Search for "American Airlines 1800-299-7264 Flight Rebooking Number"

A Post-Christian America? Not Quite—Though Devoutly to be Wished

By Peter Laarman

…Jon Meacham’s Newsweek piece on the fairly sharp fall-off in the number of Americans self-identifying as Christian (in the newly-released ARIS survey), this bloghead initially demurred. I mean, the amiable and well-informed Meacham said what I would have said: on balance, it’s a good thing that the various and dangerous forms of grievance associated with “Christian nation” thinking should now recede. It’s a good thing that more have come to apprec…

Exclusive: Christian Right Bill Mill, Project Blitz, Hasn’t Gone Away, It’s Just Gotten More Secretive

By Frederick Clarkson

…irector of the Office of Intellectual Freedom at the Chicago-headquartered American Library Association, told RD that the Project Blitz model bill “raises a lot of issues around the ability of individuals to access perfectly legal, constitutionally protected materials based on the values of one group in the community.” Contrary to Project Blitz disclaimers, in other words, this bill would allow conservative Christian values to determine what is le…

After More Mass Shootings It’s Time to Call Out White Supremacy in the Pews

By Peter Laarman

…will talk about the deeper roots of these things or attempt to explain why American culture is “exceptional”—exceptional in its toxicity, that is. A growing number of truth telling historians are eager to help us discover these deeper roots if we are willing to listen. Here I’m thinking mainly of scholars like Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Gerald Horne who focus on the connections between settler colonialism, white supremacy, and an unparalleled level…

Obama in Copenhagen: From an Embarrassment of Riches to a New Earth Ethic

By Peter Laarman

…r, ’cause I can’t feel at home in this world, any more.” The Bible assured Americans that God created humans “a little lower than the angels,” with European-American humans even more favored than others because (c’mon, look around!) we landed on all this wealth. What eventually happens to energy-rich people—people whose lifestyles are powered, literally, by the earth’s past organic life in the form of petroleum—is that such people grow addicted to…

Life as a Game Show: Reading Slumdog Millionaire

By Paul Courtright

…iar Bollywood genre. The musical score crackles with energy. There are any number of reasons why Slumdog has emerged as one of this year’s favorites among American audiences. Perhaps the Oscar nominations reflect India’s rise as a global economic power, as well as a cinematic one. And, while the story is set in India, there is something familiar to American audiences about the kid who finds his way to success and love through struggle in an indiff…

Catholic Leaders Offer Criticism, Support to Boxer Pacquiao After Anti-Gay Comments…

By Peter Montgomery

…this idea of what it meant to participate in reconciliation as an African American going home to the continent. So on so many levels and layers, it was a relationship that just made sense.” Bishop Joseph also recognizes that LGBTI Africans and LGBTI African Americans share a common antagonist in the conservative religious right of the United States. While this group continues to oppose public policies in the U.S. “that would benefit low-income pe…

The Abortion Debate, Texas Style

By Dhawn Martin

…tion on the bill, I was greeted by a few orange-wearing folk. They were outnumbered by anti-abortion activists, wearing blue, and I felt a little intimidated—so much that I texted a friend for moral support. Once I had registered, I walked back through the main hall to a table set up for those opposed to the bill. A woman stationed there greeted me, “What is up with the blue people?” she asked. “It’s like we’re contagious. Have you noticed how the…

The Fretting About Whether Democrats Are “Friendly” To Religion

By Sarah Posner

…well aware that good Catholics can part company with the hierarchy on any number of issues, including abortion. Catholics represent about 23% of the American population, so they are obviously a significant voting bloc with a chunk in the middle that are crucial swing voters. But the quest to satisfy them by bending to the bishops or straining to be “friendly” to religion is not only misguided, but undemocratic. According to the Pew Religious Land…

Demonized and Demonizing No More.

By Joanna Brooks

…ty, especially for atheists who are so often the object of vilification in American society. The surveys, for example, routinely show that Americans are less likely to vote for an atheist for president than an individual of any other social, religious, or ethnic group. This vilification has really shaped the aggressively defensive public posture some atheists seem to assume. But I read your work and find myself imagining what an atheist ethic of h…

Trump’s “Muslim Ban” A Gift to Terrorists

By Ali Olomi

…terrorists themselves. But Mr. Trump’s executive order isn’t about keeping Americans safe, but the weaponizing of fear against a vulnerable population. It is not coincidental that countries with actual histories of terrorism like Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates are not on the list. His actions are about fear and the utility of that fear for his political agenda. Alongside the history of coexistence is a history of intolerance. From the an…