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The Plot to Turn the Synod into a “Plot”

By Patricia Miller

…which the Synod is to take up. The Supreme Pontiff may, if he so chooses, increase the number of members of the Synod of Bishops by adding bishops, or religious to represent the religious institutes, or clerics who are experts, to the extent of fifteen percent of the total number of the members mentioned in articles V and VIII. Despite this, Douthat assures us that “as a Catholic,” he expects “the plot to ultimately fail; where the pope and the hi…

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

By Daniel Martin Varisco

…, as it assumes that Muslims extremists await any new pretext to spur violence and that “moderate” Muslims are at their mercy. Given the ongoing United States military presence in both Iraq and Afghanistan, drone bombings in Pakistan and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, there are far more relevant pretexts available than an Ivy League book that may not even warrant review in major newspapers. The peddlers of Islamophobia in the media, popular trad…

As Gaza Burns, Jews Disagree, Protest & Pray

By Sam Kestenbaum

…d with Salaam Aleikum, and calls Israel an “abomination” whose “very existence is an offence to the Almighty.” The crowd cheers. “Zionism is a rebellion against God, a base nationalism that has no space or place in the Jewish religion,” he says. “We oppose the occupation because we are Jewish.” Payos hang down on either side of his face; he wears a fedora and a Palestinian flag wrapped around his neck. “This was given to me by an Arab,” he later e…

Dutch Treat: Betsy DeVos and the Christian Schools Movement

By Peter Laarman

…ica–as hardcore reactionaries, not dewy-eyed social democrats. That difference explains a lot. I was raised in one of the enclaves created by this separatist emigrant movement: in Holland Township in Sheboygan County, WI. The Christian Reformed Church (CRC) may have broken away from the much older Reformed Church in America (RCA) in 1857, but for us the schism was still so real and palpable that it was as though it had happened yesterday. We were…

New Poll Reveals Jews May Be Open to Change in Israel Policy

By Benjamin Weiner

…to ask is: what does it mean that so many American Jews support Obama’s stance, when that stance, to date, has been best described by observers as “enigmatic”? How well will these numbers hold up if Israel’s “most favored nation” status is truly challenged by an American administration? Despite some American Jewish alienation from Israeli policy, backing for a bold new direction in the peace process is not entirely solid, a fact reflected in the s…

What’s in a Name? Religious Nones and the American Religious Landscape

By Richard Flory

…nt or afraid to publicly proclaim their disbelief. These reactions to the increase in the number of people classified as “religious Nones” represent an assumption based on a market approach of religion and an understanding of religion as a binary reality. Just like any other business, success in the religious marketplace is the goal, and it is measured by the number of people who identify with your particular brand of religion (or irreligion as th…

Pope’s US Visit Provokes Intense Attention; New Vatican Book on Man-Woman Complementarity & New Int’l Report on Christian Role Models for LGBT Equality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…er of laws have attempted to punish homosexuality with more severe consequences including death, but those bills have folded under international pressure. While activists say the foundation of the bill is fundamentally discriminatory, they also say that successful lobbying campaigns have helped introduce possible amendments that strip the bill of its restrictive backbone. In fact, the Ugandan Committee on Defense and International Affairs suggeste…

Workers Once Forced the Social Gospel Into Churches—Can It Happen Again?

By Eric C. Miller

…ons—we’re a long way from a repeat of their late-nineteenth-century insurgency. There are a number of historical explanations for this. Certainly the Cold War baptism of “free enterprise” as a distinctively Christian way of doing business worked to erode social Christianity’s hold at the grassroots. The surging prosperity gospel of our own times has done further damage. All this being said, there are some favorable trends. The resources available…

Rome Has Spoken and Rome Is Finished: The Vatican’s Sexual Abuse Summit ‘Failed Miserably’

By Mary E. Hunt

…a and elsewhere are now common knowledge. A page-turner of a study of the incidence of allegedly gay, sexually active, but most of all duplicitous priests in high positions in the Vatican entitled In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy opens another vista. Report of the Apostolic Nuncio to France, Archbishop Luigi Ventura, under investigation for molesting a government staffer just surfaced. In fact, all of that data was par…

RD News Round-Up—Oct.14, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…ent announced Tuesday, September 30. According to the Oregonian, “‘Other sanctions include community service and multicultural education, which must be completed before the students can return to campus,’ said Brad Lau, vice president of student life.” ++++++++++ Proposition 8 Updates—New Polling Data; Gay Marriage, ‘worse than radical Islam’; and More The Yes on 8 campaign launched its first ad, which features San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom mak…