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Is Putin a ‘Real’ Christian? To Understand This Conflict We Need to Ask Different Questions

By Sarah Riccardi-Swartz and Robert Saler

…built to curry favor with faith communities. Our goal here isn’t to argue about Putin’s personal faith; rather, we want to reflect on how academic assumptions about individual religious practices and beliefs are often analyzed through categories that typically begin and end with western conceptions of what counts as correct or wholehearted spirituality. In other words, we want to question the questioning of Putin’s faith. Whether it’s religious l…

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

By Gary Laderman

…uracy, I would hasten to add, that exists in the same manner when speaking about the Jews, or the Muslims, or the Buddhists. The noun doesn’t really tell us anything about individuals and communities, and the adjectival use may be descriptive but can be also be applied across political, cultural, ethnic, and theological spectrums. “Native American,” like the term “Hindu” as noted above, is one of those labels that simultaneously misrepresents real…

Apocalypse Now and Then: Our Global Death Wish

By Jay Michaelson

…man plan” is polytheistic, monotheistic, or atheistic in nature. Our fears about Y2K (remember that?) and New Age predictions about December 21 of this year are not different in kind from Harold Camping’s ridiculous (and widely ridiculed) “calculation” that the apocalypse would take place on May 21 (and then October 21) of last year. Nor, claims Landes, are utopian claims of a transformed economic or political order, such as Shimon Peres’ now nos…

If it’s Really About “Religious Freedom,” Why Mention Just One Belief?

By Sunnivie Brydum

…e unlikely to argue in favor of a fully unfettered exemption for all views about what rightly constitutes a marriage. In fact, when FADA’s author, Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador, proposed amending his bill last July to ensure it protected all religious views about marriage, prominent “religious liberty” defenders like Liberty Counsel promptly dropped their support for the legislation. The intellectual underpinning of all this is unmistakeable—”religious…

Religious Conspiracy Theories About Giffords Shooting Emerge

By Sarah Posner

…Gallups’ videos insists that the media is suppressing critical information about Giffords’ supposed relationship with Loughner. After decrying the comments of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnick and others condemning the rhetoric of right-wingers that is infused with violent imagery, the video takes pains — despite a lack of evidence — to describe Loughner as a “very angry leftist who hates America . . . . and religion.” The bit about the YouTube…

Kavanaugh Hearings Are a Commentary on Mormonism

By Holly Welker

…at what Hatch, Mormonism’s current elder statesman, finds so objectionable about the Kavanaugh hearing Thursday was that women were allowed to ask questions of a man. That’s not how these things are supposed to work. Finally, there’s the issue of rape culture within Mormonism. Rape culture refers not merely to how likely men and boys are to rape women and girls but to a whole set of assumptions about who is really responsible for sexual misbehavio…

‘Biblical’ Disaster in Haiti: Pat Robertson and the Curse of Unyielding Ignorance

By Matt Recla

… writers, and activists have stepped up to condemn Pat Robertson’s remarks about Haiti, saying that he does not represent them, nor do comments represent Christianity. If that’s true, why does anyone care about anything Robertson says at all? Judging a public figure’s influence is a tricky business. Sure, bestselling books, sell-out crowds and the like tell you something. You could look at The 700 Club’s Nielsen ratings, or do a public opinion sur…

Are White Evangelicals as Concerned About Middle Eastern Christians as We’re Meant to Believe?

By John Stoehr

…every Sunday school class, every Bible story, and every sermon. Everything about born-again Christianity is bent toward the goal of your being born again. The only thing missing is how to be a good person. For me to say that the words of profession of my faith in Jesus did not actuate my moral conscience any more than saying abracadabra did isn’t merely offensive to born-again Christians. It’s also confounding. I mean, the point of being born agai…

Waiting for Lightning to Strike: A Wobbly Agnostic among the Atheists

By Carolyn S. Briggs

…e awesome, wouldn’t it?” She gives us a very long list of things she hates about religion. I concur with all of them. I too hate honor killings and the way Jerry Falwell blamed atheists and homosexuals for 9/11. She’s still angry about Galileo. Ditto. Another astronomer who long ago claimed the sun was only one of many tied to the stake and burned. The Crusades. Until 1961, atheists weren’t allowed to serve on a US jury. Women are dying of AIDS in…