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A professor of religious studies, challenged to write a patriotic song that isn’t militaristic, is inspired by texts on our democratic project.

Evil has been a favorite foreign policy tool for conservatives in and around the Bush Administration; problem is, there are often unintended consequences.

While the history of popularization is a history of regular folk learning about other regular revolutionizing folk and imitating them, comic book histories like The Wordy Shipmates do their part in ensuring that the next generation knows more about Beyoncé than Byzantium.

Peter Manseau’s first novel, Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter, takes on themes of Jewish-Christian enmity, the trials of translation, and the idea of language as a virtual homeland.

Though Mumbai militants were instructed to kill “Jews who were Israelis,” few of the victims had any ties to Israel and at least one was an Ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist. Comprehending the conflicting notions of Jewishness is essential to understanding whether this was an act of anti-Semitism or not.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Marilynne Robinson’s third novel in as many decades is packed with the author’s signature themes of struggle, torment, grace, mystery and vulnerability-in other words: Christianity. Indeed, only a Christian of uncommon mettle could write a novel so untainted by the bastardized tropes of Christian culture.

A radical queer group claims to have burned a “Mormon Bible,” vandalized churches, and urges supporters to fight back “by any means necessary.” Ariana Childs Graham asks: Is this activism or just a really bad idea?

Religion is online in a big way, from pastors blogging to faith-based social networking to a digital Ten Commandments. It’s all about building God’s kingdom on the internet.

RD News Round-Up—December 15, 2008: Bush’s Faith-Based Initiative after 8 years; ‘War on Christmas’ mash-up; Religious Right layoffs and cutbacks, ‘Prop. 8—The Musical,’ Prop. 8 Gear, and the first Vietnamese American elected to Congress.

Prop. 8 opponents frame the struggle in the context of the larger civil rights movement. But what if the right to marry for LGBT people is actually a question of religious freedom?