https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to waco en https://religiondispatches.org/2023/03/27/launch-rally-waco-former-president-sets-stakes-trump-24-campaign-apocalyptic-violent Donald Trump ’s Waco rally this past weekend was, in the end, filled with echoes of the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian compound —just not the kind we like to talk about. And, despite the New York Times profile… Mon, 27 Mar 2023 05:05:09 EDT Annika Brockschmidt, Thomas Lecaque 6a5cc7ee-f0b1-40de-9e97-cf95edff5466 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/03/21/trumps-arrest-prediction-inflames-holy-war-narrative-and-sanctifies-violence-welcome This coming Saturday, March 25 th—one week after a hysterical all-caps social media post in which he declared that he “will be arrested on Tuesday” and called on supporters to “protest, take our nation back!”— Trump will host his first… Tue, 21 Mar 2023 04:20:27 EDT Thomas Lecaque c4b85ca0-0967-4720-88c5-7797bcadeca3 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/04/28/what-most-critics-missed-about-dustin-lance-blacks-under-banner-heaven At the Salt Lake City premiere of Under the Banner of Heaven , writer, director, and producer, Dustin Lance Black explained that the series sought to tell a broader story of Mormonism, including Mormon experiences foreign to most viewers. By… Thu, 28 Apr 2022 03:00:47 EDT Cristina Rosetti 116dac6f-6fbc-4b75-8aff-bfa0a122a264 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/04/18/how-pentecostal-christianity-taking-over-world-interview-author-elle-hardy Australian-born journalist Elle Hardy’s exposé of global Pentecostalism, released in November by an independent UK publisher, didn’t receive a tremendous amount of attention in the United States —one of the nations where the movement itself has flourished. In the following… Mon, 18 Apr 2022 04:44:55 EDT Katherine Stewart 57016115-c2c3-4412-a997-eccbfab68567 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/10/gop-candidate-pa-governor-affiliated-far-right-gun-church-rod-iron-ministries-heres Pennsylvania State Senator and retired colonel Doug Mastriano has announced his candidacy for governor. And, in keeping with his participation in the Jericho March movement, the Stop the Steal Rally on January 6 th , and other appearances at Christian… Thu, 10 Mar 2022 12:03:28 EST Thomas Lecaque 0de76d50-8907-4ec3-ae08-8871f4b7493e https://religiondispatches.org/2022/01/28/qanon-isnt-cult-problematic-term-michael-protzmans-q-adjacent-negative48-certainly QAnon isn’t a cult. I know we want it to be, as numerous pundits have argued . I know it would be comforting, to believe that it’s a weird fringe, in the grasp of charismatic leaders, that the people are… Fri, 28 Jan 2022 05:03:18 EST Thomas Lecaque 48c3056e-dd0f-44fc-a987-ca95d7cf886c https://religiondispatches.org/2021/07/19/cult-inaccurate-unhelpful-and-dangerous-label-followers-trump-qanon-and-16 In the twentieth century the word “ cult ” (originally meaning “worship”) became a pejorative word that people apply to a group or movement that they do not like and perhaps fear. The word “cult” implies a stereotype that involves… Mon, 19 Jul 2021 02:22:53 EDT Catherine Wessinger a0342f76-3e08-4527-8e0b-18a8e97d57ca https://religiondispatches.org/2021/02/02/are-we-living-simulation-bad-religion-bad-media-combine-new-doc-glitch-matrix Brother Laeo Mystwood looks at the camera, his body obscured by a 3D avatar. He is talking about the many coincidences of his life and how they led him to believe that he’s living in a computer simulation. We all… Tue, 02 Feb 2021 04:13:45 EST Shannon Trosper Schorey 15540b78-e81c-4440-a262-647c47d2cc21 https://religiondispatches.org/2019/08/14/reason-cautious-optimism-mauna-kea-telescope-standoff Though conflicts between religious groups and the civil authorities often result in a violent outcome, activists and scientists in Hawaii have thus far managed to avoid the violence with some surprisingly simple techniques. Wed, 14 Aug 2019 04:51:31 EDT Jean Rosenfeld 59933986-332f-472e-b8c2-c5c727d60eeb https://religiondispatches.org/2018/10/17/does-religious-freedom-extend-child-endangerment-its-not-simple-it-seems There must be some middle ground—not between right and wrong, but between different understandings of what constitutes abuse. Wed, 17 Oct 2018 12:41:40 EDT Rebecca Moore 455ca783-11c7-46e3-8ced-610da7428206 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/09/25/cue-kool-aid-watching-jonestown-docs-fake-news-era Documentaries have always been artificial constructs blurring the line between fact and fiction, but new developments have changed the stakes. Tue, 25 Sep 2018 04:02:03 EDT Rebecca Moore e56c54d6-59c8-4b3a-974a-03bdcbf93875 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/10/18/inside-intervarsitys-purge-trauma-and-termination-premier-evangelical-student-org One of the nation’s largest campus ministries has demanded that its LGBT-affirming staff quit by November 11th. Tue, 18 Oct 2016 01:25:50 EDT Deborah Jian Lee 9d867148-8f85-4051-aaf0-4083e5a413d1 https://religiondispatches.org/2016/01/07/vanillaisis-white-tears-and-adventures-captain-moroni Reading between the hashtags as Twitter responds to the Oregon standoff. Thu, 07 Jan 2016 06:36:22 EST Megan Goodwin b2011e37-3e4f-4d37-b3dd-33305ac01a22 