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Modern Vampires: Your Neighbors and Spouses

By Joseph Laycock

…raphic research with the AVA, which led to a paper I presented at the American Academy of Religion. I frankly did not expect to be taken seriously simply because I was discussing vampires. To my surprise, I was contacted by several scholarly journals as well as reporters. It was Praeger who approached me about writing a book. They had noticed a heightened interest in vampires in the wake of Twilight and the Charlaine Harris novels—phenomena I wa…

Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife

By Lisa Miller

…of houris, dark-eyed women. We all know that Mohammad Atta, who flew American Airlines flight 11 into the Twin Towers on 9/11, was inspired by this promise. But among progressives, the sex promised to the righteous in the Qur’an isn’t sex as we know it, but something mysterious and sublime for which sex is a poetic stand-in. Second, what happens to our bodies in heaven? This is my favorite part of the heaven conversation. For if you believe in he…

Top Five (Less Sensational, But More Dangerous) Things to Remember About Pat Robertson (1930-2023)

By Mark Hulsether

…on how non-Robertsonite Republicans are in bed with the NCR. Here again we can catch this “bus” whenever we wish to ride it. 2) Robertson publishes an anti-Semitic screed and neo-conservative allies yawn. Robertson’s 1991 book, The New World Order, recycled anti-Semitic conspiracy theories reminiscent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and stated that George Bush Sr. was part of a conspiracy to institute “an occult-inspired world socialist dic…

Haiti and the Push for Theological Questions

By Paula M. Cooey

…nomy of Europe was subsequently affected for some time to come. The significance of the catastrophe, especially its cause, weighed heavily on Europeans’ minds. That the event took place on a religious holiday, that it took out a major European capital, that the city was devoutly Catholic, all these aspects troubled ordinary people, philosophers, and clergy alike. Issues of God’s goodness in relation to God’s power, as well as the ultimate goodness…

Aasif Mandvi on Islamophobia, Acting, and the Long Shadow of Jon Stewart

By Haroon Moghul

…on television today, as compared to when I started out. But in Hollywood, Caucasian is still the norm. Your heroes are still Caucasian. So that is somewhere we need more diversity, in terms of who’s creating the stories, who’s starring in the stories, who the stories are about. You can have a lot of brown people, but if the story’s really about white people, then it’s diversity, but not the kind we need. It doesn’t matter, at the end of the day,…

Another Manufactured Outrage: Rep. Ilhan Omar Did Nothing Wrong in Listing Hamas, Israel, and U.S. Together

By Joshua Shanes

…imes to do if the state that inflicted violence on them won’t fairly adjudicate the case and if they cannot then go to the ICC? Moreover, although I respect Secretary Blinken a great deal, I am not at all satisfied with his answer. For example, West Bank Palestinians suffering violence by the Israeli state, or its citizens, cannot get justice from the Israeli system, which he said they could. This is widely documented. If our position in the Unite…

The 17th Century Roots of Roy Moore’s Refusal to Concede the Election

By Karen E. Park

…ships the same God. He was removed from the Alabama bench twice during his career as judge because of his fidelity to that God. First, in 2001 for installing and refusing to remove a massive granite monument of the Ten Commandments in front of the Alabama State Judiciary building, a clear violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment and any number of Supreme Court cases. He was removed again last year for refusing to uphold federal…

Diplomatic Suckerhood: Why Israel Is Fighting Toward its Own Demise

By Ira Chernus

…rting Obama’s attempt to freeze the settlements. That’s why no major political party in Israel can afford to be identified with the Obama way. It will be politically damaging. Of course “it is clear” is only based on Israeli beliefs, not facts. Beliefs and feelings, on the other hand, are what drive voter sentiment in Israel as everywhere else. With so many voters affecting a posture of permanent victimization, the government finds it politically…

The Sacred and the Dead: Truckin’ as a New American Pilgrimage

By Varun Soni

…and ever has. Their music ventured to the outer limits of the American musical canon, seamlessly fusing uniquely American musical genres into something entirely new. In memorializing Jerry Garcia, Bob Dylan lauded his friend’s virtuosity in American music: “There are a lot of spaces and advances between the Carter family, Buddy Holly and, say, Ornette Coleman, a lot of universes, but he filled them all without being a member of any school.” Cultur…

Sex and the Chosen People: Be Fruitful and Multiply, Etc.

By Mandy Van Deven

…y challenging biological reality, but the rabbis often played with theoretical cases and this one likely pointed to feelings about the bathhouse as a place of licentiousness—or perhaps it was a story that could enable a pregnant young woman to keep her virtue intact.) More often, we’re left to think about new technologies in light of more general Jewish principles: the value of “being fruitful and multiplying,” for example; the value of saving a l…