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Another Important Defection From the Russian Patriarchate Looms — The Fate of Orthodoxy in the West Hangs in the Balance

By Katherine Kelaidis

…rican Orthodox Christianity. The seminary has come to be dominated by ultra-conservative American converts from various Protestant denominations, largely part of the wave of Protestant conservative Culture Warriors into the Orthodox Church that began in the 1980s. They have mostly succeeded in turning the school into a fortress in their on-going battle against the forces of modernity. When the school isn’t hosting ecumenical dialogue between the O…

Allen West’s Communist Conspiracy Rooted in Christian Anti-Communism?

By Sarah Posner

…f the Congressional Progressive Caucus part of their membership.” (The then-president of the AFL-CIO, John Sweeney, adds Noebel, in a real LOL moment, “could well be the most powerful influence in the House of Representatives.”) These organizations, writes Noebel, “quite literally comprise a Socialist Red Army within the very contours of the House of Representatives.” Noebel went into a bit more detail in a 2010 public lecture and in interview wi…

Neither Radical Nor Secular: The West Struggles with the New Islamism

By Blain Auer

…by the Muslim Brotherhood. Founded in 1928 by an Egyptian scholar Hasan al-Banna (1906-1948), the Muslim Brotherhood promoted an anti-colonial ideology meant to safeguard Egyptian society against British and French influence in the Middle East. Guided by the mantra “Islam is the solution,” the Muslim Brotherhood has had a long and tense relationship with Egyptian leadership. Since the revolution, however, influential members of the movement creat…

New Book by Olivier Roy Argues that Aggressive Attempts to Christianize the West Actually Hasten Secularism

By Ivan Strenski

…Barton, claim that the United States is a “Christian nation,” liberally cut-and-pasting quotes and facts to make their case. Christian nationalists calculate that historical revelations will insure the present ability of religious corporations to feed freely at the public trough. In their Christian nation nothing is more American than Christian private schools enjoying public funding. No Muslim schools need apply. In their view we should also acce…

Where Joe the Plumber and Allen West’s Gun Control Conspiracy Theory Comes From

By Sarah Posner

…azi genocide — and at least six other major genocides — in which 56 million persons, including millions of children, were murdered. As Jewish law mandates self-defense (see Talmud Tractate B’rachos [Blessings], p. 58a and p. 62b), JPFO, Inc., works with GOA and like-minded groups to restore law-abiding Americans’ civil right to be armed.” Zelman died in 2010, but the JPFO continues on. Its website today still promotes his book, Death by Gun Contro…

Reading Beinart and Lerner as Gaza Burns

By Ira Chernus

…The Palestinian death toll is rising steadily. Even the more liberal Jewish-American groups like the Reform movement and J Street were at least initially sympathetic to Israel’s attack on Gaza, despite the fact that the attack (no doubt intentionally) destroyed a real chance for peace with Hamas. Despite talk of a truce, on every front the Israel-Palestine peace process seems dead in the water. There is no indication that the Obama administration,…

As We Survey the Damage of Yesterday’s Violence, What Will Christian Nationalist Politics Look Like in 2021? New Report Offers Clues

By Chrissy Stroop

…-wing Christian slogans like “The Children Cry Out for Justice” and the not-so-apolitical after all “Jesus 2020,” the release of American Atheists’ new report serves as a timely reminder not only of the serious threat that Christian extremism represents to American democracy, but also that the spectacular drama that’s been unfolding on the national stage this year is only part of the story. Many crucial church-state separation battles are won and…

Countering the “Countering Violent Extremism” Program

By Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

…ough these efforts will engender temperate, reasonable (in other words, pro-American) political inclinations and actions. Like other forms of state-sponsored political and religious interventionism, CVE is never neutral but rather privileges what the authorities define as “tolerant” beliefs and practices that carry the promise of accommodative or quiescent forms of politics. This creates a divide between these “most-favored” beliefs and practices…

Four Reasons Why Egypt’s Revolution Is Islamic

By Zaid Hassan

…now, Islamic political philosophy has failed to answer the question of why Western-style democracies are more effective than rival political systems. It is entirely feasible that the current waves of change, triggered by Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and elsewhere, could unleash new waves of Islamic political thought. We could see the emergence of an Islamic Rawls, revitalizing the entire field of Islamic political thought. New thinking on the r…

There’s No Business Like the Bible Business: 200 Years of the ABS

By Paul Harvey

…s, which did the actual distributing of the sacred texts. The ABS produced cheap, text-only Bibles, sold at cost and distributed through “branch societies,” and thus undercut competitors. If you wanted notes, commentary, or maps, you would have to look elsewhere; the ABS focused on sola scriptura, with the faith that the words alone, guided by the Holy Spirit, would effect transformations in the lives of individuals. If there’s one thing that Amer…