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Hypocritical Freakout over Shari’ah, but Not Biblical Law

By Sarah Posner

…awyer] Thanasides asked. “That trial would be civil law,” the judge said. “Florida law.” Seems pretty straightforward, and not at all a threat to the Constitution. As a law professor correctly noted in the article, “If we both sign a contract agreeing to be governed by German law, then Florida courts will interpret German law.” Such arrangements are also, notably, quite common in religious settings. Let’s take one example apropros to the anniversa…

Florida School Prayer Bill Stalls in Committee

By Lauri Lebo

A Florida bill that would have allowed school-led prayer has been postponed for now after civil liberties groups made clear that the legislation violated the First Amendment. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, would allow the delivery of an “inspirational message,” including prayer, at “noncompulsory” middle and high school events. Student government would have to decide on giving such a message, which could only be delivered by…

Gay Marriage to End “Culture Wars”?

By Bill Berkowitz

…na voters previously turned down an anti-same-sex marriage initiative.) In Florida, Amendment 2 (the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment) has qualified for the November ballot. Sponsored by a group called Florida4Marriage, it would create a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. Both Senators Barack Obama and John McCain oppose same-sex marriage. McCain favors the proposed amendment to the California constitution: “I support the efforts of the…

Francis Visits the Church that John Paul Broke

By Patricia Miller

…umber of marriages within the church has declined by nearly half. Only the number of Catholic funerals has held steady. And while the number of Catholics overall has remained level, that’s largely due to Hispanic migration to the US; some 40 percent of those born Catholic have left the church. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. The church Francis will encounter is fundamentally different in character from the church of John Paul in two import…

Invited by Allah

By Amina Wadud

…ccurred to me it would be a very easy to make hajj from there. I bought an airline ticket and was in contact with the family of one of my graduate school friends. They would pick me up from the airport and host me during my stay and the days of ritual. Nice plan. So I went to the embassy to get the visa and was denied because (as an American) I needed proof that I was Muslim. How do I prove I have been a practicing Muslim for a decade? I went to t…

Refusing the Monsters on Maple Street: A First-Person Commentary from the Mass Hysteria at JFK

By Marion Grau

…alse—swept through the terminals, sending passengers, law-enforcement, and airline workers scrambling for cover and eventually onto the tarmac. The responding authorities found neither shooters nor evidence of any shots fired. The most likely explanation offered for the panic was that the cheering of Olympics fans for Usain Bolt’s performance in the 100 meters sounded like gunfire. In an episode titled “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” from…

An Open Letter to CEO Jeff Smisek On United Airlines’ Blasphemous Safety Video

By Austin Dacey

…ual recompense. In the video message that was played before my last United Airlines flight, you expressed your desire to greet each and every passenger; you invited us to sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight. If I could greet you now, I would want to know: were you unaware of the monstrosity that was about to follow? There, rising above the hiss of the pressurized air, as the video monitors snapped to the image of an engorged sun bursting from be…

Snake-Handlers, False Messiahs, and a Few Great Souls: 14 Who Died in 2014

By Daniel Silliman

No other end-of-year list can hope to offer such profound juxtapositions: a groundbreaking female Mennonite pastor alongside an “immortalist”; the transcendent wisdom of a civil rights leader alongside one of the most hate-filled religious figures in contemporary memory. But here it is, a connect-the-dots portrait of a powerfully complicated American religious landscape, circa 2014. Vincent Gordon Harding Historian and theologian Vincent Gordon H…

Wall St., Main St., Religion, and the Bailout

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ident that it can do so right here in Quitman. Yet there were a perplexing number of Antique and Gift Shops, the sorts of thing that normally require a significant tourist industry or leisure class to support. That kind of shopping takes place on the weekends, yet all but one store on Main Street in Quitman was closed this Sunday. I was especially taken by the two largest of them, both of them going out of business. Romine’s Furniture especially c…

The Horror Mugabe Doesn’t Want the World to See

By Frederick Clarkson

…ey were quickly dispersed by heavily armed, helmeted riot police (see cell phone photo, top). “If they catch you,” one student matter of factly told Donaghue at the buffet, “you are going to be cut like a goat from head to toe.” The students all knew people who had been beaten or tortured by Mugabe’s agents. Donaghue met one receiving treatment in a hospital, most of which are now closed, partly because even when staff are paid, “it costs more to…