Christianity

What did the Likud Government Expect? “Evangelical” is right there in their Name

Tear them down? “White Jesus” statues have an Unsavory History in Aryan Racial Theory that also Influenced Nazi Theology

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Emily McFarlan at the Religion News Service explores the controversy over depictions of Jesus as white in American statues. She notes that Brooklyn activist and podcaster Shaun King wrote that “Yes, I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down. They are a […]

Christianity

I’m Outraged By Trump’s Church Photo-Op: A Nun Speaks Out

OtherWords

By Sister Karen M. Donahue | – (Otherwords.org) – As a Catholic sister, I think Trump should read his Bible, not pose with it. By Sister Karen M. Donahue | June 3, 2020 In the book of Jeremiah, the Hebrew prophet shares instructions from God about entering a place of worship. “Stand at the gate […]

Christianity

Top 4 Reasons Trump is playing to Evangelicals by Demanding Church Reopening at cost of Mass Infection

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Trump on Friday attempted to declare church services “essential” and called for their reopening, threatening to overrule governors who begged to differ. Although he paid lip service to synagogues and mosques, he was obviously mainly interested in supporting his evangelical base. Trump has never been exactly what you would call […]

Books

Fundamentalist Pandemics: What Evangelicals and Khomeinists Could Learn From The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam

Juan Cole

This essay by Juan Cole was originally published in Tomdispatch.com. See the original for a perceptive introductory essay by Tom Engelhardt. This spring, the novel coronavirus pandemic has raised the issue of the relationship between the blindest kind of religious faith and rational skepticism — this time in two countries that think of themselves as […]

Christianity

What Christians can Learn from Islam about Easter: The Qur’an denied Jews were Responsible for the Cross

Juan Cole

Revised Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – That the Qur’an recognizes the virgin birth, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus is something worth remembering on Easter. In a nativity scene about Jesus’s supernatural precociousness, the Qur’an has him speak in the cradle, saying, (Mary 19:33): “So peace be upon me, the day I was born, […]

Bill of Rights

From Stoning Gays to Endorsing Slavery: The Problem with Bible Classes in State Schools

James A. Haught

(Syndicated to Informed Comment) – Here in Appalachia’s Bible Belt, conservatives in the Legislature want to force all West Virginia public high schools to teach Bible classes, as occurs in several other Republican-controlled states. I wonder how such classes handle Bible topics like these: First, the Bible decrees that gay males must be killed. Leviticus […]

Assyrians

Trump Administration Says Iraq is Dangerous for Christians, until it Wants to Deport Them

ProPublica

By Yeganeh Torbati | – To deport Iraqi Christians, Trump’s immigration officials rely on testimony saying they won’t be at particular risk. But to justify funding and attention, officials elsewhere in the administration say the Christians face grave danger. (ProPublica) – Even as U.S. immigration officials have pushed to deport hundreds of Iraqi Christians over […]

Christianity

On How Christians and Jews are “muslims”: The Real meaning of “Islam” in the Qur’an

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As used in the Qur’an, Islam (al-islam in Arabic) doesn’t mean what people think it means. It doesn’t mean “peace,” though it is from a common root. It doesn’t mean the religion of the Prophet Muhammad. It doesn’t mean submission to God. I’ve come to believe that the accretions of […]