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/07/09/defending-minority-religions-despite-some-bad-practitioners In the latest addition to It’s Your Fault, The Cubit ’s series on blame in contemporary society, RD associate editor Andrew Aghapour and contributor Megan Goodwin discuss public shaming and new religious movements. Goodwin’s RD article, “Don’t Be Tooken In… Thu, 09 Jul 2015 03:54:55 EDT Andrew Aghapour, Megan Goodwin f23b1b31-ae3c-4caa-9933-7845a9547b79 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/06/16/cult-leader-disgraced-pastor-mark-driscoll-does-not-rank Mark Driscoll used Pacific Northwest aesthetics to kindle an audience for Mars Hill Church’s conservative, neo-Reformed dogma. Now, Seattle’s creative community is tamping him down with wet newspaper. Earlier this month, the city’s arts rag Seattle Weekly released a “… Tue, 16 Jun 2015 06:26:31 EDT Jesse James DeConto 3fc76a1c-0029-4ec0-b958-e725200d308c https://religiondispatches.org/2015/04/03/dont-be-tooken-kimmy-schmidts-cult For all its laudable qualities—its complex characters, its unwavering if imperfect commitment to tackling race, class, and sexual violence—Tina Fey’s new Netflix comedy, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, falls prey to a classic American media blunder: it portrays new religious movements as… Fri, 03 Apr 2015 11:15:05 EDT Megan Goodwin 63890d06-aee0-4360-92f8-8033e0128cb3 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/02/23/graeme-wood-isis-no-such-thing-objective-critique The debate continues to deepen over Graeme Wood’s Atlantic cover story on ISIS: Murtaza Hussain has noted how Wood ignores debates among Islamic intellectuals, Juan Cole argues for the fringe status of the group, likening them to Kentucky snake handlers… Mon, 23 Feb 2015 03:52:48 EST Eric M. Gurevitch ca77d282-c9fd-4af2-b36e-b83bafb7c04d https://religiondispatches.org/2014/12/01/racial-dimension-trusting-police-violence Though many religious leaders have sought to turn Mike Brown’s death into a movement for social change, others have taken the position that Brown was a criminal whose actions invited police violence. If the first perspective is attentive to history… Mon, 01 Dec 2014 01:21:51 EST Eric C. Miller 2ec49707-a88b-4c50-b580-5d15bb4a2008 https://religiondispatches.org/2014/03/19/love-or-threat-pro-life-prayer-includes-names-photos-abortion-rights-advocates Is it believable that the Pro-Life Action League, a group with a spotty past, has published identifying information of abortion-rights activists in order to help supporters pray for individuals? Wed, 19 Mar 2014 03:28:27 EDT Alana Massey 414b571e-30ab-474f-a4fc-324ccdee346f https://religiondispatches.org/2013/12/16/lds-church-us-government-swap-positions-polygamy Utah judge Clark Waddoups strikes down part of polygamy law in case of Sister Wives’ Kody Brown, ruling that although the state has the right to deny people more than one valid marriage license at a time, Utah’s anti-cohabitation laws violate the Browns’ First Amendment right to freedom of religion and elements of constitutional due process. Mon, 16 Dec 2013 03:00:09 EST Holly Welker 0a3f3782-c32e-4cd8-8a4f-9b27f8c0af0b https://religiondispatches.org/2013/04/23/20th-anniversary-waco Why are people attracted to living charismatic leaders? Tue, 23 Apr 2013 04:09:14 EDT Kate Blanchard ff8436a7-595a-4085-b16c-17b433f18e4e https://religiondispatches.org/2012/04/17/norways-suspected-murderer-anders-breivik-christian-terrorist If Anders Behring Breivik isn’t a Christian terrorist, then the same can be said of Osama bin Laden and many other Islamist activists—whose writings show that they were much more interested in Islamic history than theology or scripture and imagined themselves as re-creating glorious moments in Islamic history in their own imagined wars. Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:18:43 EDT Mark Juergensmeyer 06408f24-9ed6-4e40-9077-e2ff28c1b262 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/12/19/top-ten-peacemakers-science-religion-wars This year has marked, I believe, the beginning of the end of the war between science and religion. Creationism cannot last. The New Atheists are now old (or departed). And between these camps the middle ground continues to expand. Indeed, many folks have been hard at it, doing a new kind of peace work. Some have done it intentionally, some have not. Outliers, both atheist and religious hardliners, continue to wage battle but they look increasingly irrelevant. Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:51:41 EST Paul Wallace 5f863aed-c8a4-4c49-878c-de6aaa94b617 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/09/12/no-such-thing-great-911-work-art But 9/11 has changed the kind of art we’re interested in. Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:06:50 EDT Hussein Rashid fa07ab6c-87ec-408d-b6fc-97ec242dc906 https://religiondispatches.org/2011/07/21/errol-morris-tabloid-sensationalizes-mormonism-and-cult-deprogramming After treating the Vietnam War and the torture images of Abu Ghraib in his most recent films, Oscar-winning documentary maker Errol Morris turns to a 1977 scandal involving North Carolina beauty queen Joyce McKinney in his new documentary Tabloid. Thu, 21 Jul 2011 01:11:30 EDT David Mihalyfy 34fd069c-531f-4e4d-839e-165a05ff7faf