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What the Lost Finale is Really About

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…and the fact that in the numerology of the show Jack is connected with the number 23. Likewise, the “black smoke” character (eventually avatared by John Locke) leaves us wondering about the ancient story of the Golden Bough in which the priest-king is ritually murdered by his successor. The Golden Bough story was taken up by Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness, which was the basis for Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Terry O’Quinn’s “John Locke” becomes M…

The Faith that Faith Produced

By Haroon Moghul

…ou’ll read an excerpt below—has surprised me, too. I wish I could find my airline companion and give him this book, to surprise him, too—in a good way. (I would accept Lakers tickets in lieu of apologies, but I think that particular era is done.) This whole book is a result of a profound evolution, and needs to be seen as such. American Muslims have gone through a lot over the last few decades. We were never the caricature Islamophobes made us ou…

What’s More Frightening Than Snakes on a Plane?

By Devin Kuhn-Choi

…ration but that it “replicates the broader social and political movement strategies we’ve seen on a personal scale,” and highlighted the similarities between these smaller-scale protests and religious employers protesting the Affordable Care Act under claims of religious freedom. While I agree with Loewentheil’s points, I wish to add that what this protest shows, as do many other broader conservative religious movements, is that it isn’t a questio…

The Religious Implications of Nudity

By Steve A. Wiggins

…erage Gund creation. Having a total stranger employed by the government narrate just how he’s going to touch you is strangely erotic in a nation so squeamish about frank discussions of sexuality; especially involving same-gender touching. In public. Yet, here I stand on big yellow footprints, hands raised in the orans position, as if in prayer, while a man I’d never met before runs his hands all over me. At home, I complain of my treatment and say…

Penn Jillette’s Signs You May Already Be an Atheist

By Steve A. Wiggins

…rust I have in the TSA before, Jillette’s rant in “Penn’s Bacon and a Kiss Airline” was like finding a long-lost brother; another guy who feels it is criminal to be viewed naked by strangers—involuntarily—is a true freedom fighter. This is a comedian with a conscience. He may come down on the wrong side of many traditional issues (global warming and sexual mores, e.g.), but he is keenly aware that too many people suffer. Theodicy in motion. In the…

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Men “Stand Up” for “Religious Freedom”… On a Plane

By Kara Loewentheil

…of behavior, which replicates the broader social and political movement strategies we’ve seen on a personal scale. First, you try to convince people to do what you want—so, for example, if you’re an ultra-Orthodox man on a plane, you ask the woman next to you to move elsewhere, or if you’re a conservative religious employer, you argue that contraception shouldn’t be included in mandatory requirements for prescription coverage under the Affordable…

The Radical Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Left’s Challenge Today

By Peter Laarman

…s work, whereas the radicals dismiss the centrists as sellouts to the corporate agenda and as uncritical champions of American exceptionalism. The presidency of Joe Biden—a centrist politician par excellence—brings these fissures to the fore and creates irresistible catnip for the chattering classes. I will always identify proudly with the radical camp. I don’t think there can be any compromise with white supremacy or entrenched corporate power. B…

How Fitbit Helps a Conservative Evangelical College Monitor Students’ Bodies For Christ

By Jonathan Root

…t the “Aerobics Center,” students filled out a computer card with their ID number, activity number, and the time, intensity, and distance of their workout. The data derived from the cards helped to determine grades. One student who had been forced to enroll in the Pounds Off Program said, “I’m really sad for the school. It has so much potential, so many positive things about it, but you can’t treat people this way… They treat you like you’re not c…

Worse Than Madoff: Amway Launches Domestic Revival

By Bill Berkowitz

…cover the costs of actively building their business.” That’s a 99.7% loss rate for investors. The scheme appears to be falling apart in the US, UK, and Australia hence the beefed up prime-time ads in the US. Many of [Amway’s] highest-level distributors have left to join other multilevel marketing groups, and I now have an internal management document detailing a five year 96% dropout rate. Thousands of Amway victims from countless nations have se…

Should NASA Have Given $1.1 Million to a Theology Institute?

By Michael Schulson

…e walls tumbling down? When the Freedom From Religion Foundation puts your phone call on hold, you don’t hear muzak. Instead, the phone system plays a homegrown jingle featuring lines like “Everyone is tired of your piety / get off your knees and get to work” and “We’ve got to fight the battle of church and state / or the walls come tumbling down.” The receptionist told me that FFRF co-president Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher and occasi…