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Gingrich Downplays Adelson Money, Stokes Fear of “Second Holocaust” at Florida Church

By Sarah Posner

…reat posing the risk of a second Holocaust.” The audience reacted with an emotional “yes.” Gingrich may not be their Esther, but he certainly knows how to eclipse the concern over the Adelson gambling money. If the polls are right, Gingrich won’t be able to catch Romney here in Florida. And while Gingrich appeared to redeem himself at Aloma Church from a tepid debate performance Thursday night, every voter I spoke to—pro-Santorum, pro-Gingrich, an…

Good News Bad News

By Amina Wadud

…tly I am invited—all expenses paid—to be part of the general conversation around progressive Islam. To date, the study of progressive Islam is given more scholarly consideration either in Muslim-majority countries that have some semblance of democracy coupled with freedom of speech, or in Europe. Nothing much to speak of in Australia; and a very skewed (almost always) politically charged discourse in the U.S. or North America. Here’s the basic ide…

The Case for Treating Near-Death Experiences Like Acid Trips

By Andrew Aghapour

…man nature. They certainly do so much better than the kind of dry, false-memory type of explanation that I was talking about earlier. In the book you argue that LSD trips might be a helpful metaphor for thinking about this difference between explanation and the search for narrative meaning. We’re borrowing from Oliver Sacks, who writes about someone who had an LSD trip that was deeply transformative and meaningful. What was striking to us is that…

Republicans To Get Free “Spiritual, Historical” Trips to Israel

By Sarah Posner

…ated by the RNC for members and their guests. An RNC spokesperson said the trip was not officially a committee trip, but is a “spiritual, historic journey through Israel” organized by the groups in concert with RNC faith director Chad Connelly. According to the official, who declined to be named, about 60 members RSVPd to attend, or 36% of the full committee. Lane’s Renewal Project made headlines during the 2008 Republican primary, when the group,…

RD10Q: Holy Hullabaloos: A Fun Book on Church and State

By Jay Wexler

…read it is Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris. Brilliant, hilarious, moving, and written mostly in the first person plural. What’s your next book? Either a book called The Odd Clauses: Twelve Parts of the Constitution You May Not Know About But Should, about some of the really weird and obscure but yet important provisions of our founding document, or a novel about a Supreme Court Justice who converts to Taoism in the middle of the most impo…

Is Cardinal Dolan’s Pro-Life Piece More Evidence of Pro-Catholic Bias from RNS Publisher?

By Evan Derkacz

…is so thoroughly sectarian—including a role in the canonization of Saint “Mother” Teresa and a pastoral trip to Iraqi Kurdistan with Cardinal Timothy Dolan—it’s vitally important that you provide no reason for anyone to believe that you favor one group over another. To reiterate: the Catholic Church has as much right to engage in the public conversation as anyone, and as a service that delivers religion news, RNS has the right to publish whatever…

The Fragility of Our Reality: A Conversation with the Brain Behind PBS Miniseries on Neuroscience

By Michael Schulson

…s that we need to have a full understanding of what is going on in the enormous cosmos. Possibilianism is an active exploration of different hypotheses. That’s what science is all about. The scientific temperament is a tolerance for holding multiple ideas in mind at the same time, and then gathering evidence to find support in favor of some of the ideas over others. I just feel like the [question] Is there God or no God? is too limited for a moder…

Snake-Handlers, False Messiahs, and a Few Great Souls: 14 Who Died in 2014

By Daniel Silliman

…of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA), John-Roger Hinkins died at 80. Raised Mormon, Hinkins was a high school teacher in Southern California when he discovered “soul consciousness.”He founded MSIA—pronounced “messiah”—in 1971, teaching one could achieve a totally positive state of being with the help of the Mystical Traveler Consciousness he embodied. MSIA attracted celebrity followers including Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys, Huffington Post founde…

Pentecostal Prayer Gangs: New Film Documents Religion in a Brazilian Prison

By Nick Street

…son in this bed, in this cell, behind these bars? It really hit me at that moment, some of the emotional weight of being in prison. How did the element of Pentecostalism come into play? The prison was in a primarily Catholic area, but the inmates were mainly Pentecostals. One reason for this was that Pentecostal volunteers—who would come in to teach job skills and do Bible study—outnumbered Catholic volunteers by about 15 to 1. Also in the city I…

Is There Hope for a Truly Progressive Evangelicalism? An Interview with Deborah Jian Lee

By Eric C. Miller

…g. I remember the end of freshman year, nervously packing for a solo three-month trip to China and Taiwan, where I hoped to reconnect to my heritage. My evangelical friends baked a huge cookie for me in the shape of China and a smaller one in the shape of Taiwan. They laid hands on me and prayed. In that moment, my nervousness washed away, and I felt so secure in their love. Another time, at the off-campus Pentecostal church I attended, the worshi…