Search for "cheap airline tickets from orlando to pr phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Presidential Debate: We Are All Socialists Now

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…andered a bit, and you had to be paying attention to hear it. He said that priority number one in the face of the current crisis was achieving America’s energy independence. Offshore drilling was the cornerstone of that policy, “buying us time,” in his view, to develop alternative energy sources. That seemed to stray rather far from the question, to my ear. But the single new proposal we heard this evening was rolled out here, in the first five mi…

The Religious Mourning of ‘Saint’ Kobe Bryant Continues

By Terry Shoemaker

…on—a reform movement of Catholicism—is the elimination of formal sainthood processes. Protestants argued that saints were not needed as mediators between humans and the divine, and that saints bordered on idolatry. With no formalized ways of declaring sainthood in American society, broadly speaking, there are moments when society’s actions simply declare a member a saint. Their contribution, character, and abilities embody aspects that many identi…

New Poll Finds “Growing Appetite” for Mixing Religion and Politics

By Sarah Posner

…to be seen. But these results are likely to provoke more discussion of the propriety of a candidate showcasing his or her religious beliefs on the campaign trail and in policy debates. The poll, conducted earlier this month, found nearly three-quarters (72%) of respondents believe the influence of religion in American society is waning—but that most view that decline as a negative development. “Perhaps as a consequence,” the Pew researchers conclu…

The Benedict Opt-Out: Why Christian Self-Isolation Won’t Work

By Kaya Oakes

…tatistical number of Nones among Millennials and Gen X and the seemingly unpreventable increase in those numbers, these children, like Emily, or the children of many homeschooling parents, will eventually encounter peers who are not religiously affiliated. Given the way technology works, they will also inevitably find a way to expose themselves to popular culture. And the question remains of the Benedict Option what exactly a parent should do if t…

Are Muslims Nuts?

By Haroon Moghul

…s with violence, as long as it is justified in terms we consider morally appropriate, which is usually a way of saying culturally appropriate. Troublingly, this prevents us from seeing potential for shared values. Instead, extremists presume conflict, and lead us to assume conflict, because they portray Muslims and the West as homogenous and oppositional identities. Each side is pushed by opportunists and radicals to see the other as dangerous and…

Sharing Many of the Same Flaws as its Subject ‘The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill’ Podcast Puts Blame Anywhere But Where It Belongs

By Jessica Johnson

…y in Episode Six—”The Brand”—but there’s no discussion of the work done to prop up and promote this charisma by the throngs of volunteers who provided free labor by serving the church as team members in worship; technology; media production; marketing and publicity; community groups; children’s ministry; women’s ministry; men’s ministry; security; building maintenance; facility multiplication; and hours spent outside of formal church service in a…

New Poll Reveals a Paradox in Evangelical Support for Donald Trump

By Daniel Schultz

…ls believe Biden stands up for people with their beliefs, and even fewer approve of him. Both numbers are much lower than any other segment. Furthermore, almost the identical number of Republicans and White evangelicals believe Trump champions their beliefs and have a favorable opinion of him. Given that, it’s easy to see who makes up Trump’s political base. So let’s assume that White evangelicals don’t think much of Trump’s personal piety. But th…

Gays Losing Value to “Value Voters”?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ew survey conducted by the Des Moines Register. In a surprising move last April, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage. Since then, gays and lesbians have been allowed to marry and set up households in the state as legally wed couples. The religious right has consistently warned that if such a thing is allowed to happen that the sky will fall and heterosexual couples will be irreparably harmed by such lewd activity. Th…

Conversion Story #643 (not a real number)

By Amina Wadud

…does not occur in that statement. Al-Fitrah, according to the Qur’an, is a primordial predisposition toward faith. The commentators contend that it is also a primordial predisposition to surrender, which is another word for Islam. Unfortunately, this is then concluded to mean, “Every one was born in Islam,” or Muslim, collapsing the primordial state with the historical and anthropological state of Muslims. Then it loses the point altogether. So I…

Paul the Pluralist: Jesus’ Number Two Was Not a Christian

By Pamela Eisenbaum

…he age; as a result, Paul became concerned about the fate of Gentiles. The prophets had predicted that all the nations would come streaming to Jerusalem to worship the one God, and Paul’s mission was to turn all the Gentiles to God before the world ended. The traditional view of Paul portrays the apostle as converting from Judaism to Christianity and in that process converting from a narrow, spiritually hollow, and xenophobic form of religion to o…