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“Love Them As Yourself”: God’s Words or IKEA Instructions?

By Marcia Pally

…offering this hospitality? Marco Rubio said. “If ISIS is able to conduct a successful [Paris-like] operation in the U.S…. that would be an enormous bonanza for them in terms of funding but also of recruits from all over the world.” If we take seriously the idea that biblical principles aim at “the best possible life for all,” what would be the “bonanza” for “the best life” from following those principles and rescuing the refugees? I’m not making p…

Purpose Driven Atheism: Secular Maharishis Seeking True Believers

By Frank Schaeffer

…bout thanksgiving, shared suffering, loss, pain, generosity, and love. The best religious people and the best secular people learn to ignore our chosen (or inherited) religions’ nastier teachings (be those found in the Bible or in the “science” of eugenics and white racial superiority) in order to preserve the spirit of our faiths, be it a faith in secular humanism, science, God or in all of the above. It’s the tediously consistent fundamentalists…

Rev. Smith Goes to Washington

By Frederick Clarkson

…the United Church of Christ and will continue to guest preach and teach as time allows. And my plan after serving as a Multnomah County Commissioner (be it for four years or eight) is to return full time to the church. As I said, the church has a vital role to play. Running for office is simply a different way for me to attempt to serve the community. How have people reacted to your identity as a minister as you introduce yourself to voters and as…

Election 2016: Postracial Blues, #BlackVotesMatter, Evangelicals for Trump, and “Who Are We Now?”

By The Editors

…omestic terrorism, boldly threatening to kill a specific target, “the next time we see him?” For people of faith, the challenge of this election cycle—and perhaps the challenge of the Lenten season itself—is to figure out who we are in this particular season of death and violence. In a time of significant transition for the entire landscape of American Christianity itself, we need to ask ourselves, “who are we now?” and whether it’s possible to bu…

Maybe Instead of Solidarity, The Religious Left Should Try Being Indivisible

By Daniel Schultz

…o hard to convince the world that the religious left was coming back, this time with a new and improved moral message! the institutional leaders spent their time developing these small groups? Not stars, not even seminary-honed religious leaders: just garden-variety lay people committed to creating social change in their own ways, and the hell with kumbaya and press releases and symbolic demonstrations? What if, in other words, the religious left…

Found in Translation: How a Thirteenth-Century Islamic Poet Conquered America

By Ryann Croken

…, and a most unlikely cultural bridge that could not have come at a better time. Step outside the library for a moment, and consider the circumstances on the ground. The United States is fighting a war in Afghanistan, the birthplace of Rumi. We’re fighting a war, of sorts, in Iraq, the birthplace of Sufism. We have been for some time now teetering on the brink of disaster with Iran, formerly known as Persia, and amid all of this, who rises to beco…

The Spirit of January 6th: The Theology of This Seldom Discussed Movement Animates the Growing Threat to U.S. Democracy

By Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné

…boats of numerous candidacies for lesser offices. Super powers in the end times The elite End Times army as described in various books of the Bible, and envisioned by the leaders of the Latter Rain Movement and its descendants, has been varyingly called the overcomers, forerunners, the man-child, the Manifest Sons of God, Joel’s Army, the Saints, and Special Forces. And although this powerful idea has been expressed differently by different leade…

The New Religious Left: A Marketing Dream or Political Reality?

By Daniel Schultz

…rns—couldn’t care less about the battle for somebody’s soul. I have a hard time imagining many Muslims or Jews are very invested in taking back Christianity, either. For that matter, there are Christians such as myself who are leery of making social justice the measure of faith, particularly when the concept becomes identified with one end of the political spectrum. I at least think it does a disservice to the people I serve, and it impoverishes t…

Without Judgment Day or Karma How Does a Humanist Confront ‘Trump Funk’?

By Ivan Strenski

…p Funk? Quite simply, every time Trump flaunts the norms of decency; every time he lies, bullies, insults, or demeans; every time he heaps scorn on the broken and vulnerable; every time he prosecutes another desperate, asylum-seeking refugee; every time he uses a Stormy Daniels or Karen McDougal, only then to shutter them up with another NDA; every time his booted feet trample another human face—and he gets away with it—Trump forces us to fear tha…

My House, My Rules: 3 Women Speakers “Rejected” From Women’s Day Event at Vatican (on Full Inclusion of Women in the Church)

By Mary E. Hunt

…own agenda, invite their own speakers, and come to their own conclusions? Time will tell, but meanwhile, their 2018 conference invitation is telling: We live in times marked by change, but there are places where gender equality is being systematically overlooked. The Catholic Church is one of them. Today, women are asking why the Church is so slow in recognizing their value and opening governance and ministerial roles to them; roles that incorpor…