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Jonestown at 40: The Real Conspiracy Is More Disturbing Than the Theories

…g tortured by outside forces) or to protest the conditions of an inhumane world. This brings us back to the first question: Was it mass murder or collective suicide? Certainly more than 300 children were murdered. They were killed first, primarily by medical staff who used syringes to squirt poison into their mouths. But this staff was aided by parents, make no mistake about that. In addition, a number of senior citizens are reported to have been…

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ABC’s Hit Sitcom Black-ish Does God, Pushes Theological Respectability

…n light of moral evil (e.g., racism, sexism, classism, homophobia) in the world? Early African American work songs, for instance, suggest that some African Americans signified belief in God due to the misery of life. The blues, growing out of these earlier songs, turn instead to human effort and human pleasure without any reliance on divine intervention. While the exact terminology isn’t used, the philosophy of life within these musical forms spea…

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What Color is Vatican Smoke?

…, seven thousand black South Africans were killed under apartheid, and the number imprisoned was far higher. The Catholic Church neither kills nor imprisons ordained women and their supporters; excommunication, while painful, is not at all the same, even when financial losses accompany it. In 2007 I published an article in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion explaining in some detail why highly educated white women simply cannot say that t…

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Marriage equality and ‘the end of Catholic Ireland’; Gambian Prez vows to slit gays’ throats; Colombian govt affirms support for marriage and adoption; global LGBT recap

…people of the Irish Republic described themselves as “Roman Catholic”. The number of atheists and agnostics and diverse other faiths was up too, but Roman Catholics remained the majority. However, it is evident, especially in Dublin, that nominal inscription to a religion is one thing, while actual practice is another. Red C’s survey only confirms what is obvious anecdotally: that a substantial number of Irish people have ditched the religion of t…

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Forced Cremation of Covid Dead in Sri Lanka Further Marginalizes Muslim Community

…g the bone of a living person—it is forbidden. Muslim scholars around the world have noted that certain practices, such as the ritual bathing of the body, can be modified during times of emergencies, including pandemics. Additionally, the number of people present at a Muslim funeral can also be reduced as long as the funeral prayer and burial occurs. Further modifications have also been adopted by Muslims, such as increased distance during prayer….

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Before Black Twitter: How the Early Black Press Shaped American Discourse Around Race and Religion

…ay even about the five newspapers that I do cover in my book. But the vast number of people and papers that I wasn’t able to concentrate on in the book just underscores how much work there is left to do on the black press. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? Outside of a small group of specialists in early African-American print culture, most people that I’ve talked to about my subject are surprised to learn that black wo…

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The Family Research Council’s Mistaken Identity

…adical far right, described in the FBI’s Project Megiddo report as “a vast number and variety of groups, such as survivalists, militias, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, Christian Identity churches, the AN and skinheads.” The report called Christian Identity “the most unifying theology for a number of these diverse groups and one widely adhered to by white supremacists. It is a belief system that provides its members with a religious basis for racism…

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Satanic or Silly: Does Yale Press Censorship of Cartoons Insult Muslims?

…by Muslim extremists with the political goal of destabilizing regimes in a number of Muslim countries. It appears that the experts consulted by Yale University Press have accepted this argument, including the prediction by a former foreign minister of Nigeria that publishing the images would cause riots from Indonesia to Nigeria; a repeat of the previous protests that led to a boycott of Danish products, attacks on Danish embassies, and a number o…

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How Not To Defend Atheism

…llion atheists in the U.S., a full 26% of the country. The most charitable number I could find was from Gallup, putting the number of Americans in 2014 who say they don’t believe in God at 11%. To make things frustratingly worse, other atheists have been calling Silverman out for falsely inflating the number of atheists for more than four years. And last year, I specifically asked Silverman if he would stop reporting the stats on “nones” as being…

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Hell, in Rob Bell’s Own Words: State of Belief Radio

…d the Jewish story that he was living in was about the reclaiming of this world, the restoration and the renewal of this world. So, Jesus comes, He teaches his disciples to pray “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The action for Jesus was here on earth, about renewing this earth, about standing in solidarity with those who are suffering in this world. And he spoke of a kingdom of God, which is here and now: upon you, among you, around…

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