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As Transition Looms, Jewish Studies is Mired in Controversy

By Shaul Magid

…field, including its relationship to Jewish communal life and what it includes (and excludes) from its articulations of Jews and Jewishness. In conversation with their essay, I would like to step back and consider the current moment as an inflection point in the history of Jewish Studies in the United States. Kletenik and Neis’ intervention raises important points that have been at the contested center of Jewish Studies in recent decades. What is…

The Women’s March, Anti-Semitism, and ‘The Jewish Farrakhan’

By Shaul Magid

…stment, and Sanctions) and openly criticizes Israeli oppression of Palestinians. As a Palestinian whose family has lived under a half-century of Israeli occupation, she has also criticized progressive Jews who continue to support Israel, questioning their progressive credentials. Although she’s a Christian, Tamika Mallory has openly posed with Farrakhan and spoken about the positive work he’s done in the Black community, including in prisons and i…

Put Your Money Where Your Mind Is: A For-Profit Meditation Studio Opens in New York

By Michael Schulson

…nity all the more efficient. But there’s a long American tradition of religious groups acting as a counterbalance to the weight of consumerist culture. For those with less faith in the commercial model, the situation might seem a little grim. Siddhartha Gautama set out to eliminate desire. But perhaps desire’s greatest structural incarnation—the marketplace—will eliminate him. Thanks to Leah Schulson and Ethan McCurdy for contributing reporting fr…

Our Lady of Good Hope and Excellent Behavior: Why this Apparition and Why Now?

By Lisa Bitel

…have challenged religious and government leaders over the last two millennia of Christian history with new interpretations of divine justice, the unassuming Sister Adele poses no threats to the political equilibrium of nations or the Vatican. No banners with the image of Our Lady of Good Hope are flying over protest marches or rallies for social justice up in Wisconsin, as Guadalupe—who long preceded the current fashion in apparitions—continues t…

Recovering From Rejection: The Second Coming of Ted Haggard

By Wendy Norris

…rospect of a new Haggard ministry (and a new book deal he’s currently negotiating) there is the potential that it could seriously backfire. Vilify him too viciously and too personally without a carefully crafted patina of Christian charity and they risk being perceived by the flock as self-righteous. Haggard’s own spectacular self-destruction offers an important cautionary tale for those who traffic in intolerant fundamentalist morality when their…

Can Expelled Teach Us a Thing or Two?

By Arri Eisen

…tles’ (evolution vs. creationism, science vs. religion) may sell books and tickets for both ‘sides,’ productive engagement and nuance is sacrificed. Expelled, on the positive side does show us some interviews with balanced, thoughtful scientist/religion scholars like John Polkinghorne and Alister McGrath. They discuss the value of science and religion and other ways of thinking, and how productive dialogues among them, rather than battle rhetoric,…

Swift-Boat Veterans of American Jewry Charge Anti-Semitism at Occupy Wall Street

By Jay Michaelson

…Barack Obama. Antisemitism is a serious, real thing. When it is used as a cheap shot—as when pro-Palestinian advocates throw around terms like “Nazi” and “concentration camp”—it is an offense against all those who were murdered over the centuries. Diluting the meaning of the term ‘antisemitism’ is, itself, antisemitic. Second, as I described in a recent post, there is indeed a structural similarity between some of the Occupy movement’s concerns a…

Mitt Romney’s Prosperity Gospel

By Peter Laarman

…I fervently wish that Mr. Obama would say a bit more about the problem of cheap grace. Reminding us that people who work very hard for very little are not the abusers of cheap grace, but that others in well-feathered nests who are preaching sacrifice might be in real trouble on the cheap grace front. Obama cannot and should not condemn those in the electorate who buy into Romney’s “there will be showers of blessing” message, but he probably does …

Something So Broken: What’s Frightening About Beasts of the Southern Wild

By Michael Pasquier

…o cry in the Bathtub. Sometimes You Can Break Something So Bad So why Louisiana? Why not Michigan or California or South Carolina? And why a storm and a flood? Why not an earthquake or a tornado or a fire? In the same Atlantic interview, Zeitlin responds: I think that redemption, or enlightenment, or some sort of truth is found very close to destruction. It’s in the most extreme situations where you find this, where you get this abandon that allow…

Francis Visits the Church that John Paul Broke

By Patricia Miller

…baptisms has declined from nearly 1 million to just over 700,000, and the number of marriages within the church has declined by nearly half. Only the number of Catholic funerals has held steady. And while the number of Catholics overall has remained level, that’s largely due to Hispanic migration to the US; some 40 percent of those born Catholic have left the church. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. The church Francis will encounter is fun…