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Protesters in Washington DC, the day before the January 6 insurrection, wrapped in American flags blow shofars.

Netanyahu’s Genocidal Religious Rhetoric isn’t Just an Appeal to the Israeli Right — He Has Another Constituency in Mind

…and barbarians such that, even in 2021, 74% of Republicans and 50% of all Americans agreed with the statement: “Islam is at odds with American values and ways of life.” In other words, to be an American is to be a Christian. Therefore, since Muslims are portrayed as enemies of civilization—i.e. as enemies-of-Christ—a significant percentage of Americans are inspired by Netanyahu’s religious rhetoric, imagining themselves as mutually engaged in def…

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Recent Debates Highlight Democrats’ Antisemitism Blind Spot—But It’s Not What You Think

…. Congresswoman. He obsessed over her as though she was the main threat to American Jews, while barely mentioning the 11 American lives lost in an antisemitic terrorist attack in Pittsburgh or the fact that more hate crimes are committed against Jews than any other religious group in the U.S. This is an affront, and it should have been addressed by Congress. In fact, it’s more than an affront, it’s a deliberate attempt to skew our sense of reality…

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No, I Don’t Owe My Yoga Mat to Vivekananda

…ch writes about Vivekananda as though he reflected something mainstream in American culture: “His prescription for life was simple, and perfectly American: ‘work and worship.’” And she claims that Vivekananda’s popularity waned because America’s “baby boomers commandeered the yoga business.” First, Vivekananda was never “popular” in the sense that modern yoga became popularized in the late twentieth century. He certainly gained the attention of a…

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Red Pop and Freedom: How (And How Not) to Celebrate Juneteenth, a New Federal Holiday

…that red-colored food and drinks draws upon the diasporic roots of African-American and American foodways. Enslaved Africans sent to Texas, the westernmost of the former Confederacy and cotton kingdom, were drawn from Yoruba and Kongo people for which red held spiritual meaning of sacrifice, transition, and power. In his insightful New York Times article, “Hot Links and Red Drinks: The Rich Food Tradition of Juneteenth” soul-food expert Adrian Mil…

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The Landmark 85-Year-Old Report Absent From Debates Over Missionary’s Death

…ve” justifies the means. As a scholar of missionary history, I’ve seen how American missionaries have assisted those in need. During World War I, American missionaries across the Middle East were key protagonists in forming the Near East Relief, which administered aid to millions displaced by war and conflict. Into the mid-twentieth century, missionaries and faith-based organizations were at the forefront of addressing global refugee crises follow…

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What Passover Taught Me About Being Black

…happened, I converted to rabbinic Judaism under the guidance of an African-American rabbi and within the context of a primarily African-American congregation. Observing the Passover seder communally with my congregation was exciting. As time progressed, however, Passover became further removed from my annual celebration of freedom from Egyptian slavery and the hope for the end of American bondage to debates over whether, as a non-Ashkenazi Jew, I…

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Ebola and Us: The American Roots of Liberia’s Trauma

…er polite and academic. The ACS types took up mob violence against African American schools and churches and raided antislavery institutions. In Connecticut they blocked the opening of a black college (the first of its kind) in New Haven, and they persecuted Prudence Crandall’s school for African American girls and women in Canterbury, putting Crandall on trial and physically destroying her school. The Colonization Society’s official name was “The…

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Making Fun of Mormonism

…be at the Values Voters Summit, the recent Pew Forum survey found that the number one word Americans associate with Mormonism is “cult.” The caricaturing of Mormon weirdness, even by public thinkers who should know better, does have consequences. Yet Mormon scholars like Bringhurst believe that this is a natural, and even welcome, vetting process of both Mormons as American and a Mormon as the chief American. (In this vetting process, one belief t…

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Atheist Monument: Proof of Unintelligent Design

…a successful monument makes it hard to imagine its setting without it. The American Atheists monument fails on both counts. When granted the opportunity to memorialize atheism in a public place, American Atheists decided to install a bench. In one sense, this is a clever idea, in that it reflects the utilitarian impulse of American atheism. But a bench is also something that you put your butt on. And this particular bench is an eyesore. About five…

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Gay-Hating Church Burns “Idols”: A Report

…ued that acts such as the burning of the Qur’an, while legal, provoke anti-American sentiment and endanger American troops, Westboro’s Tim Phelps argues that it’s the invasion of Muslim nations and the killing of countless civilians that has inspired violence by Muslims. The media, he says, ignores these civilian deaths, “as if their lives did not matter at all,” instead calling down wrath on religious believers exercising their rights to free spe…

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