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The Sacramental American Day of Thanks

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ny number of memorials on the Washington Mall, and more recently, Oklahoma City, the Pentagon and Ground Zero in New York). Perhaps most important, the US civil religion boasts its own calendar of “secular” holidays. These days, actually constituting a quasi-sacred calendar, span the entire calendar year: New Year’s Day, the King Holiday, President’s Day, Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veteran’s Day, and now, at long la…

If the Media Are Reluctant to Properly Label the GOP’s Racist, Christian Nationalist Ideologies, We’ll Have Trouble Hanging on to Democracy

By Annika Brockschmidt

…back through the twentieth century, is this focus on the reproductive capacity of white women in maintaining the white race as a nation.” It’s this entering of the importance of the maintenance of the “white race” that’s central to narratives like the “Great Replacement” and “White Genocide.” This also explains why versions of these narratives can be applied by right-wing extremists in different countries, because it lets them insert whatever “en…

End Times on the Gulf Coast

By Lauri Lebo

…linging to tree branches. I ask, “Arkansas?” “No,” someone says. “Oklahoma City.” Ten inches of rain fell on the city in less than 12 hours, killing one person. The monthly average for June is half that. It’s only the latest in a series of flash floods. In Tennessee, 18 people died. In Arkansas, 20 were killed. The waitresses looked teary-eyed at the customers, as if they were simply unable to bear any more bad news. We stared back at the women wi…

The Three Qualities Marking the Capitol Assault as Terrorism

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…s of violent acts. But this is precisely what the image of war enables. Warfare provides an alternative worldview to normal public order in which almost anything is permitted in order to conquer those perceived to be enemies. In warfare, enemies are things with which you cannot reason or negotiate; they can only be destroyed. Most wars are conducted for political purposes that are authorized by a state regime accountable to laws and the moral cons…

Mormonism in 92 languages

By Joanna Brooks

I’m headed to Salt Lake City this evening to attend the semi-annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the world of Mormonism, Conference is a big deal: a chance to see and hear words of counsel directly from the General Authorities, including Church president Thomas Monson, and women Church leaders as well. The messages are usually familiar, centering around devotion to God, family, and gospel, but they c…

Restless Heart Syndrome: When Bad Movies Happen to Good People

By Amy Laura Hall

…“next of kin,” for, after all, “love is everything.” The vandals sack the city, but the vandal king, having taken a liking to Augustine, saves all his books. And a Calvin Klein underwear model saves Augustine’s niece. I was supposed to be cheering for Augustine all this time, but, what with scene after scene embellished with little chimes and rays of sunshine, his closing words about peace in the midst of anxiety sounded trite. I need a week with…

Rewriting the History of Catholic Schools in America

By Marian Ronan

…of religious freedom because, as bishop of New York, he saved most of the city’s 12,000 Catholic children from a life on the streets by forcing the state legislature to stop the mandatory reading of the Protestant King James Bible in the “common schools.” By doing this, according to God in America, Hughes helped make religious freedom a founding principle of American national identity. I must confess that part of me would like to just go along wi…

NYPD Lied About Islamophobic Third Jihad

By Hussein Rashid

…ps of New Yorkers, decades after their victimization. Of course, since the city is all “minority,” it means that for the NYPD all New Yorkers are suspect. Mayor Bloomberg’s actions and inactions make him complicit in the actions of the police. Over at The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates continues to document police profiling of African Americans, and now Muslims. Essentially, the NYPD is getting further militarized, arrogating powers normally given to…

Onward Christian Terrorists; Fighting Evil in the Obama Era

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…ans live in a situation “comparable to Nazi Germany,” a state of hidden warfare, as the comforts of modern society have lulled the populace into apathy. Bray was convinced that a dramatic event, such as economic collapse or social chaos would reveal the demonic role of the government, and people would have “the strength and the zeal to take up arms” in a revolutionary struggle. What he envisioned as the outcome of that struggle was the establishme…

None Means None (Not Atheist, Agnostic, Unbeliever…)

By Elizabeth Drescher

…sticism. Religion News Service regrets the inaccuracy.” Well, okay. Take a number if you’d like to complain about my own writerly inaccuracies. Still, the trouble with the piece goes beyond an inaccurate (though indisputably grabby) headline. Reporter Kimberly Winston is careful to point out that the Pew report authors have noted “that [the religiously unaffiliated] are by no means homogeneous.” She goes on to highlight Pew researchers’ noting of…