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Think Yoga is a Religion? Try Youth Soccer!

By Joanna Brooks

…I am twice-weekly practitioner of Bikram Yoga, the infamous 26-posture, 90-minute, 105-degree brand of hot yoga introduced to America and copyrighted by the eponymous Bikram Choudhury. Copyrighted? Yes, Bikram copyrighted his sequence of 26 postures, much to the chagrin of critics who say you can’t own sacred knowledge. But in the legal filing to copyright yoga, Bikram’s attorneys characterized yoga not as a religion but as something akin to a dan…

Prophet Muhammad

By Amina Wadud

…e soundtrack from one I advised on a few years ago. It has the lovely four-minute prayer for waking). Anyway, I want to make a shift in how we might look at this important historical figure, and specifically about teachers, leaders, and guides. I told you yesterday that part of the inspiration for making this entry about the Prophet Muhammad (saw) was through the reminders my own spiritual teacher has been making during our retreat. Well, there’s…

Hannity Incites Threats to DC Church where Obamas Attended Easter Services

By Sarah Posner

…with a target across is face,” Smith said. “My secretary has received telephone calls that have been so vulgar until she has had to hang up.” On Monday, Hannity played a clip of Smith speaking at Palmer Theological Seminary, where he had served as president, about the prevalence of racism. According to the Post: “It may not be Jim Crow anymore,” Smith says in the videotape. “Now, Jim Crow wears blue pinstripes, goes to law school and carries fanc…

Pawlenty, Romney Won’t Sign FAMiLY LEADER Pledge

By Sarah Posner

…form is like slavery.) Meanwhile, the Pawlenty campaign has released a six-minute video in which the candidate and his wife vouch for each others’ evangelical credentials. It opens with gauzy images of him and his wife, Mary, and proceeds to their telling of her upbringing as an evangelical, his decision to be evangelical rather than Catholic, and, well, just how much they love and trust God and how Pawlenty’s faith influences his politics. They’r…

The Way of the Brother: How Critics Missed the Boat on Tree of Life

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…rs’ might be a misnomer in regard to a Terence Malick film, nevertheless a number of details of Tree of Life are revealed in the following essay. —eds. Since watching Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life a few days ago, I’ve been trailing my daughters: slowly, deliberately, unsure if I’m a cinematographer or a parent. In spite of my lifelong love of cinema (and teaching and publishing on the topic for the past decade plus), I rarely take video of m…

Fox News Needs to Get a Grip on its Affiliate’s Issues with Mormonism

By Joanna Brooks

…a 30-year-old conservative radio and television commentator with more microphone than sense. As part of a four-segment series on Mormonism, Ferguson developed a rambling, virtually content-free six-minute segment featuring man-on-the street interviews with local Memphis residents about, well, how very “fruity” Mormonism is. (There are 45,000 Mormons in Tennessee, about .7% of the population. Mormons left the state en masse in the 1880s due to anti…

Believing in Johnny Cash: An Open Letter to Atheists

By Paul Wallace

…968 Folsom Prison shows. Transfixed, I sat and listened to the whole seven-minute song, which tells the story of a man who, after winning a heart-pounding spike-driving competition against a machine, lays down his hammer and dies. It is a great story that may be read as a warning to those who equate scientific and technological advance with human progress. What I’d like to ask is this: do stories point us, in even the smallest of ways, toward any…

“We (some of) the People” Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Tea Party

By Julie Ingersoll

…ned with a banner that read, “Less Waste More Education.” At the very last minute two school buses pulled up and the bandstand was filled with students from The Villages Charter School. The governor’s staffers handed the students signs that read, “No to Earmarks” and “Thank You Governor Scott” that were designed to appear handmade. When the mayor of The Villages opened the ceremony and welcomed everyone saying, “the signing of the budget is an exe…

“I ‘Came Out’ For Marriage Equality”: An Anti-Gay Activist Changes His Mind

By Welton Gaddy

…some of the things that we were saying or doing, and saying, “Well, wait a minute, that’s not really the right thing to do.” Louis, I find that a lot of people think that if a person confronts long-held beliefs, and then changes some of those beliefs, that indicates a weak person. I don’t believe that, and obviously I don’t think you do either. What do you say to a person who says, “Well, you’re just wishy-washy about this”? Well, I would say to…

Group Behind King James Bible Congressional Resolution Thinks Obama Might Be Antichrist

By Sarah Posner

…le. The KJV, he added, “speaks to issues today if we would all pause for a minute, it would give us answers.” “The resolution is completely outside the realm of Congressional expertise or interest,” said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. “It’s mind- numbing to think that anyone would think about passing this at a time when we have fiscal, foreign policy and other matters of greater…