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In its Battle for ‘Life’ the Antiabortion Movement is Willing to Expose its Enemies to Death — And There’s an Old Christian Theology that Supports Them

By Beatrice Marovich

…hat life and death are enemies—in what is otherwise a secular frame of reference. Perhaps part of what it takes, to demilitarize reproductive politics in America today, includes the ability to raise questions about what seem like basic assumptions about the nature of life and death. And the ability to struggle against the logics (including the theologics) that seek to naturalize these assumptions….

Syria and the American Apocalyptic Imagination: Isaiah 17:1 as “Evidence” of the End

By Jason C. Bivins

…lse to search for and locate “religion” in events like these, and to think about how we think about “evidence” in so doing. Much has been said in response to the Syrian civil war and the recent use of chemical weapons. Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, of all people, cautioned that there is insufficient evidence to justify military intervention. The Obama administration (Kerry specifically) countered that there was such evidence, though wa…

The Far-Right Embrace of the Knights Templar isn’t Just About Faith, Tradition or History — It’s About Hate

By Thomas Lecaque

…t vs the New World Order,” has since been changed to “Traditionis Custodes & The Great Reset: Where do we go from here?” The new title—linking the ban on the traditional Latin mass to the “Great Reset” conspiracy theory—is accompanied by a banner image of four Knights Templar kneeling behind a priest. Among the first day’s sessions is one titled “The Crusade has been called, the Kingship of Christ and Proper Worship of the King”; while the second…

What Role Should Religion Play in the Public Square? — A Black Christian and a Black Secular Humanist Debate and Discuss

By Brad R. Braxton and Anthony B. Pinn

…s should be welcomed into the public sphere to make their respective cases about their possible contributions to our collective well-being. I respect your opinion about permitting the practice of religion in individual and communal spheres, while “restricting” religion’s influence in the broader public sphere. However, within the guardrails of legal statutes about “religious freedom” (e.g., prohibiting religious practices that harm others), each r…

Exvangelical TikTokkers Aren’t a Sign of the End Times, But Here’s What Evangelicals Need to Understand About ‘The Falling Away’

By Blake Chastain

…logy tour documentary.” Harris even hosts an interview series on Instagram about the topic. Jeremiah later followed this allusion with another, referencing Ryan Bell’s in/famous experience of being “atheist for a year,” which garnered national coverage, and led him to leave his Christian pastorate for humanist chaplaincy. He currently hosts a podcast about the topic. Jeremiah also makes reference to Christian country music (CCM) artists “falling a…

Flagship Biblical Studies Group Faces Bitter Divide Over Statements on Israel/Palestine

By Seth Sanders

…cholar, disagreed with the question itself: “Should I curb my own opinions—about the Bible or about politics—due to fear that these may prevent others from speaking up? In other words, should I voluntarily take away from myself the right to speak freely on issues that I feel strongly about? Are only younger people welcome to speak up?” On the other hand William Schniedewind, a professor of Hebrew Bible at UCLA, expressed a sense of nuance and conf…

Arab Spring: Countering the Naysayers

By Maryam Jamshidi

…do not unfold according to a set playbook. Indeed, revolutions are as much about changes on the micro level as they are about macro political shifts. On the way to creating better, more open governments and healthier economies, revolutions also transform individual expectations and perceptions about one’s local community and broader society—it is this sort of change that is currently taking root in various Arab Spring countries. A failure to appre…

Unreasonable Doubt: Vincent Bugliosi Defends Agnosticism

By Eric Reitan

…sting sense of the word—is more than just an acknowledgment of uncertainty about God’s existence. It is a decision about how to respond in the face of that uncertainty. But, despite his promise to contribute something truly new to the God debates, Bugliosi treats agnosticism as nothing more than the recognition that when it comes to God’s existence, we just don’t know. One hardly needs a book to demonstrate that no one has a knock-down argument f…

Islam, Essential to America?

By Scott Korb

…u had to leave out? There was. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? Where to begin with misconceptions about Islam? Light without Fire was built on the misperception that Islam is essentially violent. In the title is my answer: The students and scholars of Zaytuna believe in the light of knowledge and unequivocally condemn the fire that comes with violence. Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing? I come from…

Do Space Aliens Need Baptism? The View From Gliese 581g

By Paul Wallace

…does the belief that there must be someone out there. So every time I read about the discovery of a new Earth-like planet or read about NASA’s upcoming Kepler planet-finding mission or watch a movie like Contact, I grow excited over—and, like Brahe, even a little afraid of—the vast unknown. My mind boggles. What’s really out there?, I wonder. Yet I cannot help but detect a kind of desperation in our quest for extraterrestrial intelligence. I can’t…