If you go to the second floor of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., you’ll find a small room containing an 18th-century Bible whose pages are full of holes. They are carefully razor-cut empty spaces, so this was not an act of vandalism. It was, rather, a project begun by Thomas Jefferson when he was 77 years old. Painstakingly removing those passages he thought reflected the actual teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, Jefferson literally cut and pasted... Read more

As the 2012 presidential election picks up steam, Republican candidates find it tempting and beneficial to bash Muslims as a way to attract voters. In the wake of the 2010 midterm elections, “Americans are learning what Europeans have known for years: Islam-bashing wins votes,” the journalist Michael Scott Moore wrote that November. At the time, many of the 85 new Republican House members buoyed by the surging Tea Party movement found the political virtues of anti-Muslim rhetoric an easy way... Read more

by Anthony Pinn What is African American Religion? My early years were spent within the context of the Black Church, particularly the African Methodist Episcopal Church. And like other black denominations, many of its local congregations found homes in buildings once used white congregations. As part of the migration to suburban locations, they left behind these buildings – complete with aesthetically rich stained glass windows. If memory serves, in my home church these windows were my first visual encounter with... Read more

Robert D. Put­nam, the Bowl­ing Alone author and social sci­en­tist, spoke recently in Louisville, KY, hosted by sev­eral churches and a tem­ple. His book, Amer­i­can Grace, co-authored with David E. Camp­bell, has been out since 2010, but the book’s mes­sage has yet to sink in. Their sub­ti­tle, How Reli­gion Divides and Unites Us, is no chi­as­mus, but points to a chasm between Right and Left in Amer­i­can reli­gious life. The chasm was opened up first by the sex­ual rev­o­lu­tion of... Read more

At a Monday Town Hall meeting in Howard, Wisconsin, Mitt Romney tried out new tactical skills as he fielded the kinds of sticky questions about LDS doctrine Mormons are bracing for this campaign season. A Ron Paul supporter in the audience, reading from typed notes, quizzed Romney on whether or not he subscribed to a verse of LDS scripture that correlated phenotypic and spiritual darkness and whether or not he opposed interracial marriage, as did LDS Church leaders down through... Read more

By Dr. Chris Seiple The observation above offered an insight like no other. Frankly, I didn’t believe it when I heard it. It was as strategic and succinct a statement as I have ever heard about America. Religious freedom was not a value but an interest. Religious freedom was not a distant memory of founding mythology—and thus indelible to the American identity domestically; it was practically essential to the expression and extension of that identity abroad. It was an exceptional... Read more

Southern Baptists top public-policy spokesman said on his radio program March 31 that black leaders are exploiting outrage over the shooting death of a Florida teenager to help President Obama get re-elected. Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, described activists Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as “racial ambulance chasers” who are fomenting a “mob mentality” over the recent shooting of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin by a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Fla.... Read more

The very fact that his Mormonism makes him less popular among evangelical Christians almost certainly makes him more popular among American Jews. Academic analysis of the intersection of religion and politics suggests that Jews maintain a distinctly—and surprisingly—favorable view of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This doesn’t mean Romney stands a chance of winning an outright majority in the Jewish community: no Republican presidential nominee has achieved that feat since William Howard Taft in 1908. Moreover, recent... Read more

If you live in Middle Tennessee, get ready for another four months of overheated rhetoric about Islam. On Thursday, tea partier and anti-Shariah activist Lou Ann Zelenik announced that she’s challenging incumbent Rep. Diane Black (R), setting up a rematch of a 2010 GOP primary that focused heavily on the question of whether Muslims in Murfreesboro should be allowed to build a new mosque. In that campaign, Zelenik lashed herself to the mosque issue, speaking at a march to protest... Read more

One of the world’s biggest rappers is celebrating his “re-bar mitzvah” in a new music video featuring bagels, Manischewitz and an Israeli flag. In a clip released at the start of Passover, perennial chart topper Drake depicts his “re-commitment to the Jewish religion,” telling viewers at the start of the video, “I gotta do what I gotta do.” The clip, for the new single “HYFR,” unfolds mostly in a synagogue, and features the rapper — full name: Aubrey “Drake” Graham... Read more