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The Religious Mourning of ‘Saint’ Kobe Bryant Continues

By Terry Shoemaker

…and teach her basketball is the image broadly circulating since his death. Most fans were willing to forgive, not simply because Bryant was a tremendous athlete, but because he symbolized public redemption. In a nation like the United States where religious affiliation and commitments are in decline, many people look for other places to create meaning-making opportunities. Fans gathering in sporting stadiums enjoy the thrill and athleticism of our…

New Poll Finds “Growing Appetite” for Mixing Religion and Politics

By Sarah Posner

…s believe the influence of religion in American society is waning—but that most view that decline as a negative development. “Perhaps as a consequence,” the Pew researchers conclude, “a growing share of the American public wants religion to play a role in U.S. politics.” Those affiliated with a religion, particularly evangelicals, Protestants, and Catholics, “have become significantly more supportive of churches and other houses of worship speakin…

The Benedict Opt-Out: Why Christian Self-Isolation Won’t Work

By Kaya Oakes

…examples, homeschooling, homesteading and a return to agrarian lifestyles—mostly lived out in deeply isolated areas—remain a topic of interest in many Christian communities. A cursory Google search for “Christian homeschooling” or “Christian homesteading” will yield thousands of results. But here a question arises. Dreher refers to this notion of dropping out and building small religious communities as the Benedict Option, so how much of this has…

Are Muslims Nuts?

By Haroon Moghul

…iends, who’d grown up in rural Pennsylvania. I was surprised to learn we almo*]}*st grew up next door to them. Turns out that, after my father completed his residency, he’d had the choice to pursue his medical practice in Western Massachusetts or central Pennsylvania. I’d never wondered why my father had chosen the Bay State, or where he turned down in the process. So much of my life was shaped by my childhood in New England. So much of who I am is a…

Conversion Story #643 (not a real number)

By Amina Wadud

…ropologically speaking, the gusto was taken out of that claim for origins. Mostly because when I discussed this amongst Muslims of generations, even my friends, I was surprised how many determined that by this fact of ancestral anthropology alone, then I was really Muslim. As one friend put it, “You are really one of us.” So I take another approach (no surprises there). I reason that if the prophet was already 40 years old before he received the f…

RDPulpit: I Am Not A Number: Gays and Lesbians and Opinion Polls

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ke my life, along with the lives of all the other LGBT statistics, are the most polled about. It seems every other week another poll comes out asking real live people about our theoretical lives. Honestly, I’m sick of it. Stop asking others about my life. Start asking me about my life. Start asking gay and lesbian people about the reality of their lives. Talk to Janice Langbehn, who was denied access to her dying partner, Lisa Pond, in a Florida h…

Paul the Pluralist: Jesus’ Number Two Was Not a Christian

By Pamela Eisenbaum

…nd Christianity are antithetical religions, with Judaism being the bad and most primitive kind and Christianity being the good and most evolved form. Thus, built into the supposedly Pauline idea of “justification by faith” is an implicit anti-Judaism—a big problem for the Protestant theology that is founded on this reading. The New Perspective emerged largely to address this issue. In contrast to the traditional interpretation, this new reading ar…

Sharing Many of the Same Flaws as its Subject ‘The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill’ Podcast Puts Blame Anywhere But Where It Belongs

By Jessica Johnson

…oo deeply into Cosper’s background to get a sense of why he may not be the most reliable narrator for this particular story. The podcast works the listener like Driscoll worked a crowd Cosper was a worship leader at Sojourn, a church in Louisville, Kentucky, which adopted the same Christian counter-cultural style and GenX-indie atmosphere as Mars Hill, went multi-site, and was affiliated with the church planting network that Driscoll co-founded, A…

Gays Losing Value to “Value Voters”?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…that all things sexual continue to occupy the minds of those who seem the most opposed to anyone actually having sex. It’s interesting to view the “value voter” summit in juxtaposition with a new survey conducted by the Des Moines Register. In a surprising move last April, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned a state ban on same-sex marriage. Since then, gays and lesbians have been allowed to marry and set up households in the state as legally wed c…

New Poll Reveals a Paradox in Evangelical Support for Donald Trump

By Daniel Schultz

…of him. Both numbers are much lower than any other segment. Furthermore, almo*]}*st the identical number of Republicans and White evangelicals believe Trump champions their beliefs and have a favorable opinion of him. Given that, it’s easy to see who makes up Trump’s political base. So let’s assume that White evangelicals don’t think much of Trump’s personal piety. But they do trust him to advocate for them and their beliefs. Perhaps understanding mor…