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Humanitarian Victims or Christian Martyrs: What’s in a Word?

By Donald Heinz

…was red to honor their shed blood, and churches were commonly built on the site of their executions. Indeed, until well into the 20th century of Roman Catholic Christianity it had been required that a consecrated altar must contain relics of a martyr. A Christian martyr is a disciple and imitator of Christ who holds fast to the reasoned confession of faith and to a kind of life motivated by it, and ends up giving the witness (the meaning of the Gr…

Ultra Orthodox Murder-Suicide Makes Headlines

By Shalom Goldman

…the gun on himself. As the news spread through the Israeli news media, Web sites and radio call-in shows were deluged with suggestions as to what this case was about. The first reports speculated that the background story was a Haredi gay relationship gone bad. As on astute observer of ultra-Orthodox Judaism said a quarter of a century ago “homosexuality is the dirty little secret of the yeshiva world”—that is, of the single-sex school system in w…

Back to Basics: Feminism 101

By Amina Wadud

…g the conversation about feminisms in Islam that the negativity on the Web site might not give the full impression. That entry was tweeted and re-tweeted around the world. But for some respondents, my failure to succumb to their negativity in my choice both to be Muslim and to be feminist (as in Islamic feminist not secular) was contestable. Since mine is a choice: both my Islam and my feminism, I am not in need of some one else’s definition nor d…

Beinart’s Naivete about the Religious Right

By Sarah Posner

…es being raised now in defense of building the center near the ground zero site. For the religious right, religious freedom is about “defending” Christians against anti-Christian bigotry. That sort of supposed “discrimination” includes letting gay people get married, not allowing prayer in public settings, and the like. In other words, the religious right not getting its way. The right is so dedicated to this narrative that it has succeeded in ref…

Dangerous Religion

By Gary Laderman

…America today. The opposition against building an Islamic center near the site where the World Trade Center once stood, and the growing outcry around the country about the creation of other Muslim places to gather and worship, suggests that many Americans are not afraid to answer the question without hesitation. In the post-9/11 world we now live in, Islam poses the greatest threat to American lives and security; a nefarious, fanatical religion t…

Freedom of Religion Means Freedom for All

By Lauri Lebo

…hing about this because it seemed, well, too obvious. But for a depressing number of people in this country, including folks who really should know better, apparently it isn’t. So here goes: If you don’t support religious freedom for everyone, you don’t support it. Yes. As I said, it’s obvious. Opposing religious freedom for one, takes it away from all of us. Yet, every time somebody lately protests the building of a new mosque—either in New York…

Glenn Beck’s History “Professor” David Barton On Racism and the Three-Fifths Rule

By Julie Ingersoll

…ves. In one notable example, first published on Barton’s Wallbuilders’ Web site in 2001, Barton argues in favor of the three-fifths rule which required that slaves be counted as three-fifths of a person for representation in Congress. Barton maintains that, while contemporary Americans are aghast that “we” could have ever considered African-Americans just three-fifths persons, the result was beneficial to the slaves, because the rule diminished th…

Evangelical Millennials Good with Government

By Daniel Schultz

…As Guy Molyneux and Ruy Teixeira write at the Center for American Progress site, voters between the ages of 18 and 32 hold good (but necessarily “big”) government in significantly higher esteem than older cohorts. At first glance, that morsel of information seems downright soporific. But for political junkies, among others, there is some significance here. As Molyneux and Teixeira point out, progressives trying to sell activist government programs…

Building Jesus out of Toast, “Pro-Life” Effigies, Apple is a Religion, and Taunting Muslims with Dogs

By Michael J. Altman

…oncerns may keep Christian pilgrims from baptisms in the Jordan River. The site is believed to be the place where Jesus was baptized but is now contaminated with raw sewage and agricultural run-off. Fred Phelps and his Westboro Bapist Church, noted anti-gay protestors, turned their attention to Comic-con and spewing hate at “idolaters” reading DC and Marvel. The response from the Comic-con faithful is a mix of wit, the bizarre, and beating Phelps…

End of the World: An Update

By Lauri Lebo

…that Christ will return May 21, 2011. The sign doesn’t say it, but the web site that it refers to let’s us know that Oct. 21, 2011 will be the day “when He will destroy the world and all that is therein.” At the end of the article, there is what may be the saddest quote I have ever read in a news story: Exley has bittersweet feelings about Camping’s prediction. “There are things I felt I always wanted to do—get married, have a kid, travel more,” s…