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Why I Won’t Leave the Mormon Church Alone

By Holly Welker

…ngregation, despite formal requests that they stop.) Eventually I sought a community of people also striving to come to terms with what it meant to have been but no longer be a devout Mormon. Luckily a diverse community of ex-, post-, or lapsed Mormons (we differ on what to call ourselves) thrives on the internet. Another thing that makes leaving Mormonism difficult is how little it is understood by the world at large. It’s frustrating to have to…

Refusing Religion, Claiming the Future: A Roundtable Discussion on “The Nones Are Alright”

By Peter Laarman

…k millennials ages 18-29 comprise 20% of historically black churches. This number is roughly comparable to that of the baby boomer generation. Thus, religious affiliation for young black adults does not show the same kind of downward shift as that of the non-black population (the data on black children in the generation after the millennials suggest high levels of religiosity as well). African Americans in general, and African-American women in pa…

The Passion of Katniss: How the Hunger Games Confronts the Trauma of Violence

By Michael Schulson

…cameras, at a distance of hundreds or thousands of miles. Veteran suicides come to outnumber battlefield deaths. Violence shifts even deeper into the realm of psychology: there’s the pervasive fear of a possible strike, existing alongside the lasting legacy of combat. The final chapters of the Hunger Games series concern themselves with trauma and its aftermath, in unusually naked terms (“I still remain struck with the last two chapters. It just w…

Mel Gibson’s ‘To-Do’ List

By Becky Garrison

…of The Christ 4. Drink 5. Drive 6. Repeat Pope Benedict 1. Order unkosher communion wafers 2. Get a little behind in work 3. Party like it’s 1483 4. Two-four-six-eight, who should I excommunicate? 5. Order Mother Teresa sticky buns 6. Fine vendors selling Pope on a rope Bristol Palin 1. Pray for mom’s soul 2. Buy Revolve 2010 (Biblezine) 3. Get Promise Keepers application for Levi 4. Become a True Woman 5. Baby Making Time! 6. Refill prescription…

Shukr: Gratitude

By Amina Wadud

…t Asia. Somebody has to love the heat and humidity, right? So when Ramadan comes, I have this awful experience: all my consumptions, all that I take for nourishment of mind, body and soul, must be done in the dark. That’s hard for me. Like many seasonal affective folks I also go to bed early and get up early, usually. This too is tipped on its head with Ramadan. By the time I settle in after my mosque visit, it’s way past 11 and then I’m up by 4….

How an Ancient Story of Renegade Rabbis Caught With Black Market Technology Can Help Us Navigate ChatGPT’s Apocalyptic Aura

By Sara Tillinger Wolkenfeld

…ay. Even the most casual users of ChatGPT feel this dread. Will teaching become untenable? Will my job be filled by a computer? Will robots rule the world? While these questions may not quite seem apocalyptic, the fear they express echoes Sam Altman’s comment. From fountain pens to movable type, major technological advances always precipitate crises. At the time, the looming change seems to threaten our way of life. But, in hindsight, the changes…

The Brutality of the American Eden

By Paul Harvey

…. I liked God in America and will use portions of it in class for years to come. [Full disclosure: I was interviewed a few times by the show’s producers—once in person and several times by phone—and gave them some advice on what kinds of material I would like to see included.] But I do want to ask what this series would look like if we also understand American religious history to be about coercion and authority? Most of God in America is about th…

Fear, Guns, and the (Unwinnable) War Against Death: A Letter to My Fellow Americans

By Beatrice Marovich

…his idea that God is a force of life that’s more powerful than death has become deeply compelling to many, for understandable reasons. It speaks powerfully to our intrinsic desire to survive. Not only has it shaped the Christian tradition, it’s shaped secular culture as well. Think about American pop culture where almost every blockbuster storyline repeats this defeat of death: The Matrix, Game of Thrones, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars (the…

As a Queer Catholic Woman I Had High Hopes Before the 2023 Catholic Synod on Synodality

By Emma Cieslik

…organization, points out how, despite previous documents discussing the welcoming and inclusion of LGBTQ Catholics, there were no positive statements on LGBTQ issues—not even one use of the term “LGBTQ.” Instead, a single paragraph—approved by vote—stated: “In different ways, people who feel marginalized or excluded from the Church because of their marriage status, identity or sexuality, also ask to be heard and accompanied.” Once more the door th…

Why Antisemitism is an Insufficient (and Risky) Explanation for Hamas’s October 7 Attack on Israel

By Shane Burley

…nto the fabric of reality. More than this, a certain Zionist framing has become ubiquitous, where the Israeli identity becomes synonymous with Jewishness, and therefore the attack on Israel/Israelis is, categorically, an attack on Jews, which reinforces the notion that Israel is the center of the Jewish people. On October 25th, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law demanded that universities i…