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Mister Rogers’ Radical Pacifist Neighborhood

…d 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 children to express their feelings, including those of anger and disappointment. The let…

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The Politically Incorrect Guide to Ramadan

…n’t get anywhere on time, except for sundown, when it’s a kind of punctual free-for-all. But then there’s that one guy who, despite being just as capable of hearing the adhan (call to prayer) as you or I still breaks his fast (iftar literally means ‘breakfast’) early. Doesn’t he have that cheesy adhan alarm clock that they used to sell at ISNA, which for those who don’t know is, along with Star Trek conventions, the world’s largest gathering of vi…

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ACLU 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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Rubio’s Awkward Balancing Act Between Evangelicals and Catholics

…issues, particularly abortion, with equally strong support for Republican free-market economic policies. Many of these conservative Catholics, especially those in the public eye, have become more outspoken in asserting a “gospel-centered”, biblical morality in the public square as central to their Catholicism. This is a departure from more conventional notions of Catholicism that focus on private religious practice and charitable works. Rubio’s a…

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The Myth of the ‘Lone Wolf’ Shooter Blinds Us to the Reality of White Supremacy

…a “pack”? And how can we act while protecting our First Amendment right to free speech? Leaving aside spectacles of wolf-pack frenzy like Charlottesville’s torchlight parade, we don’t routinely see these wolf packs rallying at the local VFW hall. Yet, we know these shooters run with a “pack” of their own kind. We know who gives them aid and comfort. Anyone who can surf the web knows white supremacists have a tendency to broadcast their views far a…

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Palin Bus Tour Like Gideon’s Fleece

…that the Tea Party and her conservative faith stand for: the Constitution, free markets, loving the troops, and oh yes, “loving the smell of emissions.” While most families are scaling back their summer vacations, SarahPAC is paying for Palin’s homage to her version of the history of America. Her rapid-fire tours of historical sites is like the attention deficit syndrome version of American history. All photo ops and quick sound bites about energy…

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With the End of ‘Roe’ the Verdict is in: The Supreme Court Majority is Christian Nationalist

…n’t overturn any public health laws for other First Amendment rights, like free assembly and free speech. The religion of the justices also seems to play a decisive role in these decisions. According to the abstract of one study, for example: The Roberts Court has ruled in favor of religious organizations far more frequently than its predecessors—over 81% of the time, compared to about 50% for all previous eras since 1953. In most of these cases,…

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Paul Ryan’s Bible, Jim Wallis’, Or None of the Above?

…ess conference what they thought of the stronger emphases of the Faith and Freedom conference—anti-same-sex marriage, anti-choice and family planning, anti-separation of church and state—Butler stated that Faith in Public Life supported the separation of church and state and Wallis would say only that Ryan’s budget wasn’t “pro-life.” Only afterwards did the Rev. Derrick Harkins of Nineteenth Street Baptist Church tell me he was opposed to the atta…

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A Better Form of Atheism: Rescuing the Christian Tradition from Religion

…of traditional accounts of atonement is of the way those accounts tend to promote suffering as something that’s inherently redemptive—and to valorize submission and obedience in a way that is obviously destructive when it’s applied unjustly to women. They include accounts of women who were abused by men who justified their actions by saying that in order to be Christ-like, women need to be submissive. The way I tried to chart a way past this—and…

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Enjoy the Kosher Collard Greens, But Understand This: Hebrew Israelites Have Something to Say to the Rest of the Jewish Community

…re deemed inferior simply because they’re not adequate representations of “free” peoples’ cultures. Historically, “slave-shaming” Black American spiritual traditions meant, at best, affirming a moral equivalency between enslaved and free persons, so as to disavow the notion that oppressed people’s spiritual traditions were superior in value to the religious faiths of human traffickers. Take Hebrew Israelism, for example, the primary spiritual trad…

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