Religion Dispatches
From the ashes of Mt. Carmel, the largest forest fire in Israel’s history, a strange phoenix is rising: a clash of civilizations. It’s not between Israelis and Arabs, nor between Jews and Muslims. It’s a clash between two worldviews. Let’s oversimplify, for convenience…
Read MoreThe tradition of prayer events for Muslim staffers on the Hill dates back to Newt Gingrich’s days as Speaker.
Read MoreOn the Christian Broadcasting Network yesterday, Jordan Sekulow claims to have identified “a problem within Islam.”
Read MoreMinority Leader staffer is vice-president of group Fox claims has hosted terrorist sympathizers.
Read MoreFar-right ties.
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Skepticism means having the courage to suspend one’s set of beliefs long enough to take another set of beliefs really seriously. That is, real skepticism means disbelieving. So be as skeptical as possible but as open as possible, and remember that if one refuses to investigate religion in this way, then that is known as contempt prior to investigation—and is the death of the life of the mind.
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Last week it was discovered that several powerful republicans at the heart of two sex scandals—Sens. John Ensign and Tom Coburn and Gov. Mark Sanford, among others—are members of The Family, reputed to be an “aggressively anti-democratic” Christian movement quietly steering us toward a “theocentric” state. Three scholars discuss The Family with the author. Sparks fly.
Read MoreOnly this time it’s the Bible and the Heretics include Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and Rick Warren.
Read MoreAnother California story? Or is there something here we can learn about Pentecostal, charismatic religion?
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Alright evangelical and/or fundamentalist pundits* opposed to the Ground Zero mosque, whom art thou?
Are thee the faithful praying/hoping/waiting for the imminent return of Christ or are thee like the believers in Ephesus who forsook their first love in the name of zealotry (Revelation…
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