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Was Dr. Braxton “too black” for Riverside Church? Progressive Christianity’s salvation may rest in the hands of the stereotypically primitive and cathartic world of non-white and non-mainline churches.

Young people are being trained by militant anti-abortion groups to be informed, media-savvy, publicity-oriented foot soldiers in the battle to outlaw abortion.

What is Calvin’s legacy today? For most, he evokes the most stern and punitive theology of groups like the Puritans, but the reality is far more complex and the legacy more far reaching. In this personal recollection, scholar Paula Cooey recalls wrestling with his vision of joy and cruelty in equal measure, noting that, in alongside his rigid and capitalistic descendants, sits a left-wing legacy among radical LGBT activists and some Marxists.

In their campaign to malign Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, Republican senators have confused empathy for sympathy, blatantly distorting the meaning of a word for political purposes.

Bishop Harry Jackson, pleading for the president to maintain the ban on same-sex marriage, calls it the number one domestic issue. But what about, say, the unemployment rate? Will the ban help those without jobs?

Beltway pundits like to think of themselves as impartial umpires representing all points of view in the spirit of “Niebuhrian humility” without realizing that their uncritical acceptance of all points of view is, at best, not very Niebuhrian.

These days, rituals of mourning, praise, and eulogies for celebrities are often enacted in and through the media sphere.

With apologies to Reza Aslan, he is not an unbiased scholar of the historical Jesus, or of the history of Islam, or of any other phenomenon in the study of religion. Nor is any Christian or Jewish scholar, or any liberal or conservative scholar. I just wish he had said so.

Iran’s Green Revolt is about freedom and democracy, sure. But it usually has to take form in a particular issue or, as in the case of a growing portion of Iran’s youth, in song. Meet the resistance in the form of the underground music scene.

With her resignation as Alaska’s governor, rumors are flying about Palin’s plans to run for president in 2012. But what do the numbers reveal about her effect on the McCain ticket in 2008? In fact, among key religious demographics, they don’t bode well for the “hockey mom” from Alaska.