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A group named Anonymous has been using electronic sabotage and staging street demonstrations against Scientology in what may be a first—an unaffiliated, secular group protesting an entire religion.

Opponents of health care reform have raised the specter of Terri Schiavo to mobilize “pro-life” activists and the elderly, but what they forget is that this case was a powerful instance of an unpopular government intervention in a family matter. They can’t have it both ways.

Is American sexual culture schizophrenic? Yes, and this has everything to do with the sexual politics of the religious right. Sexual opportunity is everywhere, but sexual rights have, at the same time, been concretely eroded.

The brand-new Acropolis Museum, designed to showcase the repatriated plunder of another century, has instead a few other things to offer—among them, views of other museum-goers from beneath, as well as a newly censored video showing Greek Christians hard at work destroying Classical art.

Sam Harris, a leading voice in the so-called New Atheism, believes that religious faith disqualifies a leading scientist from heading the National Institutes of Health. What does this reveal about the ideological prejudices of this brand of secularism?

Set against the backdrop of the recent closure of a Knesset cafeteria due to an unkosher cockroach, Shalom Goldman takes an entertaining and meandering look at the state of affairs in Israel. Touching on topics as disparate as the alliteration-happy Israeli media and racist policy proposals, Goldman brings into sharp relief some of the tensions in Israeli religious and cultural life, much of which remains at the mercy of the Orthodox rabbinate.

A new study reveals that the majority of Israelis view the conflict with Palestine through the lens of fear, throwing their support behind a parade of bellicose and paranoid leaders. Until the cycle of victimhood and aggression is broken no amount of pressure from the U.S., vain military adventures, or Labor Party victories will alter the tragic stalemate in the region.

Much of the coverage of Turkey can be politely described as ‘trampoline journalism’—bounce into Taksim and bounce out. What I saw in Istanbul didn’t match the feverish descriptions that made it even onto the BBC or that clogged up my Twitter feed. More relevant to me, almost no one was interested in hearing from religious Turks. So I went ahead and talked to them.

Given that so many powerful Pentecostals and Charismatics, like Senator John Ensign and Sarah Palin, are embroiled in high-profile scandals, one might expect to hear more about the movements that unite them. Anthea Butler, a leading scholar on Pentecostalism and American religious history, traces the various movements and their theologies of wealth, healing, and dominion.

Does morality come from religion or is it merely “the language games of one’s time”? Are the most basic moral boundaries we evolved that make life easier and less chaotic a reflection of the character of God? If there is no God, or if He doesn’t care about us, then our common morality is still the result of practical, reality-based needs, which also “teach” that a good life depends on the “Do unto others…” ethic.