New Gingrich has repeatedly referred to President Obama as “The Food Stamp” President while contrasting that with his own aims to become “The Paycheck” President. Ron Paul, in an attempt to beat unruly logic into submission, has tried to convince us that “entitlements” are not “rights.” In an effort to dispute affirmative action and minority rights he equates such “entitlements” with the “entitlements” that big businesses get from big government, thus causing the word itself to lose any precision it... Read more

By ERIC WEINERNew York TimesOriginally Published: December 10, 2011 THE holidays are upon us again — it sounds vaguely aggressive, as if the holidays were some sort of mugger, or overly enthusiastic lover — and so it’s time to stick a thermometer deep in our souls and take our spiritual temperature (between trips to the mall, of course). For some of us, the season affords an opportunity to reconnect with our religious heritage. For others, myself included, it’s a time... Read more

by Jamelle BouieThe Nation Writing at the New York Times, historian Kevin Boyle has created something of a stir with his review of two recent books on the Ku Klux Klan. Here is the lede of the piece, which also doubles as the offending passage: Imagine a political movement created in a moment of terrible anxiety, its origins shrouded in a peculiar combination of manipulation and grass-roots mobilization, its ranks dominated by Christian conservatives and self-proclaimed patriots, its agenda driven... Read more

During the vibrant years of the Harlem Renaissance, music, religion, and spirituality were connected — not just in the religious setting of the church, but in the jazz club, the dance hall, the rent party, even the political street rally. As part of the radio series, “Rethinking Religion,” Columbia University’s Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life, in connection with the Luce Group, presents “The Harlem Renaissance: Music, Religion, and the Politics of Race,” two public radio programs that combine... Read more

by Rabbi Bradley Shavit ArtsonHuffington Post As the voters of the United States recommence the process of electing the next President, it is important to recall our core values. Liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans may legitimately differ on how best to implement those values, but clarifying what values remain our bedrock is the first step toward assuring that these policy disputes remain constructive. One of those bedrock values is, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “providing for... Read more

Writer, scholar and activist Monica A. Coleman will deliver two February lectures at MTSO. “Interreligious Outsiders” is the theme for the 2012 Williams Institute lectures, to be presented by Coleman at 7 p.m. Feb. 28 and 11:30 a.m. Feb. 29 in the Alford Centrum. The lectures are free and open to the public. No registration is necessary. Coleman is associate professor of constructive theology and African American religions at Claremont School of Theology in southern California, where she also serves... Read more

This semester, ASU’s Keith Miller has a new book on Martin Luther King, Jr. and a new course on non-violence and the civil rights movement. Miller is a professor of English and faculty affiliate of the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict in ASU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and his work focuses on the rhetoric of the civil rights movement. A leading expert on the speeches and oratory of Martin Luther King, Jr., he is the... Read more

Watching the latest Republican tap-dance to court “values voters,” it’s clear, once again, that “religion” and “tradition” are unsubtle code words for anti-LGBT politics. Faith-based political organizations like Iowa’s The Family Leader have so thoroughly occupied the language of faith and values, that even critics of their politics assume that traditional Christianity goes hand in hand with conservative sexual and gender politics. According to the way many people understand the politics of religion and sexuality, the more “traditional” a person’s faith, the... Read more

By Mel White For more than 40 years I’ve been moved and provoked by the writings of James Cone, Union Seminary’s distinguished professor of systematic theology. While reading his newest book, “The Cross and the Lynching Tree,” however, I felt grief and anger on a whole new scale. I felt grief for the nearly 5,000 African-American men, women and children who were lynched between 1880 and 1940, and anger that during that 60-year holocaust, white preachers, evangelists and theologians didn’t... Read more

By Steven Pinker Washington Post: On Faith The Bible depicts a world that, seen through modern eyes, is staggering in its savagery. People enslave, rape, and murder members of their immediate families. Warlords slaughter civilians indiscriminately, including the children. Women are bought, sold, and plundered like sex toys. The world of the New Testament is little better: kings carry out mass infanticide; thieves and activists are punished by being nailed to a cross. Though most of the events narrated in... Read more