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Fake, Evil, Spiritual, Commodified; What’s the Truth About Popular Yoga?

By Andrea R. Jain

…eption is that yoga is a mere commodity of global market capitalism or, at best, “spiritual, not religious.” On the one hand, many outsiders to popularized yoga profoundly trivialize it by reducing it to mere commodities and impotent borrowings from or “rebrandings” of traditional, authentic religious products. On the other hand, many insiders frequently avoid categorizing yoga as religion, preferring to call it spiritual or to invoke other non-ex…

“Who Was Muhammad, Was He Violent?”: Teaching Islam Ten Years
after 9/11

By Abbas Barzegar

…ces. On the other hand, the attacks of 9/11 have brought forth some of the best this nation has seen. I recall receiving flowers at the office door of our Muslim Student Association at the same time our members reported being spat on. Responding to such bigotry, civic leaders, faith-based coalitions, and academics charged the battle lines of public discourse in the best spirit of humanism to show that Islam, like all other religions, was at its co…

Evangelical Author on Why Christian Conservatives Supported Trump

By Eric C. Miller

…kes me wonder if they weren’t simply convincing themselves that he was the best option at the time and that, somehow, their vote was a “righteous” vote. He’s had about a 10-15 percent drop-off in support from the evangelical community since taking office. So while there may be a sort of exaggerated self-reporting around the time when an evangelical casts a vote, there is some indication that there was never really that depth of devotion. I don’t t…

Take the Van Gogh Challenge: Doctor Who Part VII

By Gabriel Mckee

…primarily about describing the world as it is (although it should take our best understanding of the natural world into account), but about depicting the world as it could be, and transforming it into that better vision of reality. And of course, when religion takes a harmful view of the future, it can often contribute to bringing about a minor apocalypse. This episode ended with the Doctor and Amy not having managed to prevent Van Gogh’s suicide,…

CNN Editor Leaves Over Tweet on Hezbollah ‘Giant’

By Hussein Rashid

…for women’s rights. She rightfully acknowledged that the Tweet is not the best format for expressing complex thoughts. For example, were I to Tweet “Sad to hear of the passing of R. Reagan … One of the Republican’s giants I respect a lot,” no one would think I support Republicanism in any of its modern incarnations, because of the totality of my work. I can say that Reagan was an amazing orator, or acknowledge how he gave the country hope. That d…

Satanic Harmonies and Zoom Church: Readers Respond

By Daniel Schultz

…e “‘fanatical’ and ‘hateful’ ‘tribal’ Likud” and conservatives doing their best to throw blame on the left. All of this in sharp contrast to response to the tweet itself, which was much more directed at the offending extremist than to Likudniks as a whole. A.R. thinks this is the result of Maariv making a tempest out of a teapot. American media is certainly no stranger to this routine—outrage gets clicks, and in this age of negative partisanship,…

What is a “Religious Progressive” Anyway?

By Daniel Schultz

…logger!” “Yes, O Majestic Keepers of the Paycheck?” we inquired, doing our best not to snivel overmuch. “Give me nine hundred words on the definition of ‘progressive!’” O.D.O. barked, nearly upsetting their daily snort of Maker’s Mark and English breakfast tea while they lightly tossed a link from TPMDC at our head: Poll: Majority Of Americans Not Quite Sure What ‘Progressive’ Means. “Define it! Own it! Spare no expense! Send a telegram to the Sov…

World Congress of Families Meets, Seeks a New Dark Ages

By Gillian Kane

…isolated the elderly, and fostered depopulation,” and figuring out how to best manipulate those same systems into defending their particular religious values. One concern undergirding the varied topics covered by the speakers was that the protection of individual rights (youth rights, gay rights, reproductive rights) was taking place at the expense of “fundamental” religious, cultural, and parental rights. The idea of Christian persecution, or Ch…

GOP Candidate: Obama is Taking Your Freedom to Find the Lord

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…rsonal choice between you and the god or gods you don’t believe in. What’s best about America, though, is that each person, religious or not, has the right to be treated with both equality and equity by their government (though they may have to fight for that right to be recognized). I find it odd, though, that those who make the best arguments for the separation of church and state are most often those trying to marry the two until death do us al…

New Research May Explain the Weakness of Centrism and the Religious Left

By Daniel Schultz

…n’t interested in playing nice with people they considered wrong-headed at best and apostates at worst. I was once told by a member of my congregation that I was the kind of guy who would hold the gas chamber doors when “they” ushered in conservative Christians, which spoiled any transpartisan illusions I may have had. To make matters worse, the explosion of the “nones” in recent years meant that Democrats had a lot more to lose by not standing up…