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When it’s hot and dry, like in a desert, ablution must be really, really refreshing.

There is nothing small-bore or contemptible about a novel that explores the wonder and heartbreak of romantic love against the distant thunder of imperial warfare.

It is not whether we agree, but whether I follow through with what I say I am all about.

Some things really are based upon experience. No matter how much we might say, unless one has had the experience, our words sound awfully empty.

A Qur’anic passage on sex, adultery, and “hidden adornment” raises a lot of questions, with answers hard to find.

Arizona’s Republican governor and many conservatives may not be aware of the extent to which immigration cuts across religious groups—liberal and conservative. If draconian measures like SB 1070 take hold and opposition gains steam, Republicans may see their 2010 and 2012 hopes evaporate in the summer sun.

For many Americans, the Muslim world is dangerous. It is a place mired in the thick sludge of the past, peopled by exotic and prickly foreigners who, at any slight however real or perceived, fly off into a mad rage. It is irrationality’s last refuge, a museum shop of medieval horrors that has somehow survived the rest of the planet’s transition to the 21st century. Recent events might seem to only confirm this assessment. A fair-minded observer might plausibly ask, “Are Muslims nuts?” Although, to be entirely fair-minded, for the thousands who did protest against “The Innocence of Muslims,” well over a billion and a half did not.

A conservative Christian calls the head of one of the most powerful religious right organizations a bully for his demonizing remarks about LGBT people.

National Coming Out day elicits both despondency and outrage in the wake of the recent suicides of Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, and Billy Lucas. Yet, the various laments against bullying in the media overlook the question about the “tougher, more uncertain work (of) creating a world that loves queer kids, that wants them to live and thrive.” Few of the commentaries about Clementi, Brown, Walsh, Lucas and others address the broader context of responsibility for their suicides.

Some professional historians and scholars of American religion have criticized PBS’ God doc. This is not a surprise. After all, when has the academic community ever been comfortable watching its territory invaded by an army of people lacking PhDs? On blogs, religion and history listserves, and chat rooms around the country, academics have labeled the series “oversimplified,” “truly bizarre,” “simplistic,” “intolerable,” “uneventful,” “underwhelming.” Essentially they are calling the series not enough of an “intellectual endeavor.”