Religion Dispatches
As David Cook prepared for his victory on the latest season of American Idol, the Republican state chairwoman of Georgia was engaged in paying reverence to a different type of American idol. In a bizarre moment in the world of mixing religion and politics, Sue Everhart compared Republican presidential candidate John McCain to Jesus and America to God. Addressing McCain’s patriotism and devotion to America even while being tortured as a prisoner o…
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…he protections granted by last year’s Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision. But, as church and state scholars have pointed out, the law is “excruciatingly different” from other religious freedom laws because it specifies exactly which religious beliefs it is based on. Most importantly, this latest suit highlights the fact that laws that discriminate against LGBT people (or deny reproductive rights) based on “religious freedom” don’t just ha…
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The latest gruesome video released by ISIS showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff, just thirteen days after the execution of James Foley, is a stark reminder – if such reminders are necessary – of the blood-thirsty brutality of ISIS. ISIS’s flag is black and white, the perfect colors for a group that seeks to implement “Islam,” which it sets against a world of disbelief (kufr). Christians, who’ve been living amongst Muslims f…
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On the latest episode of my Bloggingheads.tv program, I spoke with Nation columnist Katha Pollitt about her recent piece on Planned Parenthood’s new “Not In Her Shoes” campaign. A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that 70% of respondents favor upholding Roe v. Wade. Given the state of public opinion, Pollitt and I discussed whether Planned Parenthood’s decision to move away from the term “pro-choice” is a good idea, and what it means to f…
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…ice is being put to such use in the Arch City Religion Project, one of the latest digital means of mapping (and remapping) American Christianities and American religions more broadly. Run by St. Louis University professor Rachel McBride Lindsey, a scholar of religion and visual culture and author of the recently released A Communion of Shadows: Religion and Photography in Nineteenth-Century America, the Arch City Religion Project is a teaching pro…
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…tical left and center behind their hatred of trans people. It’s merely the latest “wedge issue” the Right has sought to exploit—so far quite effectively—in order to radicalize people and recruit more to their hateful cause. Die Welt, owned by the Springer publishing house which recently acquired Politico, faced a fierce backlash and later changed some of the wording of the headline—though claims of a shadowy trans lobby, with its clearly antisemit…
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…again a desire to “just get past this race stuff” or that this is just the latest grievance and can we just get back to the fundamentals or to history or to some notion of a tradition. Another misconception is that race must be either a social construction and therefore not “real” or an essential category. In reality, it is an idea that has shaped so much of how we think about ourselves, and even more, structured the order of our lives together. W…
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…16-point loss to Donald Trump in this week’s Indiana primary was just the latest surprise in one of the most unpredictable election seasons in recent history. Cruz had promised to stay in the race until the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer, offering himself as the alternative candidate for conventioneers to pick should Trump end the primary season short of the necessary 1,237 delegates. But Cruz couldn’t keep his campaign a…
Read More…anti-Christ. To some conservative Christians, Google’s iconography is the latest in an ongoing attack on their faith. In a post on Townhall.com titled “Ponder Christian Soldiers Google’s Smirking War On You,” Colorado State Senator Shawn Mitchell decries the choice of a Chávez “doodle”: “Sure, no Christian was mocked, defamed, arrested, or persecuted. And heaven forbid any believer needs internet graphics to help bolster their faith. But hundreds…
Read More…not Lincoln and King, like he did on the National Mall, but Moses. Beck’s latest venture is sure to draw a variety of Christian Zionists, his own supporters, and assorted end-timers, who all may get more of a show than they bargained for. Beck’s statement, “I’ve been asked to stand in Jerusalem” suggests that he may be conflating his role with that of the two witnesses of Revelation 11:3: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will…
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