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How the Christian Right Can Save America from Donald Trump

By Sarah Posner

…ging Into Donald Trump’s Religion (D.C. Innes in World, calling Trump’s refusal to name a favorite Bible verse in a Bloomberg interview his “Sarah Palin moment” for evangelicals, referring to when Palin told Katie Couric she reads “all” the newspapers); Conservative Columnist Says Donald Trump is Scamming Christians for Vote, Urges Conservative Evangelicals to ‘Wake Up’ (Gospel Herald referring to Kirsten Powers’ op-ed in USA Today). If Donald Tru…

Super Bowl Sunday, American Holy Day

By Gary Laderman

…d fateful day had healing power and religious meaning. In a September 2002 USA Today article accompanied by an image of the flag-raising, journalist Erik Brady wrote that “Ballparks and stadiums became town squares where much of the ritual of public healing took place… Ballparks became home to sacramental ceremony,” places that he later refers to “miniature gardens of Eden.” This Eden does not require the creation of God but instead has sacred vit…

Sacred&Profane: ARIS Survey Gets ‘Religion’, Misses Boat

By Gary Laderman

…disappearing—the religious ones, anyway; evangelicals are increasing their numbers as the mainline churches continue to shrink; and new religious communities like Wicca continue to grow in popularity. The usual pundits and pontificators have made their proclamations right out of the gate: USA Today portrays the “piety gap” (separating those who believe in a personal god from those who do not) as especially relevant in the ongoing culture wars; CNN…

No Buddhists in Washington?

By Danny Fisher

…based Buddhist Peace Fellowship, which mobilizes dozens of chapters and thousands of members around important social and political issues. Consider publications like Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and Shambhala Sun (for whom I blog) that have found appeal beyond just their target demographic. Consider the work of Buddhists in professional chaplaincy, which has been explored in recent articles in both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Consid…

Americans Are Overtreated to Death

By Daniel Schultz

So says the headline of a USA Today health piece: More than 80% of people who die in the United States have a long, progressive illness such as cancer, heart failure or Alzheimer’s disease. More than 80% of such patients say they want to avoid hospitalization and intensive care when they are dying, according to the Dartmouth Atlas Project, which tracks health care trends. Yet the numbers show that’s not what is happening: •The average time spent…

UK Muslims & the “War on Christmas”

By Svend White

…o-way street. Christians are going to celebrate Christmas and their higher numbers in society are going to naturally translate into a higher cultural profile for their festivities, but that doesn’t absolve the majority from its responsibility to recognize and strive to accommodate the sensibilities of other, non-Christian communities and traditions. When that responsibility to be open to diversity is systematically neglected, otherwise innocent ex…

Occupy Francis Lewis Boulevard

By Haroon Moghul

…read the day when I walk in and announce, I’d like to redeem my tens of thousands of points, and force them out of business. I am their Lehman Brothers. But of course I wouldn’t do that, because then where would I eat? (Surprisingly, that logic also captures the bond market and the Eurozone crisis.) At the Subway, the man ahead of me was having a conversation with the cashier, something about Occupy Wall Street and the 99%. I expected it would be…

Historical Revisionism Jujitsu: Religious Right Celebrates End of Interracial Marriage Ban

By Evan Derkacz

…e Republican party, James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and even Blackwater USA (the military contractor whose malfeasance is fast becoming the stuff of legend). Their e-mail alerts, which I receive daily, can be distressingly cloying, deploying middle-age dad puns and witticisms worthy of the uniquely middle-American craft of crochet-art. Recent subject headings read: “Ligers, Tigons, and Zonkeys, Oh My!” (warning against the dangers of genetic en…

Thanksgiving Reveals More About Us Than About 17th Century Events

By Ed Simon

…nukkah in 2013, the last time that’s on the schedule for 78,000 years. One USA Today headline phrased it perfectly: “Thanksgivukkah stirs thanks, angst.” As a scholar of religions, I see Thanksgivukkah as a phenomenon to unpack, not to judge. As a Jewish American, I am seduced by the joys and kitsch of this once-in-a-life time event … but it’s still not the Christmas tree I longed for as a child. *** The Sacramental American Day of Thanks America…

The Truth in Transgender: Will the Episcopal Church Amend Its Rules?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…nd communications director for the Episcopal LGBT advocacy group Integrity USA, of the failure of the 2009 resolution. “There was a clear need for education among the bishops and the delegates in general on what it means to be transgender and why it matters that they are not prevented from serving the Church in any ministry, lay or ordained.” “I have to confess,” continues Brooks, “that I was one of those people who used to say, ‘Why do we have to…