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Herd Heroism in an Age of Rebels: The Cultural Roots of the Anti-Vaxxer Movement

By Michael Schulson

…Insurgent opens with a brief lecture from the leader of a post-apocalyptic Chicago. Her face magnified by futuristic projectors, the dictatorial Jeanine (Kate Winslet) argues that her community must protect the social fabric at all costs. In this shattered world, a Harry Potter and Hunger Games mashup, everyone lives in one of five groups or “factions.” Each faction is devoted to a virtue—kindness, protection, fairness, intelligence, and selflessn…

Why Christian Fundamentalism Is Still a Big Deal in U.S. Politics, And How It Got That Way

By Eric C. Miller

…1990s and early 2000s. Megachurches like Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago are designed to attract young people, and they’ve worked hard to present themselves as anti-fundamentalist in a number of ways. They appeal to individual experiences of spirituality over rigid doctrinal statements. They use words like “seekers” rather than talking about lost or damned souls. They also tend to avoid rigid political platforms. If you walk through the…

How Mario Cuomo Made the World Safe for Pro-Choice Catholics

By Patricia Miller

…ew York Archbishop John O’Connor, started to push back against attempts by Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin to remove abortion as a point of leverage with Catholics for the Republican Party. Bernardin famously asserted that Catholics should consider all “life” issues—abortion, nuclear war, poverty—when considering which candidate to vote for. But at a news conference in June, O’Connor seemed to throw the momentum back to the Republicans when he a…

New Atheism Produces Another Curiously Uncurious Science v. Religion Book

By Michael Schulson

…Jerry Coyne is an evolutionary biologist, a professor at the University of Chicago, and a prominent atheist blogger, who writes mostly about why faith is stupid (and quite a bit about cats). His new book, Faith Vs. Fact, is a 250-page critique of religion couched in a more modest epistemological argument. “Science and religion,” he writes, “are competitors in the business of finding out what is true about our universe. In this goal religion has fa…

No Bible-as-State-Book for Tennessee as Legislators Suffer “Symbol Fatigue”

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…odern state flags and designated state flowers around the time of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition. States wanted their own flags to fly, and their own flowers to display, in their exhibitions. Decades later, in 1927, the legislatures of seven states — Alabama, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oregan, Texas, and Wyoming — decided they needed state birds thanks to the efforts of progressive women’s clubs and th…

Predicting the Future of Religion: A Thought Experiment

By Ed Simon

…. Expect the next Pope to be from Manila or Yaoundé and not from Boston or Chicago. Whether this will herald a more progressive church or a reactionary one is a matter of debate. Right now Pope Francis is attempting to extend his influence beyond the end of his papacy as much as possible by selecting the cardinals who will elect the next pope. As it stands now there are a few things that may happen upon Pope Francis’ passing: the Church will eithe…

Piers Morgan, Guns, and the Bible

By Sarah Posner

…director Larry Pratt, who last appeared on Morgan’s program just after the Sandy Hook massacre. In that appearance, Morgan denounced Pratt as “an unbelievably stupid man” because of his claims that arming citizens (including teachers and school personnel) is the best way to decrease gun violence. Pratt is a frequent guest on cable news promoting the views of the gun lobby that sits to the right even of the NRA. Something that is almost always over…

The Sacred and the Dead: How an Iranian-Jewish Angeleno Discovered Her Tribe

By Saba Soomekh

…and uncles to each other’s children. (And yes: we all went together to the Santa Clara shows—the Dead’s last in California a week before their last concerts ever in Chicago over the July 4 weekend.) The author (in front, left, wearing the hat) and some of her Deadhead friends from high school days at the Dead’s show in Santa Clara, Calif., last weekend. Photo courtesy of the author. When it was time for me to choose a college, it wasn’t a difficul…

Pope Francis vs. the Bishops: An “Overblown” Narrative?

By Patricia Miller

…to hold fast to in-your-face conservatism (although other Francis favorite Chicago Bishop Blase Cupich was selected as an alternative, presumably should Chaput be unable to fulfill his duties). And at the same meeting, the bishops named Dolan the head of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities, a prominent culture-warrior post that will give Dolan a platform on an issue on which the bishops largely still have free rein because they have the support…

Pope Francis: Culture Warriors Out, “Collaboration and Consultation” In

By Patricia Miller

…he contraception mandate—with Spokane Bishop Blase Cupich as Archbishop of Chicago is one of the pope’s clearest signals to date of how he intends to conduct his papacy in concrete terms. The replacement of George was not in itself unexpected, as he had already passed the mandatory retirement age of 75 for bishops and is suffering from cancer. What was widely watched was who Francis would choose to replace George in one of the country’s most high-…