By: Alexander BurnsPolitico Prominent evangelical leader Richard Land said Thursday that Herman Cain must give the public “complete transparency” about the sexual harassment complaints made against him in the 1990s. Land, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told POLITICO that Cain will only be able to move past this week’s damaging stories by releasing as much information as possible related to the alleged incidents. “If he thinks this is going away, he’s delusional,” Land said. “Whatever there... Read more

Religion is, on the face of it, a social movement whose motivation is to inspire the best in humanity. So why does religion make us do the worst? Why, in so many places on so many issues, are religious forces arrayed on the side of narrow-mindedness, exclusion, and intolerance? I believe the answer lies somewhere in the past. Not in a specific historical event – though these surely color the ways fundamentalism manifests in the present – but in our... Read more

What I haven’t seen written about in the many stories about the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampment at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan is its proximity to the World Trade Center (WTC) site. The park, which fills a small city block, sits across from the southeast corner of the site, where Four World Trade Center is being resurrected. As I mingled briefly yesterday with men and women protesting corporate greed, construction workers labored above us and a bevy of police... Read more

Last Friday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher featured a passionate debate between Cornel West, a Princeton professor who has attended many of the Occupy Wall Street protests, and Ron Christie, a Republican strategist who previously worked as a staffer for Vice President Dick Cheney. The first topic of discussion after Christie came on the panel was Libya and why Republicans were not willing to give President Obama credit for carrying out the operation. Christie explained that before going into Libya, it was important to ask what... Read more

Religious gestures in sports not always needed I admit to feeling a bit annoyed every time I see a football player score a touchdown and immediately point to the sky to thank God. Or when I see a baseball player hit a home run and point upward after touching home plate. Or when a jockey looks heavenward and points up his or her whip after winning a horse race. At some Catholic schools, it has long been commonplace for a... Read more

Discussions of faith are a staple of American politics, on both the right and the left. One minister who supports Rick Perry said that, as a Mormon, Mitt Romney is not a Christian — but still would be preferable to “a professing Christian like Barack Obama who embraces un-biblical values.” For his part, President Obama has often emphasized his religion, saying last year that “my public service is part of that effort to express my Christian faith.” If politicians say... Read more

Have you ever wondered how the mere mention of God can influence people’s everyday lives? In a recent article, my colleagues and I began to investigate this question, specifically by examining how reminders of God can influence how people pursue their goals. We found mixed results: Reminders of God, on the one hand, make people less willing to proactively engage in activities that will bring them closer to their goal, but on the other hand, they make people better able... Read more

By Brian McLaren,Patheos When I’m asked about the future of seminaries, my first response is to say that almost 100% of the current seminarians I meet are raving fans of their education. Seminary is providing for them what they wish churches would provide:A robust intellectual environment where they can openly and energetically explore God, the Bible, doctrine, faith, liturgy, mission, church history, and the spiritual life.A diverse ecumenical environment where they can read and learn from (and with) a broad... Read more

by Kyle R. Cupp Over the course of my life, and exacerbated by my efforts at blogging, I’ve developed the bad habit of raising subversive questions in forums where I know I’ll get knee-jerk reactions and probably glares of disapproval. Were I any more sinister, I’d picture these intense frowning faces and grin like Montgomery Burns. My aim has usually not been subversive inquiry for its own sake—I wouldn’t want to be thrown in with the Sowers of Discord. No,... Read more

by Dennis LacorneHuffington PostIn my book, “Religion in America. A Political History” (Columbia University Press, 2011, translated by George Holoch with a foreword by Tony Judt), I attempt to explain the coexistence of two opposed political trends: a religious tradition that invites US politicians to talk openly about their faith and another tradition that insists on the necessity of preserving a real separation of church and state in America. These two traditions are based on rival narratives of the origin... Read more