https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to religious studies en https://religiondispatches.org/2024/12/20/why-scholars-should-take-accounts-supernatural-phenomena-seriously-and-how-it-might-save For a decade and a half, Dr. Jeffrey J. Kripal has been advocating for the field of religious studies to not only take reports of alien abductions and visits from the dead as seriously as accounts of miracles, but to… Fri, 20 Dec 2024 05:03:33 EST Joseph Laycock 4713053e-63d9-4d51-b01e-5aaf08100867 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/11/20/phoning-it-heathen-isnt-neutral-religious-description-its-also-significant-force Welcome to “Phoning It In,” a gameshow I made up because I am tired and busy but also like to learn about new books! (I am, in fact, so busy that we have not played this game in two years… Wed, 20 Nov 2024 02:47:01 EST Megan Goodwin 63d69603-6126-464e-9b91-a56dd706ca58 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/08/21/quiet-damage-details-heartbreaking-effect-qanon-five-american-families-critical The outlines of QAnon conspiracy theories are by now familiar to many. The battle of good-versus-evil personified by Donald Trump and the Deep State, which somehow also embroils bizarre and gruesome allegations of child trafficking, drinking adrenaline compounds to get… Wed, 21 Aug 2024 12:00:43 EDT Susannah Crockford 4c8d61cb-aadc-4d87-90fd-e583441711f5 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/07/03/editors-picks-remembering-broken-promises-and-possibilities-independence-day Independence Day doesn’t tend to cause as much dissonance as Thanksgiving, as much confusion as Juneteenth, and isn’t as widely reviled as Columbus Day (aka Indigenous People’s Day). Yet, while it “is not America’s birthday,” as Peter Laarman argued nearly… Wed, 03 Jul 2024 06:54:48 EDT The Editors 551330db-41d9-43af-945e-fec847b2f2d1 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/05/07/antisemitism-awareness-act-just-passed-house-would-actually-increase-anti-jewish Should it gain Senate support, the Antisemitism Awareness Act (AAA) just passed by the House will, despite its name, lead to more anti-Jewish violence in the US, not less. Why? Because this bill, which among other things directs the Department… Tue, 07 May 2024 12:41:57 EDT Nathan Leach 76e3a24e-5e47-4aca-97bc-316342a4b049 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/04/30/do-you-want-columbia-be-cursed-god-alarming-exchanges-congress-and-beyond-highlight At the April 17 th House Education Committee hearing on Columbia University’s response to antisemitism on campus, Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) questions Columbia President Minouche Shafik about her knowledge of the Bible. In a clip of the hearing below, Allen… Tue, 30 Apr 2024 04:14:26 EDT Chance Bonar e41f1040-70d1-4407-843c-44de1452ae9e https://religiondispatches.org/2024/01/25/amid-anticipation-government-disclosure-we-are-not-alone-follows-those-who-claim-alien UFOs are in. The current wave of enthusiasm began in 2017 when major newspapers reported on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which spent $22 million investigating Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs), with media homing in on the idea that… Thu, 25 Jan 2024 01:18:26 EST Joseph Laycock da8c022c-a386-4566-b683-badda974fc1a https://religiondispatches.org/2023/12/05/hail-santa-war-christmas-outrage-over-satanic-tree-reveals-self-serving-ambiguity Forget ugly sweater parties , this is our new national Christmas tradition: 1) a public venue creates a forum and invites everyone to erect displays; 2) Secular Humanists, Satanists, and other subversives participate; 3) moral entrepreneurs feign outrage that the… Tue, 05 Dec 2023 04:35:24 EST Joseph Laycock 8d7487a3-0cae-44ab-8245-ce570939c83d https://religiondispatches.org/2023/07/19/how-fbi-aided-and-abetted-rise-white-christian-nationalism-interview Earlier this year, on his Straight White American Jesus podcast, RD’s Bradley Onishi spoke with Dr. Lerone Martin about his latest book. In this edited and condensed version of their conversation, Martin, an associate professor of religious studies at Stanford… Wed, 19 Jul 2023 05:12:27 EDT Bradley Onishi a8951fdc-1377-4ff7-9180-47cdcf347c4e https://religiondispatches.org/2023/02/06/jokes-chatgpt-chooses-which-religious-traditions-and-figures-deserve-respect-and ChatGPT is all the rage. It even drives some people into a rage. It does some remarkable things, it does some outrageous things, it does some absurd things. Most things it does badly, such as tell you how to build… Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:28:42 EST Robert M. Geraci 1855ed91-1864-4e29-9194-89b56ce07424 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/01/13/religious-studies-professor-i-disagreed-hamline-firing-now-ive-changed-my-mind Since learning about Hamline University’s recent firing of an instructor, the flurry of thoughts and feelings I’ve had resembles the inside of a snow globe. Readers probably know the story by now. Erika López Prater, an adjunct instructor of art… Fri, 13 Jan 2023 04:22:54 EST Kate Blanchard c6897d28-f77d-44b9-81f5-83793e165901 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/12/22/revisiting-hopeful-hijinks-muppets-30th-anniversary-muppet-christmas-carol When The Muppet Christmas Carol premiered 30 years ago in 1992, there were fears it would be a flop given the recent death of creator Jim Henson in 1990. If success in Hollywood is defined by the deified dollar, then… Thu, 22 Dec 2022 04:16:44 EST Sara Kamali 2f2e4707-da25-456b-b5a1-8c390cf36907 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/12/06/trans-talmud-could-1500-year-old-book-have-any-relevance-struggle-trans-equality-and