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Netflix’s Iranian ‘Messiah’ Is a Gift to Trump and His Evangelical Base

By Tony Keddie

…d-times fantasies have often followed the path paved by Hal Lindsey, whose best-selling The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970 interpreted a pastiche of biblical verses as proof that the end would begin with a Soviet invasion of Israel. He claimed that the ancient prophet Ezekiel’s warning about Israel being invaded by an enemy named Gog from the North must refer to modern Russia. Even more, this northern enemy could not succeed without the help of I…

Prosperity Preachers: Where Are They Now?

By Jonathan L. Walton

…forced the notion that difficult economic times signify a lack of faith at best, and a sinful spirit at worst? So where are they now? Where are these preachers as parishioners’ mortgages continue to default and gas prices bust the average working family’s budget? Where are they as families fall into an economic tailspin due to unforeseen job losses and out of control healthcare costs? And where are they as parishioners increasingly discover that t…

My Childhood Hobby Was Satanic, Or So They Told Me

By Joseph Laycock

…re beset at every turn by demonic forces and evil conspiracies. Despite my best intentions, some people may find these ideas offensive and feel that either their religion or their hobby has been slighted. But I think most readers will find this book interesting and thought provoking. What alternative title would you give the book? For a while my working title was “What The Moral Panic Over Role-Playing Games Says About Religion and Other Imagined…

What the Hell is Wrong With Us? A Muslim Response to America’s Failure to Change

By Haroon Moghul

…ask the reader of the Qur’an, over and over again, to reflect, to use her best judgment, to make her best effort, and to learn from others? If the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was the last Prophet—and Islam certainly insists on as much—then everything he communicated has to be universal enough to be meaningful but flexible enough to reflect the nuances and characteristics of different experiences. This is one thing a lot of people don’t u…

Open Carry Racism: The Right Wing Fever Dream that Predates Trump

By Jason C. Bivins

…ers of which refuse to do so. Get Out may never have been fated to win the Best Picture Oscar, but it’s still the movie that best answers the question how did we get here? while pointing to the “black mold” in the basement. But what needs to be acknowledged is that while Trump is truly exceptional in his disregard for laws, norms, and institutions, he’s also a recognizable product of a half-century’s con game. Significantly, it was with Ronald Rea…

O(Pinn)ion: Defending Obama’s Choice

By Anthony B. Pinn

…s. It is through this approach that Obama has the chance of harnessing the best of our shared vision for a better country, and exposing the most harmful dimensions of our beliefs. So… Theological disagreements will persist, as they should. And we will have opportunity to wrestle over these disagreements in that such ability to debate in the public arena is a hallmark of our socio-political culture at its best. But debate will not end disagreement….

Why It’s Heresy to Read the Bible Literally: An Interview with John Shelby Spong

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…. That’s why, says retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong, despite his best-selling controversial books and popular speeches, his position on Jesus and the Christian church will never be the majority opinion, because he believes Jesus is not the Savior of the world and that the Bible cannot be read literally. That hunger for security is being sated by everyone from mega-church pastors offering assurances that Jesus will save the faithful, to t…

Election Reporters: Here’s Why Simply Descriptors Like ‘Christians’ Can Have Enormous Consequences

By Daniel Schultz

…e; so subtle in fact that you might’ve missed it altogether. Despite their best efforts to depict themselves as speaking to and for Christians at large, neither Turning Point USA nor Donald Trump cares about more than a relatively small portion of the religion’s adherents. That distinction becomes extremely important in light of the growing sense among many expert observers that Trump’s rhetoric is increasingly authoritarian. Let’s face it: it’s p…

Take the Van Gogh Challenge: Doctor Who Part VII

By Gabriel Mckee

…primarily about describing the world as it is (although it should take our best understanding of the natural world into account), but about depicting the world as it could be, and transforming it into that better vision of reality. And of course, when religion takes a harmful view of the future, it can often contribute to bringing about a minor apocalypse. This episode ended with the Doctor and Amy not having managed to prevent Van Gogh’s suicide,…

The Meaning of Make Believe (Why Religion Doesn’t Have to Be “Real”)

By Neil Ellingson

…ver I went—in my backpack to school, biking through my neighborhood. At my best friend’s house, we marched around his yard and the woods behind his house pretending we were preachers prophesying the end of the world. It gave me a thrilling sense of power to possess this secret knowledge that everyone else was too blind to see. Whether as a prop in playacting or simply toted around my pre-adolescent life, having the white inscrutable Bible close at…