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While Protestant churches like the Presbyterian Church USA have their annual gatherings in the summer, the institutional Roman Catholic Church, with no such meetings to worry about, uses the season to issue documents from on high. According to

As people around the world begin to reckon with the scope of the catastrophe in Haiti, we offer a set of responses to what was—for those whose work focuses on American religion—a shameful expression of prejudice and ignorance from a once-prominent evangelical leader.

In a video released on her Facebook page, Sarah Palin insists that violent rhetoric plays no role in influencing actions while claiming that those condemning the use of angry rhetoric and images are themselves manufacturing a “blood libel” that may well “incite…violence.” So which is it?

A new guidebook to the city of Atlanta, Sacred Places, focuses on civil rights sites, from churches to restaurants, and shows how the history of the struggle for freedom still permeates the urban landscape.

At this moment the embattled US labor movement urgently needs strong community-based allies and much greater moral legitimation, yet broad-based strategic and moral support from the religious side has been slow to materialize.

There’s a 40-year interval between Stephen Levine’s previous book of poetry and his latest—that’s quite a span. Though his books of prose have found over a million readers, this newest book flies under the radar. Why? One is the still-marginal place of poetry in American culture. For book publishers, the “poetry marketplace” (a kind of oxymoron, since poetry operates largely outside the cash nexus), is largely fueled by writing programs in academia. True, Coleman Barks’ renditions of medieval Sufi poet Rumi captivated a national audience, for a spell. But America’s own living, devotional, mystic poets find a much smaller audience, and slip through the cracks of critical discourse.

An interview with Sarah Zerina Usmen, of Outsourced: “I’ve noticed that in casting calls women are still cast according to descriptions like ‘hot surfer chick.’ For one of my films I’d love to make a casting call for a non-alcoholic, burka-wearing troll and throw them all off!”

California’s Proposition 8 would overturn the state’s Supreme Court decision to allow same-sex marriage — right wing religious groups are girding for the battle they are calling “the Armageddon of the culture war.”…

The wolves outside threaten the life of the city, but the wolves hidden among us may threaten the city even more. Red Riding Hood utilizes powerful mythic tropes in retelling the classic tale.

It’s Easter weekend, and French vandals armed with hammers have given further reason for contemplating the crucifixion, or at least its representation.