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The Peril of Criticizing Rick Warren

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…’t seek to give high profile prayers. He simply went about the business of helping people. He didn’t seek acclaim or write any best- selling books. He simply went to where the hurting people were and healed them. His words so empowered people and helped them to connect to God that those in charge of the government and the religious leaders of the day found him to be a threat to the status quo they had carefully put in place. His words, his actions…

Blankets, Booties, and Jesus: Spiritual War on the Uterus in Rick Perry’s Texas

By Sarah Posner

…follower of Jesus.” The role of crisis pregnancy centers, he says, “is to help [clients] know Jesus Christ.” Evangelicals see these centers “almost as an extension of the church.” He’s opposed to distribution or discussion of contraceptives at CPCs, adding, “most conservative churches would say no. They’d say, let’s disciple them and help them toward purity.” In addition to praying at the nearby abortion clinic, Trey and Mary Anne said, they freq…

Reading Racism: In Confronting White Christian Fragility ‘Feeling’ is as Important as Ideas

By SueJeanne Koh

…se spaces, without disruption. Whiteness invisibilizes its operations in a number of ways. It depends on rendering racial surfaces as real, the origins of race as natural, and morality as singular. The affective clarity of whiteness—its conviction in mapping the world and organizing non-white bodies—allows for it to entangle itself with our closely held myths. So the deeper and more difficult reckoning for Christians is how Christianity in the mod…

Buddha as Scientist, Entrepreneur & Self-Improvement Guru

By Michael Schulson

…how the seamless integration of the internet into our field of vision will help us be more aware of its effects. Judging by the amount of support she gives to this claim, Miller doesn’t, either. On the whole, though, the Buddhist Geeks seem like earnest people eager to play with ideas and make their mark on the world. Much as you might worry when you read about how Buddhist practice is being deployed as a self-help tool for the Google engineers wh…

The ‘Christianization’ of Shirley Sherrod

By Rosetta E. Ross

…behind white farmers Roger and Eloise Spooner when they approached her for help. However, when the white attorney to whom Sherrod referred the Spooners failed to take their predicament seriously, she realized the challenges they faced were the same as those faced by the black farmers she helped everyday. “[W]orking with him,” Sherrod said, “made me see that it’s really about those who have versus those who don’t, you know, and they could be black,…

The Kidnapping of Nigerian Girls, A Primer

By Gordon Haber

…front burner by emailing their Representatives to ensure that the offer to help the Nigerian government is not an empty promise. Nigerians, however, do not want the United States to play Super Cop and are wary, since many of America’s more high-profile interventions have become centers of conflict. Recently a new group has been formed to help girls from the region get their lives back, but it is not yet registered. In the meantime, Americans can d…

RD10Q: Spiritual Survival for LGBT Christians

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…need to neutralize attacks on their faith. At the same time, I’m hoping to help readers move out of the usual “what the Bible says about homosexuality” arguments to find more and more areas of common ground with those who have historically been our “enemies.” I’m hoping that when LGBT believers are empowered to live authentically as the people God has created them to be, then they can confidently begin to dialogue with those who oppose acceptance…

#OccupyWallStreet and the Antichrist

By Sarah Posner

…the Wall Streeters who stuff campaign coffers with cash. Fear of an imagined “false prophet of peace” and prophesied leader of a “one-world government” and “one-world economy” could help organize right-wing evangelicals more than outrage at the actual Wall Street crooks and economy-wreckers could help organize the left….

A Seminary for Nonbelievers: Is A. C. Grayling Creating His Own Religion?

By Jessica Weisberg

…the mid-1800s, complete with its own priests and holidays. It’s more self-help than manifesto. The book, as the inside cover reveals, was “conceived, selected, redacted, arranged, and in part written” by Grayling. The content, arranged in numbered verses, comes from over a hundred mostly-classical authors, including Aristotle, Cicero, Virgil, and Diderot. The concept, however, seems to be borrowed from mash-up culture. There are no footnotes; non…

Mitt Romney: Wooden Pastor or Real Boy?

By Mary Barker

…ations at the same time that they assure us of our worthiness. And I can’t help but wonder if Mitt’s comment about his taxes (he hasn’t paid a penny more than he is legally required, and believes that he would not be a good candidate for president if he had) doesn’t reveal a bit of this attitude. His 10% tithing may impress those outside the tradition, but it is ho-hum to me; it is the minimum obligation for upright standing before God and access…