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Chris Christie Apologizes. . . For Saying Something True

By Sarah Posner

…s Vegas. None of the speakers, including Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, or embattled New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, is Jewish. But some made efforts to boast (awkwardly, the Times notes) their loyalty to the Jews. In Christie’s case, this effort quickly turned sour, at least in Republican “pro-Israel” eyes. Like any non-Jewish politician addressing a Jewish audience, Christie fondly recalled a trip to Israel. Bu…

Books Must be Hardbound, Quotes Whole, and Genitalia Scrubbed

By Joseph Laycock

Earlier this week, I wrote on how county officials in Bronson, Florida, declared the area in front of a court house as limited public forum where private groups could give expression to their views by erecting monuments—and then vetoed an atheist monument because its use of “incomplete quotations” did not meet their guidelines. This strategy—in which atheists are legally allowed the same rights as Christians but are silenced on technicalities—is…

Is the Satanist Behind 10 Commandments Challenge Sincere?

By Joseph Laycock

…lained In January 2013 the Temple’s campaign began with a rally to support Florida governor Rick Scott, who signed a bill allowing religious “inspirational messages” to be read before assemblies in public schools. This was followed by the aforementioned “Pink Mass” at the gravesite of the mother of Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps, a service that would turn the woman’s spirit gay, according to the Temple. There have also been plans to ad…

The Unholy Battle Over the Ground Zero Cross

By Becky Garrison

…of a public monument to atheism alongside a Christian monument in Starke, Florida. In both cases, they argue that under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, government cannot favor one religion over other faiths. In their view, a Christian symbol can be placed on public land provided that there will be equal representation of those from different faiths, including those who call themselves nonreligious. Also, this fight points to a…

New Challenges to Gay Marriage Bans From Within States & Denominations

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ebsite), The Disciples of Christ voted at its general assembly in Orlando, Florida this month to affirm LGBT people as members and leaders in the denomination. On the heels of that move, 85 retired United Methodist clergy announced they would defy their denomination’s ban on performing same-sex weddings. “We will refuse to treat people as inferior, second-class citizens of God,” Fado said. The clergy could face revocation of their credentials, as…

Ritual Killing v. Factory Farming, or, Are There Roosters in Heaven?

By Meera Subramanian

…’s religions have fallen away. In 1987, the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye in Florida’s Dade County banned animal sacrifice after it began plans to build a church where religious rites including animal sacrifice would take place. Six years later, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city ban violated the church’s religious freedoms. It was the same year that Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prevents laws that place…

Corporate Personhood Was a Radical Notion… In the 11th Century

By Austin Dacey

…unrecognizable. Amanda Porterfield, a professor of religion and history at Florida State University, observes at The Immanent Frame that although Americans are profoundly divided “over the extent to which corporate bodies should be free to govern themselves, these bodies are so essential to the organization of our social world that few people seriously argue that they should not exist, or not enjoy some degree of freedom.” Americans often look to…

California Inmates Protest the Abuse of Long-Term Solitary Confinement

By Sarah Sentilles

…olor further calls into question the use of this abusive practice.” As the numbers have grown, so have the numbers of critics, Wired reports, citing a series of “scathing reports and documentaries” released in 2012 by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. That same year, the US Senate held its first-ever hearings on…

Will This Relic Change Our Whole View of Early American History?

By Ed Simon

…lish but by French Huguenots in 1564 at Fort Caroline (today St. Augustine Florida). In understanding the complexity of early American religion one also needs to take into account the presence of Yoruba and Igbo believers, as well as Muslims, first brought into the English speaking colonies as African slaves a decade after Archer died. One should also consider the intricacies in New England religion (which didn’t just contain monolithic Puritanism…

The Forgotten History of Black Calvinism and the Haunting of American Folk Music

By Joshua Guthman

…there were, by the 1830s, tens of thousands of them crowding churches from Florida’s swamplands to Illinois’s prairie? Tell me more, I thought. Strangers Below: Primitive Baptists and American Culture Joshua Guthman UNC Press (September 28, 2015) What’s the most important take-home message for readers? That the Primitive Baptists’ story is an unlikely one, but a vital one, an American one. Beneath that message are three stories. The first one prow…