religion

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  6/11/2021
  

  Is There a Way to Dial Down the Political Hatred?

  by Molly Worthen

  Are fanatical political opinions a refiguring of the need for spiritual meaning in a secular society? What are the prospects for dialogue and coexistence? 

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  6/7/2021
  

  ‘Lady of Guadalupe’ Avoids Tough Truths About the Catholic Church and Indigenous Genocide

  by Rebecca Janzen

  "Although it portrays the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe for a broad audience, ultimately this film sanitizes the real-life brutality of the Church toward Indigenous peoples in the 16th century."

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• SOURCE: LitHub
  5/4/2021
  

  How Malcolm X Inspired John Coltrane to Embrace Islamic Spirituality

  by Richard Brent Turner

  John Coltrane's embrace of influences from religious music from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, profoundly influential to the Black Arts movement and African American spirituality, was influenced by Malcolm X. 

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• SOURCE: The New Republic
  4/15/2021
  

  Whither the Religious Left?

  by Matthew Sitman

  Has the considerable effort spent for decades to court a "religious left" as a Democratic constituency been a waste of time? Why haven't faith-based social justice movements been more signiicant in the party's base? 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/6/2021
  

  Retro Report Presents: How an Abstinence Pledge in the ’90s Shamed a Generation of Evangelicals

  Retro Report's latest collaboration with the New York Times examines the roots and social impact of Evangelical purity culture, both for individuals and American society's approach to sexuality. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  3/29/2021
  

  Church Membership in the U.S. has Fallen Below the Majority for the First Time in Nearly a Century

  Political Scientist Ryan Burge predicts that there will no longer be a single dominant religion in the United States in 30 years, due principally to the rise of non-affiliation. 

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• SOURCE: Crain's Chicago Business
  2/21/2021
  

  America's Churches are Now Polarized, Too

  The Trump era has concentrated longstanding differences about the role of faith in American life and the obligations of the faithful to act in the world. During the McCarthy era, the Republican establishment pushed back against attacks on clergy by the far right. Will something similar happen today? 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  2/16/2021
  

  Henry Louis Gates Jr. on African-American Religion

  Jon Meacham reviews Henry Louis Gates's book on the Black church in America; Gates seeks to recover the traditions of social and political activism in churches against skeptics who identify religion with conservatism and quietude. 

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• 2/14/2021
  

  Opportunities for a Catholic President, Then and Now

  by Patrick Lacroix

  Polling of religious voters might encourage Democrats to give up on reaching them. John F. Kennedy's experience shows that Joe Biden, as the second Catholic President, could succeed in narrowing the gap. 

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• 2/14/2021
  

  History, Evidence and the Ethics of Belief

  by Guy Lancaster

  Untrammelled freedom of belief has been enshrined as an American civic virtue. The nation, democracy, and possibly the planet are imperiled without a collective commitment to respect belief only to the extent available evidence supports it. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  1/25/2021
  

  Bad Religion, or Bad Faith?

  by Caleb Smith

  A scholar of American religion takes issue with a recent call to see fundamentalist zeal as a danger to democracy and civil society; secularism, too, has underwritten massive campaigns of state violence. 

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• 1/31/2021
  

  A Devil’s Dozen of the Most Important Religion Stories of 2020

  by Ed Simon

  Many people would like to leave 2020 behind. HNN Contributing Editor Ed Simon compiles, for those readers ready for a distanced reflection on a year that may have tested faith, a roundup of the best stories at the intersection of religion and history. 

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• SOURCE: Chronicle of Higher Education
  1/21/2021
  

  Bad Religion in the Ivory Tower

  by Jacques Berlinerblau

  Have scholars of religion and politics missed the rise of militant Christian nationalism because they follow an unspoken rule to "always posit religion at its best, secularism at its worst"? 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  1/18/2021
  

  Warnock’s Election Reminds Us that Black Churches are Vital to Democratic Success

  by Robert Greene II

  Democratic politicians must recognize the historical role of Black churches not just as gathering places where visiting politicians may speak to voters, but as organizing spaces where political agendas are formed. Dems who wish to emulate Rev. Warnock's victory need to embrace Black churches in a deep way.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  12/14/2020
  

  Facing a First Amendment Fight, a Small Minnesota Town Allows a White Supremacist Church

  A small Minnesota town has approved the use of a church building to house a neopaganist group strongly associated with white supremacy, arguing that they would be exposed to an expensive legal action if they denied the permit. This is part of a long pattern of similar First Amendment cases. 

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• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  12/9/2020
  

  The Persistence Of Creationism Shows Losing Could Make Trumpism More Extreme

  by Adam Laats

  Modern sophisticates were confident that the Scopes Trial marked the defeat and discrediting of creationism. Those alarmed by the denialism of Trump supporters about the election results should remember that the rumors of fundamentalism's demise were greatly exaggerated. 

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• SOURCE: Southern Spaces
  11/20/2020
  

  When Sunday Comes: Gospel Music in the Soul and Hip-Hop Eras

  by Claudrena N. Harold

  Professor Harold's new book looks at gospel music in the late 20th century and reappraises it as a period of artistic innovation, not of misguided pursuit of commercial or crossover success. 

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• SOURCE: Discover
  11/29/2020
  

  The Complicated History of Religion and Archaeology

  Modern archaeology has largely succeeded in instituting professionalization and historical rigor to the study of sites of theological significance, but the discipline has a long and continuing historical entanglement with efforts to find proof of religious doctrines.

• 
• SOURCE: The Conversation
  11/12/2020
  

  60 Years after JFK, Biden as Second Catholic President Offers a Refresh in Church’s Political Role

  by Steven P. Millies

  Joseph Biden's election represents a chance to develop a political agenda informed by broad Catholic teaching, not only opposition to abortion. 

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• SOURCE: The Conversation
  10/19/2020
  

  Religious Identity And Supreme Court Justices – A Brief History

  by Nomi Stolzenberg

  In recent decades, religious influence on the Court has been shaped by conservatives of different faiths, construed as part of a mythical Judeo-Christian tradition, coalescing around a common agenda defined less by affiliation with a religious denomination than with opposition to liberalism and secularism.