Four years ago, the modern Tea Party seemed to emerge from nowhere, leaving journalists bewildered and the public with few reference points to understand seemingly spontaneous rallies by middle-class people seeking lower tax rates. A search for the phrase “tea party” in connection with “politics” in major newspapers yielded fewer than 100 mentions in 2008—and when the words did appear linked together, they suggested studied formality and decorum. The next year, they appeared more than 1,500 times, often connected to... Read more

Here are the top five posts from Rhetoric Race and Religion this week. To contribute to R3, click here. Number 1 Alcorn Hires Prominent Jackson Theologian Alcorn State University has named a Jackson pastor as rector of the Historic Oakland Memorial Chapel and director of Student Religious Life, concluding a two-year search. The Rev. C. Edward Rhodes II, pastor of Mount Helm Baptist Church, begins his tenure at Alcorn on September 15, 2013. On that Sunday, Rector Rhodes will lead an... Read more

Some observers of the Catholic theological scene are saying that a personal meeting between Pope Francis and Dominican Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez could mark a thaw in decades of frosty relations between the church’s hierarchy and liberation theologians.Gutiérrez, a Peruvian, coined the phrase “liberation theology.” The theology is marked by its concern for liberation of the world’s people from unjust economic or social conditions. It was developed in Latin America during the region’s military dictatorships in the 1960s and ’70s.The Vatican... Read more

1) Jesus Avoided Labels  In fact, a large part of his ministry was breaking down preconceived titles, trying to bring about a world where there would be no differentiation between Jew or Gentile. He promoted the idea that loving God trumped racial, ethnic, social, religious, and political identities. This doesn’t mean we’re simply “all the same underneath.” Jesus recognized that people had distinct differences, on both a personal and communal level. He embraced unique cultures and traditions and utilized them... Read more

by Paula Penn-Nabrit R3 Contributor *This is the second of a three part series. Read part 1 here My husband CMadison died May 20, 2013, at home, literally in my arms with a smile on his face. God neither healed nor delivered in the way I very expressly requested.  I asked believing and as much as possible I was in a place of obedience. Yet I can attest that my prayers as one of the righteous did avail much. Those prayers,... Read more

On March 23, 2010, Paul Harvey posted a call for papers for a conference at Rice University on “Millennialism and Providentialism in the Era of the American Civil War.” The papers presented at the conference that October formed the basis for an anthology titled Apocalypse and the Millennium in the American Civil War Era, set to be published this November by LSU Press. I’d imagine that this collection will be of great interest to many RiAH readers. The roster of contributors is fantastic (names below), and not just because... Read more

One of the strongest qualities of Hinduism is that, despite its diverse approaches to the Divine, there has been a rich tradition of debate and discourse that has nourished and revitalized Hindu thought and practice. Hindu scriptures and spiritual leaders have for thousands of years extolled the virtue of learning and knowledge creation, commonly referred to among Hindus as jnana yoga. In fact, my own inspiration as a critical scholar — questioning everything and the exhilaration of academic debate —... Read more

While non-religious people tend to reject religion because they find the evidence for a supernatural deity unconvincing, a new study shows that rejecting religion can be good not just logically, but emotionally. While previous studies had suggested some emotional and social value to being religious, a new study that examined a huge number of people from around the world discovered that being religious is a risk factor for depression. As explained by the Huffington Post, over 8,000 people from different countries from... Read more

The notion that Christianity depends on “grace” and Judaism on “works” is a terribly unfortunate misunderstanding of Judaism. What divides Paul from Judaism is his insistence that God’s justifying forgiveness is only extended to those who accept his Christ faith. In Paul’s thinking, instead of humanity divided as “Israel and the nations” which is the classic understanding of Judaism, we have “Israel “after the flesh” (i.e., the Jewish people), non-Jews whom he calls “the nations,” (i.e., Gentiles) and a new... Read more

Maybe you are like me and you need a bit of good news this week, because it’s been a week of bad news. There was the tragic shooting at the Navy Yard, leaving 12 people killed. Then there were the racist comments about the new Miss America, Nina Davuluri. She is the first person of Indian descent to be crowned Miss America, yet the news of the event emphasized racist tweets. It was almost as if people were competing over who could... Read more