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Despite Vastly Different Values, Evangelical ‘Hamilton’ Connects Secular Left and Christian Right

By Jake Johnson

…hurch production brings an intriguing situation to the surface. It’s not nothing that, in an age of bitter critique and entrenchment, we find an example where warring parties actually admit to finding meaning in the same fundamental story. Musicals like Hamilton thin out our relationship with the world as it is in order to make us rethink the world as it might become. Churches like The Door McAllen seem to be doing the same. Ideas with thin skin m…

2022 American Values Survey Offers Some Good News — And Some Bad

By Daniel Schultz

…nk abortion should be legal in most or all cases, and 61% oppose the Dobbs ruling that struck down Roe v. Wade. Turning things around to look at positions very much in the minority is equally revealing: 42% of Americans think that society has become “too soft and feminine.” 40% believe that newcomers pose a threat to American society 31% think that “God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society tha…

Cloud Atlas: This is Some Mystical S*%t

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…films like this. Pulp Fiction, Before the Rain, Magnolia, and Tykwer’s own Run Lola Run play with repetition and simultaneity, inserting tags into the mise-en-scene that provide clues to the interconnections. Sometimes it’s for fun or simple coherence, while other times it is making a deeper point, as it does in Cloud Atlas. Critics of the film have noted that the individual narratives are not compelling unto themselves. Perhaps. But the point is…

Ten Religion Stories That Went (Mostly) Missing in 2015

By Peter Laarman

…r all I know, they accomplish a hell of a lot. But we shouldn’t take their word for it. Investigative journalism, anyone? 2. The struggle of the Black Church to come to terms with #BlackLivesMatter. In some cities there has been visible conflict between Old Guard pastors (many of whom still identify with the 20th century civil rights movement) and the New Guard of fearless youth, many of whom are not shy about showing contempt for the pastors. Thi…

Anti-Gay Campaign In Indonesia Leads to Arrests; Mexico’s Religious Right Wars Against Secular State & LGBT Equality; Muslim Preacher Sparks Controversy in UK Re Death Penalty For Gays; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…r 7, and says the Guam Visitors Bureau is looking to market the island as a marriage destination for same-sex couples. United Nations: Anti-Gay Countries Block Mention of LGBT People in New Urban Agenda Belarus, Russia, and more than a dozen other countries reportedly blocked any mention of LGBT people in a document on a “New Urban Agenda” to address the challenges of rapidly growing cities….

From Closeted Evangelical to Unapologetic Atheist: A “Faitheist” Manifesto

By Chris Stedman

…inter-religious dialogue and cooperative action. I am a sucker for clever worldplay and, for reasons I explain in the book, I liked the idea of “reclaiming” that word. At one point we toyed with calling it (F)a(i)theist but eventually decided that was kind of overkill. Also, can you imagine the complications that would cause for library shelving systems?! How do you feel about the cover? My publisher, Beacon Press, is so wonderful. As far as I’m…

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

By Carolyn S. Briggs

…ave social needs. Atheists are no different. Fellowship is not a religious word; it’s a human word.” A middle-aged couple on our right wear cardigans and expensive shoes and small fixed smiles on their faces, expectant and serene. Next to us sit three college-aged 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…

Beverly Cleary, Author of the Ramona Series, Understood Children, Shoes, School, Words, and How it Feels to be Heard, or Misunderstood

By Amy Laura Hall

…the front of the room, laughed at by her class.” The ways that adults use words and hear words from a child may make all the difference in how a little one is able to see herself and continue forming her own brave words. That may sound trite, but it’s also true. Ramona and Her Father (1975) opens with the word: “Yeeep!” Ramona is singing “Yeeep!” on repeat as she prints “mice or ginny pig” [sic] on her Christmas list. “What’s all this yeeping abo…

How We Got to Super: Grant Morrison’s Visionary Gnosticism

By Jeffrey J. Kripal

…kay with that). My brother Jerry and I spent a summer month following its grueling instructions on how to add a whole inch to our biceps, which basically involved curling dumbbells every other hour all day long until we turned blue and couldn’t lift our arms any longer. It was awesome. And that was just the beginning of the wonders. There were the decoders and spy cameras (ordered one), the martial arts secrets advertised in martial arts comics (y…

‘Cult’ Is an Inaccurate, Unhelpful and Dangerous Label for Followers of Trump, QAnon, and 1/6

By Catherine Wessinger

…n other failed prophecies have reacted. Some have given up their faith in Trump. Trump has rationalized the readily apparent loss of the election by promoting the view that he really did win but the election was stolen. Some have set later dates for Trump to become president. Sovereign Citizens, for example, provided March 4, 2021, the date originally stipulated by the Constitution for a presidential inauguration, as when he would be sworn in as p…