A new four-volume work from the Vatical Library suggests that the concerns of the papacy in the early modern period were focused almost entirely on the new threat posed by the Protestants. If some scientists, especially the astronomers, got caught in the cross-fire, then this was only because they were perceived to be Protestant-style “free thinkers.”
One perspective that new atheists and liberal multiculturalists share is that the religions are essentially the same (false and poisonous on the one hand, and true and beautiful on the other). I think this view is dangerous, disrespectful, and untrue.
The notorious Alliance Defense Fund, which seeks to abrogate the establishment clause of the First Amendment, has recruited an evangelical minister to endorse a candidate for governor from the pulpit in hopes of taking his case all the way to the Supreme Court. Such advocacy, of course, violates the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits any 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization from making political endorsements.
Forget the Mormons. Forget Pentecostalism. Hell, forget the Rastafarians. The most fascinating subgroup on the religious landscape at the moment is… soccer fanatics. Catholics are upset about a recent Hyundi commercial…