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Church Uses Facebook for Sacramental Scrutiny at its Peril

By Elizabeth Drescher

…o wonder Pope Benedict XVI’s Message for World Communications Day earlier this year highlighted silence and listening—the heart of Christian practices of contemplation—by way of encouraging the development of “a kind of ‘eco-system’ that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images, and sounds.” And, we might add, actions. Blog a bit, tweet a bit, share your favorite liturgical recipes on Facebook if you like, the Holy Father seemed…

The Only Religion Question Reporters and Debate Moderators Should Ask Presidential Candidates (Kim Davis Edition)

By Sarah Posner

…gious liberty “is an essential freedom and an essential right and I don’t think you give up this right by simply taking a job.” Cruz said on his Facebook page, “we must be vigilant to protect the free exercise of religion — a value enshrined in our Constitution. We should make it possible for believers, such as Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis in Kentucky, to hold government jobs without having to violate their religious beliefs.” But by defending Dav…

Another Book Burner Lusts for Attention

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ear in agreement with what we are doing. I may ask for your church’s name, phone number, and Web site to verify your stand. What I see as the sin at the heart of Grizzard and Jones’ actions—as well as at the heart of anyone who seeks to violently control the free will or belief of others—is lust. These men lust for control; and in their lust they objectify others, people they call “heretics” or “sinners.” Lust, in and of itself, is not a bad thing…

Mother (Nature) Will Eat You: Lars von Trier’s Antichrist

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…rk Film Festival, along with about 700 other attendees. I wish I had their phone numbers; even the disgusted dozens who walked out halfway through. I’d like to call them at 3:00 a.m. and ask what they are thinking about, what they are dreaming, if indeed they are sleeping. I need some therapy. This is one messed-up film. The beauty of Antichrist is in distinct contrast to many of von Trier’s previous films. From the early 1990s until now, his film…

Playing God in the Wild Kingdom

By Lauri Lebo

…t to play God when in Mother Nature’s domain. (Also, it can help settle a philosophical debate my husband Jeff and I are having, which is always a good thing.) Jeff and I were kayaking over the weekend on the Conewago Creek near our home. As I was gliding by a patch of marsh grass, I heard the steady gallumphing of a bull frog. Even though I was quite a distance away, I could make out the big boy in the reeds and coasted towards him to see how clo…

Ralph Reed’s Group Goes after “Union Thugs” in Wisconsin

By Sarah Posner

…aith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed. Reed, who profits both from his evangelical cred (which apparently hasn’t faded, in spite of his questionable past) and his ability to put a faithy veneer on AFP’s anti-union, anti-worker, anti-government crusade, has long advocated for the religious right to broaden its agenda to economic issues, a strategy that serves his own business interests. A recent profile in the Christian Post noted how the F…

Pope’s ‘Joy of Love’ Brings Little Joy To LGBT Catholics; Gay Atheist Malaysian Granted Refugee Status In Canada; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Rights of LGBTI Persons held a series of low-profile meetings in Jakarta. While high-level efforts offer hope on the horizon, the situation for LGBTI people in Aceh and West Java provinces becomes more dangerous. Violent Islamist movements inspired by Islamic State are growing in these areas and activists are attempting to set up a safe house network to provide protection for targeted individuals forced to evacuate these areas. Dédé notes “The nee…

A Year After the Non-Apocalypse: Where Are They Now?

By Tom Bartlett

…, New York. They stood by the graves of their departed loved ones in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire. In Cincinnati, Ohio, 2,000 of them walked through downtown and climbed a hill to a park overlooking the city. Inside homes, on rooftops, in fields, alone or en masse, they waited for God. These were devotees of William Miller, the prosperous farmer turned self-taught biblical scholar. It’s impossible to know for sure how many people he persuaded that th…

Why Antisemitism is an Insufficient (and Risky) Explanation for Hamas’s October 7 Attack on Israel

By Shane Burley

…ing relationship with Iran and Hezbollah could have been factors as well. This suggests something rather mundane: the violence involved the same global political issues that most acts of warfare do. Al-Aqsa Flood was a calculated political gamble—one that may be frightening, but not illogical, or even unique. To explain it away as antisemitism would, by its very nature, be to inject a lack of political sensibility into the action and limit the eff…

A Religious History of American Neuroscience

By Leigh Eric Schmidt

…tions, social solidarities, sacrificial systems, or gendered hierarchies? While this is a technology that James might well celebrate right along with Abraham Maslow, would it be of any use at all to Durkheim or Mary Douglas or Talal Asad? One of Andrew Newberg’s popular books on religion and brain science, for example, carries in its subtitle the equation of religion with “Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth.” We still need the companion volume on po…