Pam Geller has unveiled her latest subway ad which turns out to be just as absurd and offensive as the last—though with quite a bit more irony to it. “Soon shall We cast terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers,” it reads, quoting a snippet translated from the Qur’an. As one of the folks behind the #MySubwayAd response to her last round of hateful and wasteful spending, I was pleased to see how absolutely disgusted New Yorkers were, with some e…
…ia, human rights attorney Wahid Ferchichi says Article 230 of the Criminal Code, which criminalizes homosexuality, is in conflict with the January 2014 Constitution’s protections for freedom and individual rights. Israel: Editorial says Israelis ‘ready to follow Ireland’s lead’ An editorial in Haaretz this week declared, “Israelis are ready to follow Ireland’s lead and legalize gay marriage.” The result of the Irish referendum is the best illustra…
By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston
…But the center is an assertion, not a fact; an etiquette, not a place. Its code, its theology, is most fully embodied in Americanized Arminianism—a Protestant tradition of good works and propriety, “distinguished liberals” and polite realpolitik. “Arminian moralism,” notes historian Charles Sellers in his study of Finney’s age, The Market Revolution, “sanctioned competitive individualism and the market’s rewards of wealth and status.” It did not e…
…, the “replacement” is part of a larger plan by a shadowy Jewish or Jewish-coded “global elite” trying to rule the world.) The origins of this myth in France have to be seen against the backdrop of French colonial history, especially the fear of white slave owners of slave uprisings when it comes to the construction of the social in- and out-group. The “Great Replacement” became more widely known after Jean Raspail published his novel Le Camp des…
…iage should be made illegal in the world’s third-largest democracy, in the latest push by conservative Islamist organizations to restructure the country’s relatively secular legal code.: If the court revises the law to forbid casual sex, gay sexual relations would become illegal for the first time in Indonesian history, and straight unmarried couples could face prosecution. The Family Love Alliance, a conservative Islamist advocacy organization, p…
In April of 2010, Eddie Glaude wrote “The Black Church is Dead,” an essay that incited conversation and debate about contemporary black Protestantism. [Read RD’s numerous responses, including Glaude’s own response to the responders.] In opposition to entrenched assumptions about the black church, Glaude argued three points: the black church has never been a coherent entity with a unified progressive vision; it is no longer the center of the black…
A new poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life suggests that Americans continue to view the GOP as friendlier toward religion than the Democratic Party. Forty-eight percent of persons polled regard Republicans as friendly versus twenty-nine percent of those who regard the Democrats in such a way. But clearly President Obama’s outreach efforts to evangelical communities during the campaign and since his election have paid off. His administr…
…have soiled their witness. In the process, they’ve stoked social division, promoted a would-be dictator, and driven millions away from the church. Especially young adults. A wonderful work of journalism, Alberta’s book also passes along one of Christianity’s most dangerous habits: a pernicious, albeit unintentional, anti-Judaism. Alberta has composed a deeply personal lament. The son of an evangelical pastor who embraced radicalization, he sympath…
…his is exactly what the OCA intends to do with academics, according to its latest encyclical. Totalitarianism, authoritarianism, fearful purity partitioning—we could call this latest move by the OCA hierarchy many things. One thing is certain, however: In allowing Christian nationalism and reactionary traditionalism to gain a foothold in the OCA, the Bishops have seemingly made themselves vulnerable to the contagion of far-right politics, a toxic…
Last month, the internal politics of the Southern Baptist Convention became national news after Ed Litton defeated Mike Stone for the convention’s presidency. For months the conservative evangelical denomination had been embroiled in both scandal and controversy after noted Black minister Dwight McKissic removed his 1,600 member congregation from the Texas state convention over the organization’s outspoken repudiation of critical race theory. But…
