War of the Worldviews: Why Avatar Lost
Avatar had audiences rooting for nature, against the destruction of marauding tanks—but the Oscar went to the film that offered a soldier’s-eye view.
They're more than just a "pool" of warm bodies.
While some of us believe that "it is not in war, but in peace, that we are trained," we're still waiting for equality in the military.
We can't talk about radical Islamism without addressing fundamentalist Christianity in the armed forces.
The real problem with the scripture-encoded rifles.
Military Abortion Ban: Female Soldiers Not Protected by Constitution They Defend
Unable to get an abortion during a tour of duty in Iraq, a soldier is left with no option but to do it herself—a humiliating but not uncommon dilemma. Women in the military are forced to obtain a leave to get the care they need; but if they’re honest about why, they put their military career in jeopardy. If they’re not, they put their military career in jeopardy.
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.
The picture of Major Nidal Hasan grows murkier—but it is a mistake to assume that we understand the role of his faith in the massacre at Fort Hood.
Those who denigrate the service of Muslims in the US military only compound the tragedy.
Rick Scarborough uses occasion to claim hate crimes law persecutes Christians.
Claim that alleged shooter took orders from the Muslim Brotherhood straight out of the Islamophobia playbook.
That doesn’t stop rumor, innuendo, and profiling.
Nothing like dropping in a lot of trigger-happy hired guns to win hearts and minds, right?
Does War Make Sense? Science and Religion on the Battlefield
From thermodynamic war, to cybernetic battle, to the emergence of the “chaoplexic,” a new book by Antoine Bousquet explains what war means in the modern era.
An uptick in tourism could transform the ancient city of Babylon back into a major destination for tourists, which according to several conservative Christian evangelicals, could set the stage for the ‘last days’ of history.
New polls show that even conservatives are finally okay with gays and lesbians in the military. But what about not having any war at all? What does tradition say about that?
The Defense Department Gospel and America’s Desert Crusade
Bush-era intelligence briefings featured cover pages subtitled with decontextualized and misunderstood scripture in deference to the piety of the administration. Where were the Christian and Jewish moderates, and why didn’t they denounce this extremism?
Double Helix: Religion Requires Memory; Memory-Killing Drugs Inspire Big Questions
A host of experimental new drugs interfere with the process of creating memory, promising to help combat sufferers, addicts and others. But if memory is required for the creation of ethics (and religion) and indeed in the formation of who we are, what effect might these drugs have on our identities?
As in the case of gay Arabic translators, the US military debilitates itself by refusing qualified candidates...
Onward Christian Soldiers
Army specialist Jeremy Hall, an atheist, discovered an intolerant fundamentalist culture in the armed services.
A Scholar Responds: Scripture as a Weapon
A complement to Gary Laderman’s column on the gun-as-sacred-object: scholar Lou Ruprecht’s scriptural encounter with the Second Amendment and the NRA in a gun debate gone astray.
The words of our top general in Iraq—words I’ve described as myths—are those that the president says will determine his war policy.
Deconstructing the systematic political theology in the president’s Easter address; are American soldiers merely imitating Christ?