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I’m a preacher and I can say with near certainty that 99% of the sermons preached yesterday morning didn’t get close to the level of truth-telling that’s needed. Nor will the compulsory “thoughts and prayers” pronouncements, nor the words spoken at memorial services over the next days and weeks.

Attitudes about sex have come to signal a person or group’s attitudes about modernity itself. Arguments about gender roles, birth control, abortion, sex education, and LGBTQ rights have become central to the religious and political identity of American Christians.

Pete Buttigieg and other Democrats have begun to talk up their Christian beliefs in hope of appealing to more voters, but there are a few problems with that approach.

The Department of Justice has quietly released the final report on a two-year pilot program on “Suspicious Activity Reporting.” This program, the latest product of the domestic security overhaul following September 11, 2001 is cause for alarm, according to a recently published study Platform for Prejudice, by Political Research Associates (PRA).

The anti-abortion movement is using the idea of “Black Genocide” to reduce the number of abortions among African American communities.

The Department of Justice has quietly released the final report on a two-year pilot program on “Suspicious Activity Reporting.” This program, the latest development of the domestic security overhaul following September 11, 2001 is cause for alarm, according to a recently published study Platform for Prejudice, by Political Research Associates (PRA).

On March 25, 2010, a forum at NYU School of Law explored the role of agents provocateurs in several high-profile terrorism cases. Powerful testimony from the families and lawyers for defendants in several cases, raised an important question about each of the cases: would there have been a criminal act or plan if the FBI had not paid agent provocateurs to become involved? Was the FBI involved in capturing “homegrown terrorists” or were they making them?

According to students at the University of Texas-Dallas, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation approached them on campus and at work to inquire about their beliefs and affiliations. Without a reasonable suspicion that individuals were involved in illegal activity, such tracking is not only unconstitutional, but ultimately counterproductive.

The Los Angeles Police Department encourages the public to spy on neighbors and file suspicious activity reports about innocent (non-criminal) activities that seem out of place through its “iWatch” program. A new report by Political Research Associates explains how such programs practically invite racial, ethnic, and religious profiling that not only harms individuals who get singled out, but is ultimately counter-productive in terms of combatting terrorism.

Why are Boston Transit Police Studying Islam? While reading the February/March 2010 issue of the industry magazine Counter Terrorist (a publication of Security Solutions International), I came across a troubling advertisement.