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Burning Down the Temple: Religion and Irony in Black Rock City

…and soul. Every year since 2001, when San Francisco Bay area artist David Best constructed the first large-scale temple out of leftover pieces from a dinosaur puzzle factory, the temples have been a focal point for collective ritualizing at Burning Man. Dismounting my bicycle, I approached this year’s Temple of Transitions. Part medieval cathedral, part 24-hour desert sanctuary, the temple was epic in scale with stained glass windows on its upper…

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Why Did So Many Black Women Die? Jonestown at 35

…n theology ethos (what he called ‘apostolic socialism’) which married the “best” parts of the Christian social gospel with a vision of communalism and egalitarianism that more closely aligned with his inherent atheism. Initially this rhetoric was actualized in an array of social welfare programs (such as free community meals, housing and health care) for church members, though it would ultimately be perverted through a systematic pattern of parano…

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Christianity Today counsels “patience” on Uganda’s anti-gay law

…nstead exercise “patience as Ugandan leaders sort out among themselves the best way to preserve their culture’s sexual mores.” Instead of strongly condemning this legislation, which President Barack Obama has called “odious,” CT tells us we need to understand the culture and give the Ugandans a fair hearing on their , reasoned arguments against gays and lesbians: For American Christian leaders, both silence and open condemnation end up violating i…

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Into the Darkest Moment of a Dark Year Comes the Saturnalia, a Time for Drinking, Swearing, Gambling, and the Circle of Life

…hyry of Tyre, a Phoenician philosopher from the 3rd century, summarized it best when he linked the Saturnalia to an emancipation towards immortality. If our soul and being routinely die, then they never really perish (think how we go to sleep and wake up every day). Taming what we lose, or gain, in this death and rebirth process is the object of ritualistic conjurations. We bury 2020, before accepting the regeneration offered by 2021 and the sun’s…

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The Story of a Post-Holocaust Group Seeking Revenge Against Nazis is Part of the Story of Israel Itself

…s antisemitic onslaughts. The Golem is central to Jewish folklore, but the best known tale is the Golem of Prague, in which a rabbi regretfully builds his beast out of clay to fight invading Christians. “The rabbi studied his creation…[but] he decided that the golem was more frightening than the Gentiles.” After the Gentiles march into the ghetto on Passover, however, beheading Jews and setting buildings on fire, the rabbi’s reservations are dispe…

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Steve Bannon and the Conservative “Cafeteria Catholics”

…crisis of faith and morality, he has been divorced three times and to the best of many of his associates’ knowledge doesn’t attend church—pretty much the definition of a practicing Catholic. The conservative Catholic provocateur Austin Ruse, who has used his organization C-FAM to embed a conservative Catholic presence at the UN, described him to O’Loughlin as a “nonpracticing orthodox Catholic,” or “somebody who for whatever reason is not practic…

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Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife

…good and we have things in abundance. Heaven, then, is an extension of the best of this life. When ideas of heaven were first cohering, life for believers 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…

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Mitt Romney Plays the Tin Man at the NAACP Convention

…ere possible to fully communicate what I believe is in the real, enduring, best interest of African-American families, you would vote for me for president.” Well, Mitt, we really don’t understand who you truly are in your heart. You don’t know how to show us what’s really there. And If you can’t fully communicate what you believe is best for African Americans at the NAACP convention, you can’t do it anywhere. So what was this speech about? I belie…

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How Are the “Nones” Raising Their Children?

…therefore the individual has a right to choose one, or a combination, that best suits him or her. This is why None parents will not necessarily raise their children to be non-religious. In contrast to churched parents who usually transmit their own religion to their children, None parents insist they want their children to choose for themselves. That means providing options, and parents go about this in many different ways. I describe the five mos…

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