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Wiccan Prayer in Iowa House Highlights Religious Freedom Problem

By Joseph Laycock

…that individual out, have a peaceful conversation with them about why his way was the best way, so that’s what I did today. Other Christians conspicuously engaged in “counter-prayer” during Maynard’s invocation. Some cited the “powers and principalities” referenced in Ephesians and claimed that Maynard’s prayer was casting a demonic influence over the Iowa representatives. Pastor Michael Demastus explained, via RadioIowa: “I was praying that she…

Immigration Reveals the Many Faces of Jesus

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…“us” and “them.” Author Brian McLaren has, in the past, outlined the many ways we divide our world into “us” and “them,” but ultimately, he says the only way to tell the story of our world is “it’s some of us for all of us.” This is the not just the story we must tell about our own world, but it’s the only way to understand Jesus. He embodied a message of “it’s some of us for all of us” and calls us to practice that by loving our neighbor as ours…

Palin Bus Tour Like Gideon’s Fleece

By Anthea Butler

…,” in Pentecostal parlance — to see if she can still draw media attention away from her rivals. Gideon’s fleece refers to an account in Judges 6:33-40. Gideon sets fleece on a threshing floor, using it as a way of asking God for a sign whether or not to go into battle against the Midianites. God gives Gideon the sign to smite the Midianites and to do battle with his Baal-worshiping neighbors. Setting down Gideon’s fleece, then, in contemporary Pen…

Satire is Religion

By Austin Dacey

…piritual search for religious truth has not been against blasphemy, but by way of blasphemy. Depending on where we sit metaphysically, we may want that search called off, or we may want it furthered. Either way, we must welcome religious offense as the unavoidable consequence of a free religious conscience. This is nowhere more urgent than in those parts of the world where charges of blasphemy are still used to violate freedom of religious conscie…

Pope Francis Dithering About Women, Skittish About Cops

By Mary E. Hunt

…ion agreed on some matters and not on others. Presumably he set it up that way to get a full airing of the historical materials. Disagreements among theologians are the coin of the realm. How many papal commissions were unanimous about anything? Even some that had a majority favoring change, as in the case of Humanae Vitae, the 1968 encyclical that outlawed the use of most forms of effective contraception, the reigning pontiff simply ignored the c…

The Lesser and the Greater Pilgrimage

By Amina Wadud

…erform umrah. It was my ardent wish to make umrah at some time of the year way, way off of the sacred months. Sort of like a dry run, but most importantly without the crowds. I mean there are always people, locals and visitors, so there would also be people there. Some people have said that the ritual circumambulation of the ka’abah goes on endlessly throughout the day and night, stopping only for the performance of prayer itself. But with fewer t…

Is There Anyone in the Press Who Can Recognize the Bad Faith in Evangelical Faith?

By John Stoehr

…im was right, because they are. When White evangelical Protestants “find a way forward,” it’s not because they’re wrestling with hardship, controversy, whatever. The decision has been made. “Finding a way” is finding justification. Yeah, sure, they vote according to the demands of their faith—bad faith. [Not to be confused with “fake” faith.] Perhaps the worst offenders are secular liberal intellectuals possessing no conception of the bad faith un…

Don’t Sleep on Trump’s CPAC Speech Calling For ‘The Final Battle’: This was Southern Strategy as Apocalyptic Promise

By Thomas Lecaque

…t coming after me, they’re coming after you and I’m just standing in their way. That’s all I’m doing. I’m standing in their way. And that’s why I’m here today. That’s why I’m standing before you, because we are going to finish what we started. We started something that was America. We’re going to complete the mission. We’re going to see this battle through to ultimate victory. We’re going to make America great again. With you at my side, we will d…

Islamophobia by PowerPoint

By Julie Ingersoll

…e impact on his audience can be considerable; as a woman said to me on the way out: “wow… he really knows a lot.” For substance, Federer presented an entirely sanitized Christianity—a version that he and his political allies don’t actually embrace—in contrast to his ridiculous caricature of Islam and Muhammad. He argued that the only way to characterize Christianity is to “look at Jesus.” From this directive, he presented only the “turn-the-other-…

The Wrong Man: Why Falwell’s Paying for His Indiscretion But Trump Gets a Pass

By Leslie Dorrough Smith

…ound threats of an impending national enemy. As a result, there’s no other way to talk about, or justify, or translate their wayward sexuality that can redeem them as strong, national protectors. With this in mind, what that photo exposed is far more than Falwell’s underwear. Rather, it exposed the fact that playing political hardball involves a tricky calculus regarding which story about masculinity the public will more readily digest. More to th…