Fundamentalism

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 […]

censorship

In Demolishing Muslim protestors’ homes, India is taking a Leaf from of Israel’s Book

Omar Ahmed

( Middle East Monitor ) – Over the weekend Indian authorities bulldozed several homes belonging to Muslims in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). The homeowners were alleged to have taken part in organised protests on Friday in response to inflammatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) made by the now […]

Christianity

Critical race theory is an important tool in better understanding how religion operates in America

The Conversation

By Tiffany Puett | – ( The Conversation) – The debate over critical race theory has played out in TV studios, school board meetings and state legislatures across the U.S. It has also found its way into churches. The theory comprises a set of concepts that frame racism as structural, rather than simply expressed through […]

Civil Rights

90 Years of Secular Progress: As Fundamentalism Weakened, I saw America grow Strong and Diverse

James A. Haught

Charleston, WV (Special to Informed Comment) – I’ll be 90 on my next birthday. My long life is sinking, shrinking, slip-sliding away. My wife is worse: bedfast, under Hospice care. Soon, our world will end, not with a bang but a whimper. Looking back over nine decades, I’m proud and pleased because secular humanism – […]

Fundamentalism

Right Wing Laws to “protect religious freedom” Enable Fundamentalists to Discriminate

James A. Haught

Charleston, W.Va. (Informed Comment) – Across America, right-wing politicians pass “religious freedom” laws that have a single purpose: to let narrow-minded believers discriminate against gays — an intolerance that is illegal for other people under human rights laws. In other words, only born-again Christians are allowed to express prejudice and hostility, while other Americans live […]

Authoritarianism

From biblical times to Trump, false messiahs have doomed societies

The Conversation

By Kimberly Stratton | – The prophet Jeremiah records in excruciating detail the catastrophic events leading to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BCE. Jeremiah describes the devastating famine, escalating sense of fear and ominous foreboding that permeated the city despite optimistic oracles issued in the royal court by prophets, who promised divine […]

Christians

How did Washington State get sensible Sex Education Passed? The Religious Right is Collapsing

James A. Haught

Here’s a dramatic example of the growing power of Americans who say their religion is “none”: Last spring, progressives in the Washington state legislature, backed by Planned Parenthood, mandated that all public schools must teach sensible, practical sex education. The goal: to prevent teen pregnancy, reduce sexual disease, save girls from “date rape,” caution grade-schoolers […]

Donald Trump

Is America Flowing Demographically to the Left? Why Trump’s White Evangelicals aren’t the Force they were under Reagan or Bush

James A. Haught

Charleston, W.V. (Special to Informed Comment) – Maybe 2020 is a turning point – one that won’t be clearly visible until the future. Maybe it marks the end of the four-decade epoch when the white evangelical “religious right” had enough power to tip American elections to the GOP. White evangelicals fought fiercely for Republicans this […]

al-Qaeda

Heroic Values: What do radical Islam and militant Christianity have in common? Part II

Bert de Vries

( Christian Courier Canada) – Evangelicals were looking for a protector,” Kristin Du Mez says, to explain their attraction to President Trump in 2016, “an aggressive, heroic, manly man, someone who wasn’t restrained by political correctness or feminine virtues, someone who would break the rules for the right cause” (Jesus and John Wayne, 253). The […]