Search

The Star Trek franchise was famous for its utopian social vision, going boldly where no popular entertainment had gone before. But the new movie takes us back in time, to an age when political divisions were in stark black and white.

Dr. Eric Goosby, Obama’s pick to run the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, will face the challenge of faith-based opposition to condom distribution, among other difficulties, when he assumes this important position.

The Mexican government has demolished dozens of shrines to Santa Muerta, claiming that the worship of this skeletal woman in a white cloak is a “narco-cult.” As resistance grows, so does this new religious movement.

In addition to the direct consequences for workers and their families, one study estimated that for every worker fired, 395 coworkers got the message: attempt to organize and you’ll get fired too.

Even after the “revelation” that letting unregulated moneymen run the country isn’t a good idea, the neoliberals at the Heritage Foundation are still churning out the message; like the latest book by “theologian” Jay W. Richards, Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism is the Solution And Not the Problem.

Miss California and her supporters seem oblivious to the possibility that theological consistency might lead to a conclusion that a god who prohibits gay marriage would not look favorably upon her breast augmentation surgery.

Obama’s Notre Dame speech seemed to reinforce the “common ground” school, which adopts Christian Right frames in the name of compromise. But a careful look at the numbers reveals that Democrats have more to gain by articulating a strong moral message—whatever the content—than by watering down the message in an effort to appease conservative Christians.

There have always been tensions between religious reasons to give anonymously and social demands for accountability in giving. In this case the money, millions and millions of it, is going to women-led educational institutions.

The United States is the only nation save Somalia that’s failed to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Armed with a doomsday ten-point plan including the end of spankings and the government preventing parents from bringing kids to church, the force behind the movement to prevent its ratification isn’t just a bunch of strict parents.

When an Ivy League women’s studies department is sued for promoting the idea that women are divine princesses and men are minions of Satan, we are reminded that the act of defining religion is important work.