mind. California in the…

A Lone Blogger vs. the McCain-Hagee Alliance

By Bruce Wilson

…tly touched on with my 4-minute, no-budget video was the growing divide in American culture, religion and politics that (according to some well-respected observers) threatens the viability of American Democracy. Beneath the most obvious and salacious details of the scandal lies a Christian subculture that, like a vast chunk of Antarctic ice, had years before begun to diverge from the mainstream mass of secular culture; some, like Hagee’s church, h…

Waiting for Lightning to Strike: A Wobbly Agnostic among the Atheists

By Carolyn S. Briggs

…says with her hands on her hips. According to Bey, being an outed African-American woman atheist is the same as committing cultural suicide. You’re rejecting a long history and everything your ancestors believed and stood for. You are telling your mothers and sisters that you think they’re stupid. For African-American women, identity comes first. “Because of us, you are.” Enjoy Being an Atheist At last, the speaker I had waited for is introduced….

New Age Tragedy in Sedona: Non-Indians in the Sweat Lodge

By Johnny P. Flynn

…Age religious movement can be traced to events in the early 1970s when the American Indian Movement made headlines across the country with occupations in South Dakota, Arizona, and Wisconsin. Among the participants were many American Indian spiritual leaders who were knowledgeable in the use of the sweat as a healing ritual—and they shared the ceremony with Indians and non-Indian supporters from around the country. Like the dried head of a dandeli…

Good (Enough) Christians — Russell Moore in The Atlantic Illustrates the Limitations of ‘Christian Nationalism’ as Category

By Chrissy Stroop

…stian innocence” that profoundly shapes American society in ways that many Americans do not. Fully two-thirds of LGBTQ Americans are nonreligious (compared to about one-third of the general population), for what seem like obvious reasons—and yet it’s not the LGBTQ Christians who leave the religion, but rather those who reclaim it as something inclusive, who get all the media attention. There’s a peculiar sting to the form of erasure that comes fro…