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Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Men “Stand Up” for “Religious Freedom”… On a Plane

By Kara Loewentheil

…h ultra-Orthodox men interfering in your travel, you can just take another airline. If only it were as easy for female employees affected by the numerous lawsuits against the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage requirement to find a better job. *Correction: This post originally indicated that gender separation was due to concerns about women’s menstrual cycles. To read more about gender separation among Haredi Jews in Israel and in the U….

Penn Jillette’s Signs You May Already Be an Atheist

By Steve A. Wiggins

…rust I have in the TSA before, Jillette’s rant in “Penn’s Bacon and a Kiss Airline” was like finding a long-lost brother; another guy who feels it is criminal to be viewed naked by strangers—involuntarily—is a true freedom fighter. This is a comedian with a conscience. He may come down on the wrong side of many traditional issues (global warming and sexual mores, e.g.), but he is keenly aware that too many people suffer. Theodicy in motion. In the…

Insecto-Theology: A Wake for Our Planetary Commons

By Jacob J. Erickson

…glory of them. Lesser revels in human dominion and use of insect life, the minute, to contemplate Divinity. He notes that God uses insects (think those plagues) to chasten humankind. He argues that, “In order to manifest his [sic] dominion over insects, God ordained that the first fruits of honey should be presented to him [sic].” Lesser’s God sounds like quite the queen bee. Such attitudes of human dominion and instrumentalization of critters for…

The Holocaust and 9/11 Museums: A Tale of Two Controversial Films

By Todd Fine

…istorical context before the permanent exhibition’s journey begins. The 15-minute “Nazi Rise to Power” film (with the museum auditorium’s longer 38-minute extension, “The Path to Nazi Genocide“) offers wide-ranging historical context, including the end of World War I, Versailles, hyperinflation, fears of communism, the failings of the Weimar Republic, effects of industrialism, and changing societal mores. “The Rise of Al-Qaeda,” on the other hand,…

“Far Too Extreme For America To Accept,” Hamas “Endorsed Obama,” “Forced Abortions,” and More

By Sarah Posner

…rt he is a Muslim and that he and the Democrats are anti-Christian. The 25-minute “Breaking Point” ad employs the narrative skills of African-American pastor E.W. Jackson, a favorite of the religious right who, in his recent “Open Letter to the Black Church Community,” wrote that the black community is in the “death grip” of the Democratic Party, which “has become a Coalition of the Godless, supported by abortionists, homosexual activists, pornogr…

More Mixed Signals from Pope Francis; Church of England Wrestles with Rifts; Faith Groups Lobby Pro & Con on Irish Referendum; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e group did not get a private meeting with Pope Francis, but was given VIP tickets to the pope’s weekly audience in St. Peter’s square. Religion News Service reports that several bishops, including “San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone – point man or the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ battle against gay marriage – had written a letter to the Vatican on their behalf.” A group of LGBT Catholics from London who met up with the New Ways…

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

By Carolyn S. Briggs

…ed young men, one with a math book open on his lap, another intent on his iPhone. There are a lot of white people in this room; I scan for diversity and find a few people of color, but the audience is only consistently stratified by age. There are elderly atheists, but also lots of middle-aged and hipster young-twenties atheists. I see both aging hippies still wearing tie-dye and elegant white-haired people who would fit into any Episcopal congreg…

The Sacred and the Dead: The Trouble with Sugar Magnolia

By Kaya Oakes

…omething-year-old Deadhead guys hit on my teenage friends by offering them tickets to shows. Deadheads were anathema to my chosen subculture of socially conscious punks. East Bay punks were aggro and in your face about social justice, feminism, human rights; Deadheads, in our eyes, were too stoned and obsessed with their god Jerry to care. Sometimes, I’d be out in Berkeley at night, coming out of a punk show in some basement or garage, and I’d hea…

Wichita, the Sequel: A Clinic Reopens at Ground Zero in America’s Fight over Abortion

By Kathryn Joyce

…abortion clinics, particularly Dr. Tiller’s, and were arrested in massive numbers. One local activist told me that nearly 25 anti-abortion groups had been birthed during the Summer of Mercy, some of which are still active. The protests so shaped the city that, 22 years later, both sides recall the fight vividly. Faced with what was initially meant to be a week of protests, Wichita officials requested that the clinic close, and Dr. Tiller complied…

Death in the Desert: Riding With the Samaritans

By Lauri Lebo

…grants from their homes. They are pulled to the U.S. because of demand for cheap labor. One of the major pushes came in the ’90s with the passage of NAFTA, which opened the door to many agri-businesses to move farms down to Mexico, putting small farmers out of business. And while the number of undocumented border crossers is down, Brother David says, it will be virtually impossible to eliminate them as long as the opportunities for jobs exist. As…