Fight to the ‘Death’ and Go ‘Hungry’ at Hunger Games Camp
Inmates at Guantanamo Bay are hunger striking in an attempt to make their suffering visible while children at a camp in Florida are using the fantasy of hunger as entertainment.
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“Ex-Gay” Gospel Star Donnie McClurkin and the Decline of Public Theology
Last week there was a flurry of controversy over the public disinviting of gospel star Donnie Mclurkin to a DC celebration of in advance of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. The mayor’s…
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Hell 101: A Back-to-School Reflection on the Persistence of Belief in Eternal Punishment
Having been taught all their lives that eternal torment is an essential element of Christian belief, my students were, to say the least, surprised at the presence of a universalist strand of thought in the theological tradition—especially coming from such theological heavyweights. What was most surprising to me, though, was their reaction to the teaching: any hint of universal salvation for them negated the whole point of Christianity.
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Some Thoughts on Richard Dawkins’ Terrible Tweet
There are other senses in which the Muslim world, by and large, has not ‘excelled,’ and for that perhaps we should be grateful, not caustic. For you cannot claim the planet and eat it too. Nothing the Muslim world has accomplished can possibly compare to the harm done by Western technologies and modes of consumption.
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The Pope’s Gay Priests
Every bishop knows he has gay priests in the ranks—pretending otherwise is surely as much of a moral issue as, say, same-sex marriage. Gay priests work in dioceses and religious orders as pastors, teachers, administrators, right-hand men, chaplains, liturgists and preachers. The bishops know this and yet few are able to speak with the kind of candor the pope manages on a daily basis.
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Syria and the American Apocalyptic Imagination: Isaiah 17:1 as “Evidence” of the End
“Religious enthusiasm” or the American apocalyptic can be read as modes of the disaffection of the citizen in a time of political delegitimation. We often see this “religion” taking shape most clearly when we focus all the way down, to the odd hybrid of melancholy and triumphalism in these assertions about Damascus.
Read MoreEgypt and the Problem of Religion
Which side in Egypt is currently on the side of the angels and which not? One likes to assume that in any, particularly political, conflict the good guys can be easily separated from the bad guys; ordinarily the former is assumed to play by the rules of the game…
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Yes, the Navy Yard Shooter Was a Buddhist
Despite the fact that, like Buddhism, Islam prohibits murder, the two are treated quite differently when it comes to its adherents committing acts of violence.
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Navy Yard Shooting: Why It’s Not a Religion Story
What seemed to propel the confusion saturating the media’s initial coverage of Aaron Alexis was the role of religion and, more specifically, the profile on Buddhists. Why would a reporter expect a person of another religion to “pick up a weapon and kill twelve people,” but not a Buddhist?
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Shutdown is Over, But There Will Be a Next Time
FDR is held responsible for many things, but no one has linked his legacy to the recent threat of a government shutdown.
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