Robert Benne The results have been devastating. Rather than being exceptional in their promise for renewing American Protestantism, mainstream Lutherans have become exceptional in the rapidity and extensity of their decline. The National Council of Churches reports that the ELCA has “the sharpest rate of membership decline” among all mainline Protestant denominations. http://juicyecumenism.com/2013/08/02/lutheran-exceptionalism-from-hope-to-decline/ Read more

It looks like I really stirred things up yesterday with my post “Reza Aslan Misrepresents His Scholarly Credentials,” especially after Drudge linked to it in the afternoon. Some folks in the comments and on Twitter thought I had destroyed Aslan’s credibility in toto–which wasn’t my intent. Some folks thought that I was attacking him because he is a Muslim–which only recapitulates an overly sensitive reading of the Fox interview that started all this. Others wanted to make this all about... Read more

None of these degrees is in history, so Aslan’s repeated claims that he has “a Ph.D. in the history of religions” and that he is “a historian” are false. Nor is “professor of religions” what he does “for a living.” He is an associate professor in the Creative Writing program at the University of California, Riverside, where his terminal MFA in fiction from Iowa is his relevant academic credential. http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/07/29/scholarly-misrepresentation/ Read more

A young Muslim author learns to seek the truth about God through questioning instead of blind faith. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/07/10655/?utm_source=RTA+Bryson+My+Islam&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

One of the major clues that elephants have something we would recognize as inner lives is their extraordinary memories. This is attested to by outward indicators ranging from the practical — a matriarch’s recollection of a locale, critical to leading her family to food and water — to the passionate — grudges that are held against specific people or types of people for decades or even generations, or fierce affection for a long-lost friend. http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/do-elephants-have-souls Read more

What does the science say about sexual orientation? While some people may display signs of same-sex attraction at an early age, researchers still don’t agree that sexual orientation is determined solely or even primarily at birth, as is one’s race or ethnicity. Some researchers have even concluded that biological and genetic factors play little to no role in sexual orientation. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2013/07/10636/?utm_source=RTA+McHugh+Bradley+ENDA&utm_campaign=winstorg&utm_medium=email Read more

In colloquial Jewish vernacular, the description “bashert” essentially means “from God” or the consequence of divine intervention. When someone refers to an event as “bashert,” he is asserting that the invisible Hand of God was intimately involved in its fruition. This is usually due to the improbably circumstances surrounding the event, or its heretofore unappreciated fortuitous outcome. Bashert is perhaps most used in the context of dating and marriage, where the divine intervention refers to the finding, or even the... Read more

He has been called an “improv pope,” a pope of many surprises, but the biggest surprise of all is that Francis continues to elude all efforts to classify him. Since the opening days of his papacy, a flood of commentators have come forth to tell us what to expect of him, only to miss the mark. Among the numerous errors about Francis, five in particular stand out. http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/07/five-myths-about-pope-francis Read more

The freedom-protecting and flourishing-enabling distinction between religious and political authority has long and rightly been an important goal in the constitutional history of the West. Now, however, it is confused with a “wall of separation” between “religion” and “politics,” between the “public” and the “private.” And the “free exercise” of religion is seen as a function less of the moral limits on state action than of the extent to which private “conscience” can be accommodated without too much cost or... Read more

You may have read about the rise in the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation, making you think that we are on our way to becoming as irreligious as Europe. You may have read how religion is growing fast in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, leaving you to think religion is on the wane in the United States. Or you may have read about the popularity of the late Christopher Hitchens and other writers who championed their disavowal... Read more