To many, last month’s brutal attack on a queer nightclub in Colorado Springs, in which five people were killed and 25 were injured, was the logical conclusion of the Right’s increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric against the LGBTQI+ community. This tragic event… Tue, 06 Dec 2022 09:49:06 EST Shane Burley bdef2ab3-7f30-484b-95f0-77a712d467ba https://religiondispatches.org/2022/11/10/psychedelics-experience-renaissance-emorys-new-center-psychedelics-and-spirituality For years, in addition to writing about it numerous times for RD , I’ve included a section on psychedelics and religious experience in my Introduction to Religion course. When I first began to teach on the topic, my students, for… Thu, 10 Nov 2022 12:38:18 EST Hollis Phelps 43175669-52f5-46dc-92c4-c740c3db3932 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/11/07/paranormal-vodka-exorcists-and-demonic-doll-welcome-paracon-based-work-demon-hunters-who I really didn’t know what to expect when Joseph Laycock and I bought our tickets for the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) Seekers of the Supernatural Paracon as part of our research for our book The Exorcist Effect… Mon, 07 Nov 2022 02:59:16 EST Eric Harrelson, Joseph Laycock 31ff0de7-1e81-4e1d-bcca-099553ad25f3 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/10/20/la-carmina-author-little-book-satanism-talks-satanic-panic-qanon-japanese-satanism-and For most of its existence, religious Satanism has been regarded as either unfit for polite conversation or fodder for sensationalist tabloid media. In the 1990s, Anton LaVey complained, “Whenever I got on TV or the radio, I was given a… Thu, 20 Oct 2022 06:18:21 EDT Joseph Laycock b66877cf-2067-4808-bc79-3f1dd436f1ac https://religiondispatches.org/2022/07/10/meditation-sickness-everyone-talking-about-how-nobody-talking-about-risks-meditation There are some visible signs that particular Buddhist communities in the United States are beginning to see a greater need to respond to what are often today called “challenging” or “adverse” meditation experiences. For a few decades now, meditation practices… Sun, 10 Jul 2022 12:47:39 EDT Ira Helderman c25ccb12-3b04-41e9-bb34-400829e97d24 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/07/05/what-role-do-feelings-play-conspiracy-racism-and-climate-denial-welcome-phoning-it Welcome to “Phoning It In,” a gameshow I made up because I am tired and busy but also like to learn about new books! I’m claiming to have made up this game, but if you’ve ever showed up for class… Tue, 05 Jul 2022 01:56:24 EDT Megan Goodwin 684afc69-6ced-475d-bb99-00eed85f9edf https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/13/we-may-be-sacrificing-our-children-god-gun-its-not-god-requires-deaths You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord . Leviticus 18:21 As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are… Mon, 13 Jun 2022 02:53:15 EDT Stephanie Frank 7eb3e12d-8bc0-4d16-9e00-0f898de93641 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/23/reactionary-white-buddhists-have-joined-fight-against-critical-race-theory A recent article by conservative watchdog Campus Reform targeted my collaborative research talk on racial justice work in and as Buddhist practice . The talk traced the multiple ways whiteness has operated in American Buddhism including the erasure of Asian… Wed, 23 Mar 2022 08:09:49 EDT Ann Gleig 3e25bf41-c788-4e46-b561-c9853d3dc794 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/02/15/new-report-white-christian-nationalism-and-j6-insurrection-shows-just-how-dire-threat Readers who follow my work will be aware of my conviction that neither the press , nor the American public generally, is taking the serious threat to democracy and human rights posed by the Christian Right seriously enough. It’s a… Tue, 15 Feb 2022 05:16:43 EST Chrissy Stroop f78cc91d-5edd-4e13-8923-8b53fe95f5ed https://religiondispatches.org/2022/01/31/do-stormy-daniels-beliefs-paranormal-make-her-unfit-testify-lawsuit-against-her-former Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who rose to prominence as a result of her former relationship with Donald Trump, is testifying against her former lawyer, Michael Avenatti, who’s on trial for allegedly stealing $300,000 from Daniels (the money came… Mon, 31 Jan 2022 05:04:29 EST Daniel Wise 4b0ad4d3-bed4-4b52-a98f-7d302ab73843 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/01/20/what-can-real-life-haunting-tell-us-about-american-religion-updated While researching ghost hunters in the 21st century US during the course of earning my PhD, I was sometimes asked what ghost-hunting had to do with religious studies. In fact, Americans’ interactions with ghosts often reveal their personal spiritualities and… Thu, 20 Jan 2022 04:42:32 EST Daniel Wise c465b019-7cf5-4afb-b59f-ab3530c80058 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/11/12/recognizing-long-history-christian-witches-may-be-key-diversifying-witch-community Last Tuesday, author and witch J. Allen Cross tweeted out some advice for white people who want more BIPOC speaking and teaching at their “magical witchy” conferences. One of his pieces of advice was, “Stop branding all witchy/magical events as… Fri, 12 Nov 2021 02:24:47 EST Daniel Wise f2d2d501-781d-4f2d-9340-a60a0f240b15 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/08/06/being-trans-religion-why-christian-right-wants-you-think-so Have you noticed how common it is for right-wingers to describe things they oppose in terms of religion? Back in April, for example, Andrew Torba, the CEO of Gab (the social media platform of choice for white supremacists and right-wing… Fri, 06 Aug 2021 03:28:14 EDT Chrissy Stroop a3d0d62e-28c9-4e87-9316-f55328b9103c