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Culture Wars Masquerading as Social Science: New Survey Illustrates Evangelicals’ Election Year Anxieties

By Chrissy Stroop

…evangelical magazine Relevant. The latter’s headline, “Report: A Third of American Evangelicals Don’t Believe Jesus Was God” is more typical of most coverage, but CT’s headline, “State of Theology: Evangelicals Hold Steady on Doctrine, More Outspoken on Politics,” gestures toward what will be more of interest to observers of the Christian Right in an election year. In order to understand the significance of something like the State of Theology Su…

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

By Joseph Laycock

…t because, according to journalist Maury Terry, Lueken also made anonymous phone calls to reporters investigating the Son of Sam murders. She offered information connecting David Berkowitz to a Satanic cult. I’m very interested in Satanic Panic and it seems that the Baysiders had a major role in disseminating urban legends that serial killers are part of an organized network of murderous cultists. 4. What are some of the biggest misconceptions abo…

As Long As There’s Fear, We Aren’t Ready for Atheism: A Conversation with Theologian and Ex-Priest Daniel Maguire

By Alana Massey

…to atheism than its more dismissive predecessors. RD spoke with Maguire by phone about his latest book and the future of belief. What was the impetus for undertaking this after a long career as a priest and theologian who was once a believer? I started out as the absolute true believer. I believed everything the Vatican taught. One of the things that helped me was working in a parish. I started to meet real people and to discover that some of the…

The Environmental Politics of Vodou, New Orleans Style

By Joseph Laycock

…especially, race. This matrix of associations is evident in the example of phone psychics like “Miss Cleo,” who uses an affected Caribbean accent. We also saw it in Pat Robertson’s gaffe following the earthquake that devastated Haiti in 2010, when he claimed that the nation of Haiti had made a pact with the Devil. Glassman conforms to no stereotypes about Vodou. Born in Maine, her parents were of Ukrainian Jewish heritage but were not religious. S…

Religion or Insanity? Two Upcoming Murder Trials Will Ask the (Burning) Question

By Joseph Laycock

…re attempting to kill herself. Christensen claimed she was responding to a phone call from her husband, a pastor, who announced that the world was ending and to get the family ready. Cases such as this raise questions that have long gone unanswered about how the state should define “religion.” By what criteria should we decide whether deviant beliefs and actions are an expression of religion or evidence of a medical problem? Dr. Kolchak points out…

Satanic FOIA Reveals Deep Confusion About 1st Amendment

By Joseph Laycock

…Satanic monument at the Oklahoma capital (apparently a statue of a Native American warrior placed on top of the dome in 2002 is actually an idol of Baal erected by Freemasons). A letter writer expressed that the Satanic statue should be allowed because it would force the Illuminati to reveal their Luciferian plans to the world. But most callers essentially argued that the Ten Commandments should be allowed and the Satan monument forbidden because…

Anti-LGBT Culture Warriors On The March; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…sformation” of the Catholic Church that is under way, “a decisive shift in numbers towards the Global South—to Asia, Africa and Latin America.” A century ago, he says, two-thirds of the world’s Catholics were in Europe, but by the middle of this century that number will fall “to perhaps a sixth.” Geography is not destiny, but it is only natural that prelates from one part of the world will tend to speak for the traditions with which they are most…

Brexit Boosters: Why the Religious Right Hates the European Union

By Peter Montgomery

…hose people seek to preserve the age-old traditions and spiritual values.” American Religious Right groups like the Alliance Defense Fund, the American Center for Law and Justice, and the National Organization for Marriage are among those who take a global approach to the culture war, and work closely with their counterparts in Europe through overseas operations and alliances like the WCF. Many Religious Right groups are supporting the Mum, Dad &…

Netanyahu’s Speech, Lane’s Trip, and the Impossibility of Boycotts

By Sarah Posner

…as a small, partisan, outlier chapter in a much bigger story of friendship cemented by Republican Party officials traveling to Israel with the American Family Association and the American Renewal Project….

How America’s Charismatic Christianity Helped Fuel the Fantasyland Presidency of Donald Trump

By Eric C. Miller

…er people. At various points, you cite an anti-establishment streak in the American temperament. Would you say that Americans are generally too quick to disbelieve official accounts and too quick to believe alternative theories? Yes, I think that is precisely correct, and I think it is in large measure a result of the nation having been born of the Enlightenment and of fervent Christianity. These are flipsides, too. This extreme credulity and extr…