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Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife

By Lisa Miller

…was not at all good. The Jews who first conceived of heaven as we know it today were under assault, literally, from their Greek rulers. Christians, at the beginning, were a marginal band, derided by the pagan majority. Islam was established in a uniquely inhospitable part of the world by people who hoped to rectify the social order: to turn the “have nots” into “haves.” For all these groups, heaven—a very specific heaven—was a reward for staying…

Why Kaepernick’s Refusal to Stand Is an Act of Religious Dissent

By Benjamin E. Zeller

…ervescence,” could lead individuals to act with emotional abandon, what we today might call extremism. To threaten the totem, particularly in front of large groups (such as on national television!), is to call into question the foundations of society. “When a belief is shared unanimously by a people, to touch it—that is, to deny or question it—is forbidden,” Durkheim wrote. People kill or die for their symbols: The soldier who dies for his flag di…

Same-Sex Marriage May Lead to Polygamy, But So What?

By William E. Smith

…ess to divorce and suffrage. While the stakes are not exactly the same for today’s debates over polygamy, there’s quite a bit of rhetorical and political continuity between the nineteenth-century anti-polygamy cause and today’s. Claims that same-sex marriage and polygamy are social experiments that will adversely affect children serve to limit women’s (and other people’s) options. Sheff discovered, for instance, that triads with one woman and two…

Opportunity Knocks in Pew Results

By Rachel Barenblat

…ness and diversity of our tradition. Faced with the revelation that 73% of today’s American Jews regard remembering the Shoah as a lynchpin of their Judaism, I see educational and spiritual opportunity knocking. That three in every minyan don’t identify with a particular denomination intrigues me. Given today’s three transdenominational seminaries (ALEPH, AJR, and Hebrew College) I suspect that percentage may grow in years to come. For me that’s a…

Angry Voters, Right-Wing Populism, & Racial Violence: People of Faith Can Help Break the Linkages

By Chip Berlet

…to be held accountable for their racism. Too many people are hearing this coded rhetoric and deciding that the real problem with the economy must be folks of color, immigrants, and the Jews.” During the last period of Patriot and militia growth in the mid-1990s, Ward witnessed this coded racist rhetoric being tested in the margins of the right-wing media, though it has since moved into the mainstream. In the past year I’ve interviewed dozens of a…

Lady Gaga’s Secret Religion

By Jeremy Biles

…on Lady Gaga’s (non)religion can thus be summed up in Baudrillard’s words: today, we have moved from a theology of truth and secrecy… [into] an age of simulacra and simulation, in which there is no longer any God to recognize his own, nor any last judgment to separate true from false, the real from its artificial resurrection. Lady Gaga is nothing other than an artificial resurrection. Like the ostensibly esoteric symbols that are so prevalent in…

Obama Foe Wants His MTV

By Bill Berkowitz

…on titled “About Pennsylvania Pastors Network,” the group points out “that today our society is struggling morally and spiritually [and there is a] constant battle—the family’s fight for its soul. The attack on our culture is imminent, and the truth is: We can stop it. As clergy, you hold the hearts of the people in your hands, and when people need someone to turn to for answers, you are there. We want to help equip you with the information and re…

‘Christian Warriors’: Who Are The Hutaree Militia And Where Did They Come From?

By Chip Berlet

…the American Prospect, Gershom Gorenberg blasts the authors because they: promote conspiracy theories; they demonize proponents of arms control, ecumenicalism, abortion rights and everyone else disliked by the Christian right; and they justify assassination as a political tool. Their anti-Jewishness is exceeded by their anti-Catholicism. Most basically, they reject the very idea of open, democratic debate. In the world of Left Behind, there exist…

What Do ‘The Christians’ Believe? Easter Reflections from a Non-Christian

By Gary Laderman

…n enormous impact on neighborhoods, local politics, and church membership; today and in the future, Hispanic Catholics will make an impact on the life of the Church, ranging from an increase in bilingual services to intensified debates over undocumented immigrants. On the Protestant side, many denominations that were composed primarily of Anglo-Europeans, like Methodists in the nineteenth century, are confronting the rise of ethnic congregations s…

First Things First: Sexual Equality Just Is

By Kate Blanchard

…y can expect “abortion, depression, and a string of failed relationships.” Today’s women are woody-killers because they’re just too much like men. They are assertive, thanks to education and career training. They masturbate. They are surprisingly not turned on (quo) by their partners doing dishes (quid). They are, in short, nasty. It was entirely unrealistic to expect “that the financial independence of women would have wholly positive effects on…