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Do iPads Cause Religious Experiences?

By Andrew Aghapour

…mplex daily rhythms. Whereas a corporate skyscraper might include specific floors for various types of work, in an old city one can find butchers or doctors distributed quite randomly, depending on the history of the city. Burkhard Bilger, in a recent New Yorker profile of neuroscientist David Eagleman, describes this transition in our understanding of how the brain keeps time. During the mid-nineteenth century, the prevailing theory was that ther…

Too Late for Apologies: Three Steps the U.S. Bishops Should Take to Prevent Another Sexual Abuse Scandal

By Grant Gallicho

…cide episcopal appointments worldwide? Cardinal Rigali also sits on that influential Vatican congregation. If rumors are true, Rigali will soon be replaced and sent to Rome. (He’s 76, one year past the mandatory retirement age.) A credible successor will be key to restoring the trust of Philadelphia Catholics. That appointment will also hold lessons for the wider church, including bishops. The question that remains, then, is what will they learn?…

There’s Something Rotten in Ireland

By Haroon Moghul

…egy, which includes wondering if pro-Palestinian Israeli activists are motivated less by ideology and more by “sexual identity problems.” Seriously. Setting that kind of tone will probably only encourage more and more absurd statements. The recent post on Jesus seems especially insensitive, considering who it is being directed to and where it is apparently originating. A number of Palestinians are Christians, and that Christianity is of course tra…

And What of the Non-Jewish Jews?

By Shaul Magid

…ancestry generations ago, a Jewish spouse, Jewish friends etc. In terms of numbers, Jews by religion or no religion make up 2.2% of the U.S. population, but if you add “People with a Jewish affinity” it rises to 2.7%, so that this category of people who are not considered Jews by the Jewish community but identify as Jews is nearly 25% of the Jews by religion or no religion, those we conventionally call “Jews.” The fact that there are so many Ameri…

False Saviors: Trump, Cruz, and the Gospel of the Quick Fix

By Marcia Pally

…programs of redemption, make us feel so. Duress may begin as material deprivation or fear of deprivation. On Dec. 9 Pew reported that the middle class, once the largest, is the majority no longer; median middle class income has dropped 4% since 2000; four middle income jobs that accounted for 60% of employment in 1979 accounted for only 46% by 2012; and the number of persons not in the labor force is growing. While some are getting richer, the num…

A Debate Rages in India Over Conversion, Secularism, and “Spiritual Violence”

By Murali Balaji

…religion across India and the subcontinent. Perhaps more importantly, the vast majority of Hindus (and the vast majority of Indians) are not necessarily vested in religious identity politics, which usually manifest themselves most in the days and weeks ahead of local, state, or national elections. Perhaps more problematically for progressives who critique the normative role of religion in societies, religious politics in India isn’t necessarily a…

Can the Catholic Church Survive Trump?

By Patricia Miller

…it comes to deciding whom to vote for … Catholic bishops encouraged their flock to side with the Republican Party. Unlike some evangelicals, however, the Catholic bishops did manage to maintain some semblance of a cross-party policy agenda because of the church’s progressive positions on the death penalty, refugees and immigrants, social welfare programs, and its preference for peace over war. Over time, however, as the Reagan-era GOP coalition f…

Are You There God? It’s Us, Googling

By Michael Schulson

…irst hit was a sponsored result for the website of David Jeremiah, a conservative evangelical preacher in California. Do these websites actually shape people’s responses to deep theological questions? Can search results and search engine optimization influence the beliefs of an individual confronting a difficult question? It’s hard to tell. But as people go online for answers to religious questions, fundamentalist and fringe religious groups do ha…

Indonesian Court Rejects Religious Conservatives’ Bid To Criminalize Gay Sex; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…nservative and religious forces determined to protect ‘traditional family’ values,” with support from Christian conservatives in the U.S.: Accept and the wider LGBT community face a powerful enemy in domestic conservative groups such as the Coalition for Family, the Orthodox Church, and evangelical churches in Romania, as well as their international allies – including US-based Christian legal charity Liberty Counsel. In July 2016, it sent an amicu…

First U.S. Visit of the Virgin Mary Confirmed in Wisconsin

By Lewis Wallace

…d from putting up pilgrims and selling food and wares. Then as today, approval by the Vatican involved both strict alignment with doctrine and a spotless personal record for anyone involved. Trends in official sainthood have changed over time based on who best represents the political and theological interests of the Vatican. Still, the Catholic Church tends not to uphold stringent regulations on folk devotion. Most apparitions, miracles, and sain…