Olympics Opening Ceremony as Satanic Ritual
The bell of evil tolls for thee.
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Apocalypse Now and Then: Our Global Death Wish
What ought we do about millennial thinking in our day? If the combined 1300 pages of these two books have taught me anything, it’s that we can’t make it just go away. There is something fascinating, and perverse, in the human psyche that seems to yearn for this world to be other than how it is, even if that means destroying it.
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Transgender, Scientologist, “Cult Hero”
Kate Bornstein’s new book recounts the years before Scientology was considered a religion, when it gave her all the answers on gender, loss, and addiction she needed not to hear. Sounds just like… bad religion.
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Mexico’s Own Satanic Panic
Mexico may have experienced its own “Manson moment” last month when eight devotees of “Santa Muerte” were arrested for the murder of three people, allegedly as human sacrifices. While the media has been fairly restrained in covering this event, these murders will likely have lasting consequences for alternative religion in North America. Like the Manson murders, the Santa Muerte murders present a concrete instance of violence that can be used to support much broader claims about the dangers of the religious and cultural Other.
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Yoga Guru or CEO? Saving the Brand When Scandal Strikes
The accusations facing Anusara yoga founder John Friend include suggestions that he heads a Wiccan coven in which he has sex with female members; that he’s had several sexual relationships with married Anusara employees and teachers; that he violated federal regulations regarding employee benefits by suddenly freezing Anusara, Inc.’s pension fund; and finally, that Friend put his employees at legal risk by arranging for them to accept packages of marijuana for his personal use.
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Rethinking Religion After Latest Holistic Death
A participant at a holistic spa was, it turns out, “cooked to death.” Instead of another wave of panic, maybe we need to rethink our categories.
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Death of an Occult Crime Expert Reawakens Controversy
Rimer’s passing has led to an lively online conversation among Pagan and vampire groups. Many of these groups regarded Rimer as a political enemy and some individuals expressed relief that Rimer will not be holding any more seminars. However, important leaders of these communities have called for respect. One community member invoked Proverbs 24:17, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls.”
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Religious Belief Or Mental Illness?
The paranoid few who seem genuinely disturbed by the possibility of the coming end of the world may be responding the most reasonably to current events. Or not. This ambiguity is at the heart of Jeff Nichols’ recent film Take Shelter. The film explores whether its protagonist is crazy, or a prophet, or both.
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Defining “Cult,” Defining “Christian”
Generally, sociologists do not use the word “cult.” Those that do, such as William Bainbridge and Rodney Stark, use it in a highly specialized way to indicate groups that are innovative (unlike churches) but open to everyone (unlike sects). Religion scholars who study “new religious movements” (or NRMs) are the first to admit that “cult,” in its modern usage, has always been a theological term used by Protestants to label religions they do not like.
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Secular End Times & Apocalyptic ‘Roosters’
In his new book, Richard Landes argues that in addition to the obvious End Timers many secular movements—the French Revolution, Marxism, Nazism—can be better understood as millennialist or apocalyptic.
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