Why Did So Many Black Women Die? Jonestown at 35
Why did this ultimately tragic movement, led by a young white man, appeal to so many African-American women?
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Why We Won’t Let Jonestown (Or 9/11 or Sandy Hook) Die
The latest work to contend with the brutality of Jonestown begs the question: why are we still reliving this tragedy nearly 35 years later?
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Neither The Joker Nor Godlessness Drove Batman Shooting
Rather than attributing Holmes’ and the Joker’s nonexistent moral compass (and neither seems to have one) to an absence of moral training that would be there if prayer were back in public schools, we may need to look at their apparent lack of a self-conscious narrative as a more telling source.
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Disaster Theology: Blame and Powerlessness in Japan
The desire to regain control in the face of terrifying events is so strong we’ll do or say almost anything to put ourselves back in charge.
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Tokyo Governor Says Tsunami is Divine Punishment—Religious Groups Ignore Him
Scenes of destruction and human suffering in Japan have elicited worldwide support, both material and spiritual. But amid global calls for prayer and other religious responses, the most widely publicized example of a religious response to Japan’s worst disaster since the Second World War is…
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Tucson, Like All Tragedy, is for Adults
The decision to deploy the image of innocent childhood at the end of Obama’s Tuscon speech seemed strange then, and still seems strange now.
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The Myth of ‘Voodoo’: A Caribbean American Response to Representations of Haiti
Notwithstanding Haiti’s Christian character, the Haitian personality, if there is one, has been nurtured by a Vodou civilization that any responsible treatment of the subject must disentangle from the Western world’s manufactured “voodoo” culture.
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Haiti and the Push for Theological Questions
Preachers and public figures have often used natural disaster as an occasion to opine about God’s justice, or lack thereof. Or to make the definitive case against a divine order. But Haiti deserves to be addressed on its own terms, and in relation to the needs of those still suffering.
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How Not To Respond to Haiti
On resisting the temptation to turn Haiti into a morality play.
Read MoreThe Theo-logic Behind Pat Robertson’s Offense
Once again, Pat Robertson has embarrassed the larger Christian community with his comments on Haiti, but the idea of God as a judge is deeply rooted in American religion.
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