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On January 1, Romania implemented new tax codes that, among other changes, added the occupation of “witch” to the nation’s labor codes. Those charging clients for tarot readings, curses, and blessings must now pay a 16 percent income tax and make contributions to health and pension programs. The ire of the witches, some of whom responded by performing rituals to hex the government, has become fodder for scores of offbeat news stories throughout the West. But there is a deeper story to the witches of Romania.

Twenty Zen teachers in the West sent open letters to The Zen Studies Society in New York. With compassion and understanding, their general thrust is to ask that the Society’s former head, Eido Tai Shimano, not be allowed access to students—a strong penalty for a teacher.

Evangelical self-help megastar Joel Osteen admits he believes homosexuality is a sin.

How did we get to the point where the infringement of a religious obligation is constitutionally irrelevant despite the existence in the text of a constitutional protection of religion?

In the fall of 2009 I visited eight cities in China. I discussed Marxist understanding of religion, homosexuality, the persistence of popular religiosity, freedom of research, and approaches to the study of religion with Chinese colleagues in a carefree and open atmosphere. The Chinese colleagues followed closely what was happening outside and asked me about the schism within the Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality. I found many new books on religion by Chinese scholars and translations of Western religious texts selling in local bookstores. I offered lectures on feminist theology in top universities and a Protestant seminary. Religion was no longer a taboo subject. These kinds of exchanges would have been unimaginable twenty years ago.

Packed with conspiracy theories, while claiming to be about sustainability.

“My situation isn’t isolated to Mormonism. But to suggest that it doesn’t exist in Mormonism is just bullshit. Abuse of power happens in every religion.”

While the details of Loughner’s views on currency and language might not have a following, they differ only in degree and not in kind from the autodidactic, eccentric musings of senatorial candidates who cite the unconstitutionality of unemployment insurance and minimum wage, who see in health care reform a plot to kill senior citizens, who propose the gold standard as a solution to the national debt, or who question the president’s birth certificate. If Loughner’s radical vision of individual autonomy is deranged and psychotic, it is a kind of derangement and psychosis that increasingly characterizes our political climate.

The decision to deploy the image of innocent childhood at the end of Obama’s Tuscon speech seemed strange then, and still seems strange now.

Like superheroes, the Captain America redemptive hero does all the work, requiring no sacrifice from us. The prophetic model, like Martin Luther King Jr., asks us to see collective meaning in suffering.