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Tariq Ramadan in Montreal: Defining Ethics in Terms of Religion
Controversial Muslim Scholar Tariq Ramadan, banned from travel to the United States, spoke in Montreal last week at the annual convention of the American Academy of Religion. In a question-and-answer session he answered accusations of “doublespeak.”
The Anti-Gay Highway: New Report Details Mutually Beneficial Relationship Between US Evangelicals and African Antigay Clergy
A new report documents the trend of evangelicals like Rick Warren exporting sexuality issues to Africa, whose clergy, in turn, support the minority antigay view in mainline denominations, weakening them. The author of the report speaks with RD at length about what he found.
Spinning Ft. Hood
RD associate editor Hussein Rashid scrutinizes a cross-section of reactions to the Ft. Hood massacre, from those eager to blame Islam to a number of Muslim-Americans.
Bad Religion Leaves Big Bruises: When Christians Threaten Health Care Reform
Two strands of Christianity battle against a bill ensuring that all Americans are cared for. One prefers John Locke to Jesus while the other has its issues with women.
A Daily Utopia: Creating Our Moral Values Every Day
The author of a new book talks to RD about the radical that lies beneath our everyday practices, whether ethics requires religion, and the “education of desire.”
Beautiful Dreamers: A Documentary Asks “What is God”?
Peter Rodger traveled through twenty-three countries in three years asking the same question to everyone he met, and filming, gorgeously, the results. Turns out the question—“What is God?”—reveals more than a person’s faith.
Hitchens Debates Conservative Evangelical: Nothing Happens
A new documentary called <i>Collision</i> follows the collegial debate between new atheist Christopher Hitchens and conservative evangelical Doug Wilson. Spoiler alert: Neither budges and both gloat to the respective choirs they’d been preaching to. Is this the best we can do?
Religion is Not about Belief: Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God
Of all the monotheisms, Christianity has come to depend the most on the idea of belief, or doctrine. But there is a strong countertradition, now submerged, that insists that any time we say we know who God is, or what God wants, we are committing an act of heresy.
Suicide Bombers and the Prozac God: A Review of Dying for Heaven
A new work advancing a radical theory of the motivation behind suicide bombers is almost bizarrely off the mark. Stitching together thought and observation from disparate and often dissonant sources, Georgetown theology professor Ariel Glucklich’s book would be laughable were he not a consultant to the defense community.
Good Hair, Good God! The Divine Politics of African-American Hair
Chris Rock’s new documentary scrutinizes the politics and pathos of black hair care: from the beauty salon to the hair show, and from chemical relaxers to the Indian hair that fuels the hair weave industry.
Decomposing Humanism: Why Replace Religion?
Humanists are right to think that there is more to life than atheism, but wrong to think that they are the ones to provide it.
Reverend Billy For Mayor: Is He For Real?
Performance artist or man of God? Agitator or politician? The Church of Life After Shopping’s Reverend Billy has a choir and a congregation like a preacher—does he have to be a “real” clergyman to minister to the masses?
Smelling a Secular Funk: Debating the Power of Religion in The Public Sphere
A supergroup of philosophers gathered in New York last week to talk about religion and public life, about the “centrality of the catastrophic” in today’s political context, and about considering the “uncommon” as opposed to “common ground” as a basis for ethics.
Mother (Nature) Will Eat You: Lars von Trier’s Antichrist
Von Trier’s terrifying rumination on the triad of “pain,” “grief,” and “despair” reminds us that, in contrast to the pronouncements of politicians on what is natural and normal, in nature eating one’s young is not too far out of the ordinary—especially in times of stress.
Atheists Gather in Burbank: A Humanist’s Response
An atheist convention, attended by premier nonbelievers Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, inspires some reflections on the virtue of a positive, productive humanism, rather than the anti-theism that dominates the discourse.
The Good Bishop Is Right—The Time for Church Debates on Homosexuality is Past
Retired Episcopal bishop John Selby Spong has declared that he will no longer argue about the status of gay and lesbian people in the church. “There is no middle ground,” the bishop says, “between prejudice and oppression.” So much for “love the sinner, hate the sin.”
Mormonism’s Black Issues
While many Mormons would like to forget the Church’s history of discrimination against blacks, an Apostle’s recent statements comparing the post-Proposition 8 Mormon backlash to the Civil Rights-era harassment of black voters have brought that painful past back into the spotlight.
Prison as Resurrection
While it’s clear that prisons in this country are a disaster and a scandal, a new book delves into the system’s religious roots and the belief in the spiritual benefits of disciplinary isolation.
Vatican’s Come-Hither to Anglicans: A Theological Scandal
While the Catholic Church is touting its warm welcome to conservative Anglicans, it’s also a simple union of those who reject gay and women’s ordination.
Atlanta Falcons “Defend the Dome”: Football, Religion, and Existential Power
The Atlanta Falcons, defenders of the Georgia Dome, “fought, harassed, stuffed, smothered, and smacked” their way to victory last week. What is it about football that brings out such primal intensity in its fans?