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Catholic News We Missed Last Week While Stalking the Pope

By Mary E. Hunt

…anced by well-intentioned supporters. My Catholic high school in Syracuse, New York was forbidden by the diocese to host her in the late 1960s. Being domesticated in death by a church that fails to appreciate one in life is distasteful. Attention to John McNeill and his ministry is a powerful antidote to much of the holy hoopla of the papal visit. Brendan Fay captured the contours of John’s life in a fine film, “Taking a Chance on God.” John found…

New Age Tragedy in Sedona: Non-Indians in the Sweat Lodge

By Johnny P. Flynn

…lodge ceremony” and more than twenty were sickened. Within hours after the news broke, the Web was alive with comments from Indians and non-Indians about the tragedy. Sifting through the reactions I found a few themes that stood out. Stealing the Religion? First of all, there’s the question of the relationship of Indian religion to American culture. Non-Indians have been making a lucrative business out of the appropriation of Native ceremonies for…

Fox News Needs to Get a Grip on its Affiliate’s Issues with Mormonism

By Joanna Brooks

…ed the Fox logo. If ridiculing minority religions and cultures isn’t official Fox News policy, if it’s just, say, an unseemly aspect of their corporate culture, Fox might want to do something about that. Maybe it’s time to get the word down the line to hundreds of other Fox News affiliates nationwide that minority-baiting is unacceptable. Because we’ve got fifteen months left until November 2012. And it already feels like it’s going to be a long c…

We Can’t Spiritualize Our Way out of American Polarization

By Chrissy Stroop

…ting on evangelicalism, the same old patterns persist, for example in this New York Times piece that paints the opposition of many white evangelicals to getting vaccinated against COVID—an opposition driven by the decidedly unsympathetic motivations of fear-mongering conspiracy theories and resentment against othered groups—in an unduly sympathetic light. More recently, Times guest opinion columnist Molly Worthen, an associate professor of history…

Aliens To Arrive in Alabama Today!

By Ben Brazil

…spite the ample warnings that preceded them. From the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington to the failure of the levees in New Orleans to the financial meltdown on Wall Street, we saw warning signs but did not prepare. This pattern suggests why I was not surprised to learn, only hours ago, that an alien craft will appear in the skies over Alabama sometime tonight, will remain for three days to prove the existence of extraterrestrials,…

When the Church’s LGBTIQ Loss is the World’s Gain

By Mary E. Hunt

…by being present and engaged – pastorally and as advocates – during these times of transition in the Presbyterian Church (USA).” Over the years, Jane was brought up twice on ecclesial charges for presiding at same sex marriages. Even when convicted, the local authorizes refused to impose the penalty. History and the Supreme Court proved them all prophetic. The ordination ban was eventually modified so that local Presbyterian churches are free to…

What We Still Don’t Know About Islam

By Hussein Rashid

…models this ignorance of Muslim traditions. Like William Dalrymple in the New York Times, she pulls out this word “sufism,” as though it is the silver bullet that will bring peace to the world. To say that Feisal Abdul-Rauf is a sufi is technically true and about as useful as saying he is male. Sufism is theological orientation amongst Muslims that covers a wide variety of beliefs and practices. There are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of…

Christian Right Claims to be ‘Above Politics’ Are Unbelievable

By Chrissy Stroop

…n supremacism that pervades American society. Notice, for example, how the New York Times’ Elizabeth Dias leaves unquestioned a claim that Christianity Today, the flagship “respectable” evangelical magazine, “is very apolitical,” despite its frequent discussion of such things as Supreme Court decisions, “religious freedom,” and other matters of concern to social conservatives. The spread of campaign-style “Jesus 2020” yard signs around the country…

I’d Rather Go Back to Yemen than Face NYPD

By Hussein Rashid

…on the department. We need to know that information on non-criminal activity is not being retained and that the NYPD has not been diverting funds from crime fighting to support a misguided crusade (a term I do not use lightly) to harass New York’s people of color. And it wouldn’t hurt for the Department of Justice to initiate an investigation….

Alarming New Report Shows Attacks on Public Education Are Coordinated by Right-Wing Think Tanks

By Hialy Gutierrez

…y important to articulate a different vision of the world. I don’t want to live in a world in which my value is my paycheck. People like Robert Mercer actually think their value is their bank account, and have said that people on welfare have negative value because they take resources more than they get. It’s necessary to counteract this highly individualist, radically anti-social, and empirically false understanding of the world. We must articula…