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I Always Knew Santa Was Make-Believe: A Retired Pastor on Losing Her Faith

By Anne Grant

…g of religious ideologues. The good midwife had welcomed us into a vibrant world of natural wonder that had been here all along. I think God happens between people Aerialist Nik Wallenda balanced himself differently above this world of natural wonder. When he crossed the Grand Canyon in 2013, he walked one-quarter-mile on a half-inch cable 1500 feet in the air with no safety net. “Thank you, Jesus,” he said, his words recorded. “Lord, help this ca…

Should Satanic Temple Have Threatened Netflix Over Baphomet Statue in ‘Sabrina’ Series?

By Joseph Laycock

…why did Netflix do this? Surely their art department could have created a truly terrifying Baphomet without stealing the Satanic Temple’s version. New religious movement scholar David Feltmate uses the term “ignorant familiarity” to describe a pattern in which “people think the know enough about others to make decisions about how to treat them, but that familiarity is based in ignorance.” In other words, producers looking for Satanic images online…

Is Obama Satan’s Warm-up Act?

By Mark Hulsether

…the “Obama as Antichrist” discourse, even when it scores a prominent spot on prime-time television. * * * Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy…

A Church Group, a Lawsuit, and a Culture of Abuse

By T.F. Charlton

…justice for victims. Rather, it’s the culmination of longstanding power struggles and grudges between the influential men who have led SGM—some of the same men accused of covering up for abusers or being abusers themselves. What is clear, though, is that the same scrutiny that has been focused on Catholic abuse scandals is needed to understand the factors that contribute to similar scandals in Protestant congregations. The less-centralized nature…

Soccer and the Sublime in the Shadow of Apartheid

By Preston Davis

…ence. No one steps into that atmosphere without having a spiritual chord struck. Samba drums inspire dance; the long, narrow vuvuzela horns provoke the possibility of deafness; and waves of people universalize in a moment the personal affection for the game. But there exists a stadium in this tournament that will be remember more for human pride than the beautiful game played within it. Mbombela Stadium (literally meaning “many people together in…

After Roe: 3 Troubling Trends from the ‘Compassionate’ Anti-Abortion Crowd

By Robert Repino

…gerrymandering state legislatures. No one gets to frame the alliance with Trumpism as an “inconvenient truth” that can now simply be reversed without consequences. We’re here to help! A second trend I’ve noticed: anti-choicers paying lip service to progressive reforms like subsidized healthcare, while failing to explain whom they’d be willing to vote for, which specific policies they would support, and which policies actually have any realistic ch…

Searching for Moral High Ground While Houston Drowns: A Perspective on the Lakewood Church Controversy

By Joshua L. Lazard

…er and shelter. There was no food, not enough water, and the roof of the structure peeled off in the high winds. By week’s end, the toilets were no longer working and there were no staff equipped to handle medical emergencies. It had turned into a veritable hell. What struck me most about the critics was their strong moral position against Osteen. Every thread of logic included his wealth and an individual perception of what it means to be a Chris…

Benefit of the Doubt? The Shaky Ethics of Giving Prime Time to Trump’s Propaganda

By Peter Laarman

…al dilemma” in which they might have failed in their mission to report the news had they passed on Trump’s Oval Office show. Bear in mind, these are the same networks that reported the accelerating rate of White House lying during these shutdown weeks, as in Sarah Sanders’ preposterous claim on Sunday that some 4000 people on the terrorist watch list were apprehended trying to cross the southern border (actual number: 6). These are the same networ…

Battle of Antisemitism Definitions is Actually a Proxy War For Criticism of Israel

By Joshua Shanes

…“liquidationist” and is explicitly equated with the “call for Israel’s destruction” in this worldview. Only solutions that advocate Jewish supremacy are legitimate in this mindset. These are Orwellian distortions that obfuscate the distinction between a call for equality and the most extreme rhetoric of Hamas, and responds to any call for human rights with reference to security threats or whataboutisms—or they call themselves moderate because they…

Pope Francis Has Painted Himself into a Corner on Women Deacons

By Mary E. Hunt

…ing that deacons do. He replied that in prayer services, or Liturgy of the Word, it is not a problem. But when the Liturgy of the Word meets the Liturgy of the Eucharist and they become a Mass, it is another question because then Jesus is the presider and only men can image Jesus. The Church is female, the priest male. It is sort of like egg meets sperm and sperm wins. He seems to believe that the symbols work that way, a kind of primitive anthrop…