By Jeremy Schwartz and Jessica Priest | – Co-published with The Texas Tribune ( ProPublica) – Six days before a local runoff election last year in Frisco, a prosperous and growing suburb of Dallas, Brandon Burden paced the stage of KingdomLife Church. The pastor told congregants that demonic spirits were operating through members of the […]
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Christianity
From Veiling to Abortion, Iran’s Theocrats seek to Control Women’s Bodies, just as do U.S. Republican Theocrats
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Saturday, hard line Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi announced that his government would pull out the stops to crush the popular unrest sweeping the country that was sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa “Zhina” Amini, 22, a Kurdish young woman who was arrested by the morals police for […]
Expanding the Occupation of Palestinians in the Name of Jesus
Most people agree that imperialism has been a very bad thing for the world. American Indian leader Dennis Means addressed a capacity crowd at the Rackham Auditorium at the University of Michigan in 1981. When I asked him to compare the plight of American Indians with the Palestinians, Mr. Means said, “Palestinians are the Indians […]
Justice Alito Laments Disrespect for Religion as Americans Abandon Faith – Will his Dobbs Push them Further Away?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – CNN’s Ariane de Vogue, reports that Justice Samuel Alito, a right wing Catholic, gave a speech in Rome for Notre Dame last week, which has finally become public. Alito posed as a defender of religious freedom, but what he seemed to mean by that was the religious people who are […]
In Sea Change, US Presbyterian Committee brands Israel’s Occupation of Palestinians Apartheid, calls for end to Collective Punishment in Gaza
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Last week, the International Engagement Committee of the 1.2-million-strong Presbyterian Church passed a resolution entitled, “On Recognition That Israel’s Laws, Policies, and Practices Constitute Apartheid Against the Palestinian People.” There are roughly 75 million Presbyterians around the world, and it has a strong presence in Africa, with 3.4 million members […]
Does Megadrought of the 500s in Yemen help Explain the Rise of Islam?
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new article in the journal Science gives evidence for a prolonged dry spell in the kingdom of Himyar (which now would comprise Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia and Oman) in the 500s. Since the Prophet Muhammad is traditionally said to have been born in 567 or 570, any new information […]
America’s religious Communities are divided over the issue of Abortion
Interview by Kalpana Jain, The Conversation | – Interviewed: Luis Josué Salés, Scripps College; Rachel Mikva, Chicago Theological Seminary; Samira Meht University of Colorado Boulder; Steven K. Green, Willamette University; Susan M. Shaw; Oregon State University. Since the first indications that the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, following a […]
Patriarchy and Purity Culture Silence Evangelical, Southern Baptist Women amid Sexual Abuse Scandals
By Julie Ingersoll, University of North Florida | – A devastating yearlong investigation into the executive committee of the largest conservative evangelical denomination in the U.S., the Southern Baptist Convention, has documented widespread claims of sex abuse including accusations of rape, cover-ups and gross mistreatment of women seeking justice. In 2019 the Houston Chronicle and […]
Cole Interview: The Qur’an, the Crucifixion and Jews: Rebutting Iranian War Propaganda against Byzantium
Ziryab Jamal interviewed me on my article: Juan Cole, “‘It was made to appear to them so’: the crucifixion, Jews and Sasanian war propaganda in the Qur’ān,” Religion 51, 3 (2021): 404-422. He kindly permitted me to put up the raw video of the interview with video here: Some of the points in the article […]