Category: Popular Culture
The Humanist Obligation to Serve: Being “Good without God” Requires Action
“I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion — and where it isn’t, that’s where my work lies.” — Ram Dass Ten years ago, in the summer before my f... Read More
Justice, Osama bin Laden, and American Civil Religion
As I sat on my couch scanning Twitter and listening to the President describe the killing of Osama bin Laden, I realized that this was a high moment in American civil religion. Thanks to a couple coll... Read More
How Hoops Can Fix Your Oops (or, A Lighthearted Treatise on the Wisdom of Basketball’s Justice)
Let’s talk about the cost of the clink: With the United States having the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world, with costs to maintain it soaring, and with high recidivism, most Am... Read More
What Do Americans Really Believe?
Are mega-churches more intimate than small congregations? Are atheists more superstitious or likely to believe in the paranormal than conservative Christians? Do many Americans believe some "non-relig... Read More
Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep
Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake; I pray the Lord my soul to take. I sometimes pray that prayer before I go to sleep. My parents taught it to ... Read More
Demonstration Denied in Dearborn; Dawud Declares Doubts
Anti-Islam pastor Terry Jones takes his show to Michigan…or at least attempts to. In a bid to become to Muslims what Fred Phelps has been to gays and the military, Jones announced that he and hi... Read More
Not Theology, but Authority: Rob Bell and the Evangelical Institutional Establishment
The criticism of Rob Bell’s Love Wins is not about theology. It is all about authority. In case you missed the hubbub surrounding Rob Bell’s book, Love Wins, I point you to Sara StaelyR... Read More
When You Just Shouldn’t Say Anything: Sam Harris and the Qur’an
I try to be as generous as possible. I try to listen first, think things through, give others the benefit of the doubt. But when someone says something so ignorant, so poorly thought-out, and so disho... Read More