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Trump the Totem: Like Other Fascist Leaders, Trump has Turned from Man to Symbol — And That’s the Danger

By Robert P. Jones

…f the clan…. [The participant] does not know that the coming together of a number of men associated in the same life results in disengaging new energies, which transform each of them. All that he knows is that he is raised above himself and that he sees a different life from the one he ordinarily leads. However, he must connect these sensations to some external object as their cause. Now what does he see about him? On every side those things which…

Review: Is the Religious Right Dying?

By Laura R. Olson

…ellence of religio-political progressivism himself: former President Jimmy Carter. More evidence may be gleaned from the presidential nominating process that has unfolded before our eyes this year. Considering that adherents of the religious right comprise a core constituency in the Republican Party—and that their support arguably was the most important reason why President George W. Bush was reelected in 2004—it is at least somewhat surprising th…

In the Papal Pocket: Benedict XVI and the Press

By Mary E. Hunt

…be helpful in reporting on Judaism, Islam, the Baha’i faith, Wicca, or any number of other groups that form the pluralistic religious mosaic in the United States today? No reporter or anchor could be expected to be an expert on the ins and outs of such groups. But as a matter of journalistic practice, I think it is reasonable to train reporters to look at more than meets the eye on religion, just as they are taught to investigate plane crashes and…

‘Imagine Better’: Can Harry Potter Change the World?

By B. Howell Belser

…, and the power of imagination and storytelling to inspire young people to care about the world and to be engaged in its development. In her 2008 Harvard commencement speech, Rowling reminded us that “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.” This is the message at the heart of the Harry Potter Alliance. I am not sure how long the story of Harry Potter w…

Catholic ‘Soul-Searching’ as Ireland Votes on Marriage; Churches, American Activists Join Kenyan Anti-Gay Group’s ‘Family’ Confab; Indian Mom Seeks Spouse For Gay Son; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…g his recent visit to Jamaica, and includes specific recommendations for a number of U.S. agencies to engage in effective partnership with Jamaican government officials and cooperation with human rights advocates in civil society. Also this week, the State Department confirmed plans for Randy Berry, recently appointed special envoy for LGBT rights, to visit Uganda this summer after trips to the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe. Watch a set of v…

Refusal of Interracial Couple Shows How Slippery the Slope of LGBTQ Refusal Really Is

By Heron Greenesmith

…sippi Clarion Ledger reported earlier this year that the overall growth in number of interracial couples in Mississippi was behind the national average (less than 2.4 percentage points in Mississippi compared to 2.8 percentage points nationally). According to a report released by Pew Research Center in 2017, only 9% of Americans say that interracial marriage is “a bad thing,” while 17% of respondents to a 2018 YouGov poll said that interracial mar…

Response to Daniel Philpott: the Politics of Religious Freedom

By Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

…The field has become an important source of grants, institutional support, career stability, and prestige in an era of neoliberal reform in the academy, increased donor scrutiny and control often informed by strong normative agendas, and faltering support for secure academic positions that provide the opportunity for long-range critical and scholarly reflection. I think it is important to think carefully about the political economy of the new glob…

Despite Conflation of Israel with Judaism, Anti-Zionism is More Kosher Than You Think

By Seth Sanders

…Israel. A principle adopted at its 1869 conference in Philadelphia could scarcely have been more clear: “The Messianic aim of Israel is not the restoration of the old Jewish state under a descendant of David, involving a second separation from the nations of the earth, but the union of all the children of God in the confession of the unity of God.” A principle adopted a few years later at the 1885 Pittsburgh conference only reinforced this view:…

Republican Scandals Drag Secretive ‘Family’ Into the Big Time

By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston

…atest in a series of liberal or secular media reading the reduction in the number of evangelicals who will pull the “R” lever (and the addition of poverty, the environment and war to the greatest hits of abortion and gays) as perhaps auguring the “end” of a damaging force in the American political system. Those who favor this narrative tend to see the religious right as having been “born” of Roe v. Wade, feeling its adolescent oats during the Cart…

RD News Round-Up: October 27, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…r? You betcha’. Built on fear and based in church-initiated intimidation, Scaremare—the first Hell House project—was started in the late 1970s in Lynchburg, Virginia, by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. Since then, hell houses have sprung up in all parts of the country. For those unfamiliar with the concept, Hell Houses are fairground haunted houses with a twist: the scary stuff isn’t the usual ghost or goblin, but is some enactment of sin, or the tor…