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Post-Election, “Is The Black Church Dead?” Redux

…ress. Tim Scott will be the first African-American Republican to represent South Carolina in Congress since Reconstruction. (He beat out Strom Thurmond’s son in the primaries.) Iraq war veteran Allen West will be headed to Congress from Florida, despite having been fined for improperly firing his weapon to force information from a detainee while serving in Iraq, and for his connections to a criminal motorcycle club. West’s acceptance speech was pe…

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Polling Place as Sacred Ground

…s Sharron Angle in Nevada, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Nikki Haley in South Carolina and other women whose policy ideas seem just as vicious as many men in office. My line buddy may even have stepped up to the voting machine after our conversation and cast his vote for Haley, thinking her more kind than her male Democratic opponent simply because she is a woman. The atmosphere of the polling place, however, was much like Stewart’s idea of a “…

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Hate, An American Voter Value

…he French, hate the Spanish, hate the Japanese, hate the Germans, hate the Koreans, hate the Vietnamese, hate the Russians, hate the Iraqis, and so on for the so-called “foreign” enemies to fear. On the domestic side, the list comes too easily: hate Indians, hate blacks, hate Jews, hate anarchists, hate war protestors, hate government, hate the North, hate the South, hate the gays…. Aside from the raw political value of hate, think of the potentia…

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Water Water Everywhere

…nt either. It is popular in parts of Muslim Africa, and in parts of Muslim Southeast Asia, but almost unheard of in the Gulf region, and in South Asia. Clearly there is more to it than religious interpretation, especially when it goes from a symbolic cutting of the tip of the clitoris to a more invasive removal of the labia major. Cutting itself has no purification value, ever, anywhere, in the rituals of purification; so clearly this is outside o…

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The Fear is Real: A New View of Halloween “Hell Houses”

…rticipants—a total of 25,000 every October—on a 90-minute walk through the South Georgia woods. We observed intensely violent renditions of standard end-times scenarios: the rapture of believers; an ensuing period of torture and tribulation for the faithless “left behind”; a climactic battle between Jesus and Satan; and a final judgment in which Jesus orders a teenage church-girl to be dragged by demons into hell for “knowing me only in your head,…

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Mike Huckabee’s Army of Anti-Gay Zealots

…ent of Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign, back when Huckabee was complaining about the others much like he is complaining about Rove now. Huckabee earned a spot as the only GOP presidential prospect to speak to Pastors’ Policy Briefings that Wildmon headlined in early primary states like Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida. At the Florida event, Huckabee suggested that America with secular governance was just like Nazi Germany. Huckabee had been…

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Christians are ‘Jerks,’ The New Scopes Trial, Pastafarians’ Rights

…cond mass wedding of the year. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon married 7,200 South Korean and foreign couples. The end of the world might be farther off than once expected, at least according to the Mayan calendar. From Qumran to dot-com: the Israel Antiques Authority and Google are working together to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls and make them available to the public. Finally, did the Berenstain Bears become practicing Christians? *This post has been co…

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Obama To Skip Golden Temple: Part of A Larger Problem With Religion

…f Muslims in the world. Nikki Haley, Republican gubernatorial candidate in South Carolina, is now a Christian but of Sikh descent and still goes to temple with her family. Although she is referred to as a “raghead” by other Republicans, she is very comfortable in denouncing the characterization, without insulting other religions. Of course, the idea of wearing religious covering as a sign of respect is not new for politicians: both Laura Bush and…

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Landmark OC Megachurch Declares Bankruptcy

…the money, youth (at least the white youth) and positivity have all moved south, away from the Cathedral and right into the heart of Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church territory. Nor has there been a successful transition from Schueller to a next generation of Cathedral leadership. In the last year, church revenues have dropped 30%, 140 employees have been laid off, and its opulent Easter pageant (which once drew hundreds of thousands) was cancelled…

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Gospel and Soul Lose a King and Queen

…magic popcorn in the aisles. Traveling and singing throughout the Jim Crow South that refused to serve traveling black musicians like Walker and Burke, he sold pork chop sandwiches to other musicians on tour. His prodigious family of 21 children, 90 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren testifies to his love of both scripture and women. Joking about his love of women, he said: “I just got stuck on that bible verse that said be fruitful and mul…

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