ReligionDispatches.org

Garret Keizer.

I deeply regret that some people took, or claimed to take, my use of this metaphor as a reference to Sarah Palin. Let me say categorically that I do not see Governor Palin as a pig...

Gary Laderman.

This Halloween, apart from your garden-variety ghouls, skeletons, monsters, witches, vampires and zombies, Americans will be visited by the ghosts of past presidents, the spirits of dead soldiers, and by the souls of those who endured slavery. It is a season of reckoning, both social and political. The election, on the other hand, is about life, today, now. Or is it?

Mark Hulsether.

Did Lofton's critique go far enough? Was it too measured and neutral? Scholar Mark Hulsether writes that “given the issues at stake in the current election and the huge gap in scholarly persuasiveness between some articulations of Christianity and others, this is a place where my own inclination would be to draw more critics out of the shadows and to give them space to twist their knives harder.”

Jonathan L. Walton.

Meet McCain's newest hail mary, Joe the Plumber, the latest reincarnation of the ahistorical, decontextualized protagonist of America’s myth of success.

Glenn W. Smith.

After decades of right-wing religious domination, America faces a moment of truth not unlike the Apollo 8 astronauts faced on their first trip around the moon.

Robert P. Jones and Daniel Cox.

A new survey reveals not only that church attenders and youth have swung back into Obama's camp, but that he's perceived as "friendlier" toward religion than McCain.

Louis A. Ruprecht.

The president delivered more bromides this morning as the stock market dipped even further; but who would expect realism from this man?

Kathryn Lofton.

The president’s faith, according to John McCain, is “[the] number one issue.” Having scoured the public record, the author reports back with a startling proposal: John McCain may not believe in God.

Glenn W. Smith.

Friday's historic debate in Mississippi showcased the McCain campaign's election strategy: Talk down to Obama and play to the racist element in the Republican Party.

Ira Chernus.

This presidential election has a symbolic sub-plot in which ancient archetypes vie for the American voter's soul...

Mark Gstohl.

What the presidential candidates' responses to a question about the nature of evil reveal about the state of American Christianity...

Daniel Schultz.

McCain's new ad mocking Obama's charismatic campaign of hope and the belief that we can do better is being criticized as 'blasphemous' and offensive to liberal Christians...

Ira Chernus.

The "compassionate conservatism" of the Bush era was based on the idea that "sinful sloth" leads to poverty, and only religion can cure such a weakness. But the underpinning of Obama's faith-based plan is political, not theological...