How (Not) to Understand What Mormons Believe
…ects no one. It restores no one’s civil rights. It advances no progressive agenda. May all of us—including Fred Karger—enjoy shame-free holidays and a shame-free 2012….
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Shutdown is Over, But There Will Be a Next Time
…ext time and a next time until an alternate vision of society—one that remixes religion, politics and economics into a more communal and collective venture, stirs hearts, minds and votes for a better America. Like this story? Your tax-deductible $5 or $10 will help us pay writers, coders, interns, and editors. And will earn you our endless gratitude….
Read MoreThis Year in Satanism
…o groups. SEPTEMBER September was a busy month. The Satanic Temple filed a Freedom of Information Act request and obtained a file of communications from citizens regarding their plan to erect a Baphomet statue on the grounds of the Oklahoma capital. Sadly, almost none of the angry writers or callers seemed to understand that the issue at stake was the establishment clause and whether any religious group should be able to have monuments on capital…
Read MoreIs Pope Francis Yogaphobic?
…lity courses, yoga courses, or zen courses, but none of those things would free the person to be like a child of God. Only the Holy Spirit, according to Francis, has the power to break the hardness of the heart and make it docile toward God and free to love. Given the frequent Catholic and evangelical yogaphobic moments in recent history, I asked myself if the Pope’s remarks were yogaphobic, but I concluded that yogaphobia did not appear to be at…
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Evangelical PR Blitz Before Midterms Won’t Fix the ‘81% Problem’
…we could, to support this president despite his continuous assaults on the free press, his overtures to white nationalists, his human rights violations at the border, and his anti-woman and anti-LGBTQ policies, is morally despicable regardless of motive. People may lie to themselves as well as to pollsters about their own motives. Facing complicity in such enormous cruelty represents a serious ego threat, but if evangelicals want to be taken serio…
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Trump, Islamophobia, and the Philly Pig’s Head Incident
…ng into the United States. Upping the ante on Tuesday, he made comparisons between his policies and President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policy to place Japanese Americans in internment camps following the attack on Pearl Harbor. All of this rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to the values ensconced in the U.S. Constitution which guarantee legal protections for the free exercise of religion. The nation’s stated commitment to religious liberty was larg…
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The Higher the Dome, The Closer to God: “Megachurches” Explores the Arid Architecture of America’s New Sanctuaries
…’re preaching because I have a hard time figuring out what the differences between the ideologies are. Do you mind sharing a little about your own religious background and how it might have informed your motivations for the project? My parents were not very religious. I mean they were Jewish, but mostly the “ish,” like Jew-ish, culturally Jewish. I wasn’t brought up in a religious environment. I definitely look at these megachurches with interest,…
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Mister Rogers’ Radical Pacifist Neighborhood
…are for the killer whale Shamu, These children had seen the popular movie “Free Willy” and were saddened and disturbed by Mister Rogers’s apparent unwillingness to free Shamu from the confines of the Sea World tank. The letters are very touching in the care they express for a killer whale in need of the freedom afforded by a vast ocean. They are also moving in the sense that they are the product of Rogers’s own creation—his handwork in encouraging…
Read MoreThe Politically Incorrect Guide to Ramadan
…—but you deserved it. Many Muslims, especially in Muslim countries, bounce between various mosques, looking for better khutbahs (see entry before last), awesome qira’ah (Qur’an recitation), or good-looking ‘sisters’—we don’t date our actual sisters; calm down, right-wing. If they’re leaving roundabout taraweeh, that special late-night Muslim prayer, you already know something about their attitude to faith. Good pick-up lines include, “What’s your…
Read MoreACLU and Thomas More Law Center Rush to Terry Jones Defense
…t Amendment has any meaning, it is that the government cannot suppress the free speech because it — or anyone else — disagrees with the speech.” The Thomas More Law Center has pledged to file a suit on Jones’ behalf. By the way, I’ve seen TMLC in action. Its lawyers defended the Dover school board in Kitzmiller v Dover. If Jones has any brains at all – and I’m not saying he does – he’ll get on the phone to the ACLU right now, begging its attorneys…
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