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Is the Bible Too Holy to Be Tennessee’s State Book?

By Adam Shapiro

…practice religion at all.” Other secular organizations including Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation have also spoken out against the bill. Arguing against the bill from almost the exact opposite perspective, Governor Haslam justified his veto by stating that treating the Bible as a commodity and historically significant object without acknowledging its God-given holiness was a denigration o…

Neither Radical Nor Secular: The West Struggles with the New Islamism

By Blain Auer

…in the Middle East. The Palestinian Authority recently requested that the United Nations recognize the statehood of an independent Palestine, a political move that has further demonstrated the United States and Israel’s isolation from the rest of the world on this issue. In spite of the new dynamics of Middle East politics there still remain places like Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria where longstanding dictators have clung to power and utilized bruta…

Obama Changes Course on Islam

By Hussein Rashid

…ions, arguing that “Several recent incidences of violent extremists in the United States who are committed to fighting here and abroad have underscored the threat to the United States and our interests posed by individuals radicalized at home. Our best defenses against this threat are well informed and equipped families, local communities, and institutions.” This statement comes under the heading of countering radicalization. While I have no doubt…

Is Sam Harris Really a White Supremacist?

By Andrew Aghapour and Michael Schulson

…nce, Aziz criticized Harris for writing that Islamophobic incidents in the United States are “tiny in number, often property-related, and still dwarfed five-fold by similar offenses against Jews.” Aziz countered that violence done against one minority should never be downplayed because there is greater violence against another minority. Harris has the supreme privilege—a rich, white man’s privilege, I should add—of remaining aloof and ignorant abo…

Shhh…Don’t Speak of Abortion: Roe v. Wade at Thirty-Six

By Frederick Clarkson

…s to abortion care is a significant problem of health care delivery in the United States. A major study by the Guttmacher Institute found that some 87% of US counties lack a single abortion provider. The study notes a long-term decline in the rate of abortion in the United States, but could not determine whether this was because of increased access to and use of contraception, or due to the lack of access to abortion providers. And yet, even of th…

Prexit and the Planet: Our Resistance Must Know No Borders

By Donna Schaper

…s and the planet, I need to tell a story beyond the victim story about the United States and its privatized and outsourced hopes for its own air and water, unconnected to that of others. I feel right now that I need to make common cause with every sensible Republican I can find. And with China. And with California. And speaking of the unlikeliest allies, perhaps even someone like ex-Exxon Rex Tillerson can help the President move into a more globa…

Praise the Lard This Holiday Season

By Becky Garrison

…officiants, or “friars,” conduct services including baptisms, funerals and free weddings. These communal actions appeal to the universal need for ritual and community. Some approved friars are religious, including seminary students and preachers. Also, like many churches, the UCB give a percentage of their budget to charitable causes aligned with their beliefs, though they remain volunteer based with no paid church staff. For those who compare the…

10 Noteworthy Yoga Developments to Recall in 2015

By Andrea R. Jain

…the important story of how Indian-born Yogananda travelled in 1920 to the United States and established the Self-Realization Fellowship, a yoga organization that has attracted large numbers of disciples from all over the world to this day. The film serves as a reminder that modern yoga has not always been about the stretching and muscle-building postures meant to function as fitness routines that are so often associated with yoga in the popular i…

The Heresy of Compromise

By Peter Manseau

…tury, Pope Leo XIII expressed ambivalence about the Catholic Church in the United States. Much of what the man sometimes called “the first modern pope” had to say amounted to nodding approval (“That your Republic is progressing and developing by giant strides is patent to all…”), which at times seemed to take credit for the success it praised. In a rhetorical flourish, the pope even laid claim to the nation’s neonatal survival: “When America was,…

Christian Imperialism in Haiti? Missionaries, Theo-tourism, and the Invasion of the Global South

By Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado

…here is an extensive volunteer program for groups and individuals from the United States whose ultimate goal is cultivating global solidarity. My husband, a native of San Lucas who was head of the groups and volunteers for five years, handled the two to three thousand North Americans that came from churches and schools across the United States in order to provide financial and physical aid to the Mission’s projects. I met my husband when I descend…