Obama and King
Adele Oltman : Martin Luther King Jr.
As Obama accepts his party's presidential nomination on the forty-fifth anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, a historian looks beyond the obvious analogies.
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When Pastors Go Postal
Barbara Ehrenreich
The case against Victoria Osteen embodies the narcissism of those who preach the Gospel of prosperity.
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Flocking to Faith
Katha Pollitt : Presidential Election 2008
Obama's incredible faith-based initiative.
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Who's Afraid of Judy Maccabee?
Katha Pollitt : Judaism & Jews
Women increasingly are taking leadership roles in Jewish life--and that's a problem?
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Dorothy Day's Day
Colman McCarthy : Peace Activism
The movement she inspired--passionate, pacifist and siding with the scorned--is seventy-five and going strong.
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Preaching to the Choir
Max Blumenthal : Barack Obama
With little to lose and everything to gain, Obama has lifted high the cross. But are there invisible strings attached?
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Warriors for Zion--in California
Jon Wiener : Higher Education
Accusations by right-wing Zionists of anti-Semitism at the University of California, Irvine, are suspect at best.
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Are Evangelicals Going Green?
American News Project : Global Warming & Climate Change
How solidly Republican will Christian evangelicals be in 2008? Could concern about the planet be the issue that draws many believers into the Democratic camp?
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Beyond Belief
Jeff Sharlet : Non-Fiction
Can the wall between church and state balance the principles of neutrality and accomodation?
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Daniel Berrigan: Forty Years After Catonsville
Chris Hedges : Peace Activism
Time and age have not blunted his fierce critique of American empire and his radical interpretation of the Gospels.
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McCain's Pastor: US Should Destroy Islam
Brave New Films & Mother Jones : John McCain
Since the media won't question McCain about his deeply bigoted pastor, it's up to you to call attention to this issue.
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Men of the Cloth
Katha Pollitt : Feminism & Women
When it comes to keeping women pregnant and in their place, polygamous Mormons and the Pope have a lot in common.
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The Liberation of Reverend Wright
Eudora Smith : Presidential Election 2008
The media's portrayal of Obama's former pastor as racist reflects an ignorance about the black church and its rhetorical traditions.
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War of The Word
Robert Scheer : Presidential Election 2008
Why the fuss over Obama's pastor when Bible-based damnations for bad behavior is made in both black and white churches?
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Hillary's Nasty Pastorate
Barbara Ehrenreich : Presidential Election 2008
When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, Hillary Clinton is a lot more vulnerable than Obama.
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Who Would Jesus Vote For?
Bob Moser : Conservatives & The American Right
The new evangelicals are rejecting the religious right and embracing a broader social gospel.
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Good Faith
Daniel Lazare : Philosophy
Two authors posit very different views on the problem of religious conflict in a supposedly secular age.
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Gimme Shelter
Sasha Abramsky : Immigration to the US
Immigrants facing deportation find shelter with the religious New Sanctuary Movement.
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Gandhi's Teachings Are Alive
Rev. Jesse L. Jackson : India
Mohandas K. Gandhi, killed sixty years ago, was a moment in the conscience of mankind. But the flame of hope his life inspired shapes our lives still.
2007
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Playing the God Card
John Nichols : Presidential Election 2008
It's not Romney's Mormon faith that threatens the core values of a secular nation. It's Huckabee's messianic candidacy.
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Why I Won't Be Invited to Mitt Romney's White House
My top-ten list of reasons why I gave God the old heave-ho.
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Beyond the Veil
Laila Lalami : Civil Rights & Liberties
A new book examines headscarf hysteria and the politics of identity in contemporary France.
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The Culture War Descends on Columbia
Esther Kaplan : Higher Education
David Horowitz's Islamofascism Awareness Week hits the already beleaguered campus.
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The Rockies Get Off Their Knees
As baseball's most sanctimonious team heads to the World Series, the Colorado Rockies are playing down their holier-than-thou image.
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With Facts on Our Side
Katha Pollitt : Reproductive Rights
Faced with a choice between facts and theology, antichoicers choose the latter every time.
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Turkey's Finest Hour?
The sick man of Europe gets a jolt of life, but will it last?
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When Monks Get Mad
If you think the Buddhist monks challenging the military regime in Myanmar are passive and peaceful, think again.
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Frank Schaeffer Goes Crazy for God
Jane Smiley : Protestantism & Protestants
The original poster child for the religious right describes how he came to terms with religion and an odd upbringing.
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Onward, Secular Soldiers
Katha Pollitt : Electoral Politics
Memo to candidates: There are more atheists, agnostics and skeptics out there than you think. How about sending us some love?
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The Mystery of Mother Teresa
Richard Rodriguez & Mary Ambrose
That a woman perceived of possessing great personal holiness turns out to be a person who suffered doubt in her experience with God deepens her mystery, rather than lessens it.
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The New Atheists
An increasingly outspoken community of atheists and agnostics is getting fed up with being marginalized, ignored and insulted.
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Agent of Intolerance
Max Blumenthal : Racism & Discrimination
Jerry Falwell is best known for crusading against abortion and homosexuality. But early on, he skillfully used race to galvanize the Christian right.
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Among the Disbelievers
In their rush to throw out God, atheist writers appear to have given little thought to what should replace Him.
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Mormons, in a Flattering Light
A new PBS documentary provides a lush but not very enlightening look at Mormons in America.
