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His Holiness, Inc.: The Dalai Lama as a Spiritual Mega-Brand

By Elizabeth Drescher

…. To wit: a housecleaning staff member (“they’re now called ‘environmental services,’” Dean explained) eased the burden of a woman recovering from cancer-related surgery by sharing her own story of recovery from the disease. See: there ya go! Bam! Compassion! So, okay, in terms of deeply meaningful content, well, there didn’t seem to be much there, there, which left many in the media struggling for an angle. Likewise, Riley McShane, an SCU freshma…

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

By Shane Burley

…rically, an attack on Jews, which reinforces the notion that Israel is the center of the Jewish people. On October 25th, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under the Law demanded that universities investigate Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) over their alleged support for Hamas and antisemitism at ceasefire rallies and in statements. Then, after Jewish Voice for Peace led a historic 5,000-attendee…

American Prosperity Gospel Makes South Sudan “Ripe for Exploitation”

By Anthea Butler

…t stew for leadership? Will the growth of churches like the Juba Christian Center, the prosperity gospel, and American televangelism plant the seeds, as it were, for this new nation to cultivate religious hucksters eager to cash in on souls to be saved? Or will the situation in South Sudan become similar to Brazil, where cultural religious traditions such as Candomble are demonized, and Pentecostalism is lauded as the progressive religion not conn…

Breivik’s Demographic Warfare and the American Right’s Demographic Winter

By Sarah Posner

…its numbers and its might. For a specific example here at home, the Howard Center has decried family planning, including federal funding for contraception under Title X (which has been under attack by the Republican Party under the guise of “defunding Planned Parenthood) as “the U.S. war on American fertility.” Obviously the WCF isn’t advocating massacring people. But “saving Europe again” by evoking the Battle of Vienna is a theme that became the…

Taking (Public School) Teachers to Church, and the Mosque, and the Temple…

By Lisa Webster

…e to Hindu temple to Baptist church in search of new ways to educate young Americans about religious diversity. No, not a reality TV show, as Kevin joked, but part of a program called “Religious Worlds of New York: Teaching the Everyday Life of American Religious Diversity.” Intrigued, we asked him to tell us more about it. RD: A great idea, this program. Who is behind it? Kevin Childress: The Institute is co-sponsored by The Interfaith Center of…

God is My Co-Belligerent: Avatar Priests, Hijacked Theologians, and Other Figures of Right-Wing Revolt

By Frederick Clarkson

…e a personal prelature of the pope by John Paul II in 1982). “I am, as an American, offended,” Metaxas told a small audience at the Center, “by the idea that we cannot discuss certain things, and there is a kind of proto-facist—(I am being generous when I say proto)—bullying that happens in the culture” that disallows discussing the “big questions” about life and God. Bonhoeffer’s voice, Metaxas explained, was prophetic: “I see him as someone w…

“Traditional values.” Tom DeLay. Jesus loves low, low prices! Just another day in Texas.

By Sarah Posner

…mily and Traditional Values” as they do “to support a gender and sexuality center or other center for students focused on gay, lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, transsexual, transgender, gender questioning, or other gender identity issues.” Christian is also the president of the Texas Conservative Coalition (its slogan is “winning the fight, building the future,” proving again, I suppose, that conservatives are out to win fights and progre…

‘Centrist’ Advocates of ‘Common Ground’ Endorse Abortion Restrictions in Health Care Bill

By Sarah Posner

…attan Declaration last month, Sider told me, “I think that the evangelical center agrees with what’s being said here.” And, he added, he worked with a group of religious leaders who “pushed hard privately for a truly abortion neutral kind of position in the health care bill.” Although Sider refused to be specific about whether the group lobbied for Stupak in particular, he did strongly hint that he did not consider the Capps amendment (an analog o…

RDGenerations: Youth and Liberal Religion

By Lucia Hulsether

…ays at Borderlinks, a Presbyterian organization that facilitates tours and service trips for students, church groups, and scholars on the border. They also have co-ops, kids’ camps, and food distribution centers in northern Mexico. I think the key distinction between the two organizations is clarity of vision—not only does Borderlinks have leadership structure and funding, people can state what they are trying to accomplish. This is important for…

Hillary Flirting with Fear

By Ira Chernus

…nds. Two out of the three campaigns are actively pushing the war back onto center stage. Hillary Clinton recently said: “Since we now know Sen. McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party, national security will be front and center in this election. We all know that.” Well, we may not all know it yet. Apparently Obama and his people have not heard the message—which was clearly directly against them by Clinton strategists, who think that a…