2006
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God's Willing Executioners
God's War explores the barbaric clash of Christianity and Islam, and what happens when people follow religious voices that no one else can hear.
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In God's Country
The secular left should think twice before casting religious people as its foes. After all, alienating potential allies and confining ourselves to a small sect of like-minded believers is what fundamentalism is all about.
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Warlords of the First Amendment
Patricia J. Williams : 1st Amendment
A right-wing radio host on the vanguard of the English Only movement provides a platform for religious crazies to keep them from ruining the funeral of murdered Amish girls.
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Torture is a Moral Issue
Will we be a nation that abides by our own Constitution and upholds international law? Or will we become a nation that punishes those who follow the orders while exonerating those who give them?
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Bush and the Ten Commandments
Brooke Allen & Patrick Doyle : George W. Bush
No President in living memory is as overtly religious as George W. Bush. But just how well have the President and his henchmen kept the commandments?
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Biker Mecca on Sacred Ground
Anne Keala Kelly : Native Americans
Native American activists are braced for a tense summer, as a motorcycling entrepreneur goes forward with plans for a resort that will draw hundreds of thousands of bikers to the sacred site of Bear Butte.
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William Sloane Coffin Jr.
The Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr. was one of the antiwar movement's most prophetic voices, a man who dedicated his life to the pursuit of peace and justice.
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Theocons and Theocrats
Kevin Phillips : Republican Party
The infusion of religion into American politics has become the GOP's Achilles' heel, turning the Republican Party of Lincoln into the party of theocracy.
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A Conversation With Dan Wakefield
Eric Stoner : Radical Religious Right
Dan Wakefield talks about his new book, The Hijacking of Jesus, and his optimism about the growing power of the religious left.
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Rabbit's Revenge
Time-honored traditions of Christianity are being challenged by scientists and scholars questioning the motives of Jesus, Judas and the power of prayer.
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Taking Back the Faith
Dan Wakefield : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
Where are the progressive religious leaders who can fill the shoes of William Sloane Coffin?
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Bringing God Into It
Rabbi Michael Lerner : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
The secular left consistently disarms itself of what could be its most powerful weapon against the religious right: a spiritual vision of the world.
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Looking for Salvation in All the Wrong Places
Frances Kissling : Progressives, Liberals, & The American Left
Progressive religious leaders should be sensitive to the danger that unexamined God-based public policy presents, whether it comes from the right or the left.
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Robert Scheer: 'Anti-Christian Conspirators' Slay DeLay
Tom DeLay claims to see a vast anti-Christian conspiracy in the legal troubles that forced him out of the House--though his own sins would seem to be sufficient explanation.
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With God on Our Side?
Eric Alterman : US Politics & Government
The right-wing hijacking of religion's public role in our political discourse is as undeniable as it is inappropriate, and represents one of liberalism's most serious problems.
2005
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Limbo to Close: Mass Evictions Expected
The Vatican is about to close limbo, the theological netherworld where unbaptized babies, prophets and philosophers were believed to reside in lieu of heaven. This is causing a whole new set of problems.
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Imitation of Art
The Chronicles of Narnia is the perfect combination of Christian allegory and The Lord of the Rings, a well-crafted commodity and nothing more. The Ice Harvest, an anti-Christmas film noir, has an unexpected depth of feeling. Memoirs of a Geisha is all prestige and promotions.
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Intelligible Design
Katha Pollitt : Religious Fundamentalism
Intellectually, scientifically, even artistically, fundamentalism is a road to nowhere, because it insists on fidelity to revealed truths that are not true.
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A Robertson Republican
Bush's paean to his staunchest ally's murderous impulses, with apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan.
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Preaching Justice, Slaying Demons
Max Blumenthal : US Politics & Government
As the Christian right gathered in Nashville for Justice Sunday II, they demonized their enemies and offered lukewarm praise for John G. Roberts.
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Just a Theory
Patricia J. Williams : George W. Bush
Recently it seems discussion on culture goes well beyond careless epithet and into a land with no common ground.
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Brooklyn Prof in Godless Shocker
People who believe in academic freedom should denounce CUNY's treatment of an atheist professor.
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Our Godless Constitution
Brooke Allen : US Politics & Government
The faith of our Founding Fathers definitely wasn't Christianity.
2004
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Sex & the Clergy
Frances Kissling : Reproductive Rights
The religious left needs to deal with gender, sex and reproduction.
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Earthly Rewards for the Christian Voter
Katha Pollitt : Feminism & Women
Has the Christian right really so little to show for its self-sacrifice?
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Closing the 'Religion Gap'
Bringing more churchgoers into the fold poses a complex challenge for Democrats.
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Sacred Rite or Civil Right?
Rev. Howard Moody : Marriage & Divorce
Gay marriage shows why we need to separate church & state.
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With God on His Side...
Robert Scheer : George W. Bush
No wonder George W. Bush could lie to Congress with such impunity while keeping the key members of his Cabinet in the dark. He was serving a higher power.
2003
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Bush's Religious Language
It is remarkable how closely Bush's discourse coincides with that of the false prophets of the Old Testament.
2002
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Right Watch
With liberals wary and conservatives restive, it's been a turbulent year for Bush's faith-based initiative.
2001
This week: Christian Parenti on the Chinese middle class and the impact of the Olympics. Plus: Esther Kaplan and Eric Foner on the Democratic Party's unexpected struggle for the blue collar vote. (13mb mp3)
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