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In Defense of Secularism
In the public school I went to in the 1970s, “secular” was A neutral, descriptive word. Our social-studies teacher taught us that ours was a “secular” government, by which she meant that we lived free of any religion established by the state. We were to be proud of this secular government, she told us; it
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✴︎ Religion
The Smart Shepherd
Place: New York City. Time: 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning. It’s fair to say that many, if not most, of the inhabitants of Manhattan
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4 Sale: Bones of the Saints
There’s always strange stuff for sale on eBay
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Romney and Religion
On paper, Mitt Romney was an excellent candidate for the Republican nomination for president. Handsome, professionally successful, personally wealthy, happily married and with a blemish-free past, Romney looked like a pretty good bet. He was pitching himself as a conservative’s conservative
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Heaven is A Place On Earth
Reincarnation, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is “rebirth in new bodies or forms of life; especially: a rebirth of a soul in a new human body.” This ancient belief, a core belief of more than 800 million Hindus, has been in the news, most recently because of allegations in Andrew Morton’s new book, “Tom Cruise:
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Is It Good For the Jews?
In the 20th Century no group was better at chronicling its own experience than the American Jews. You want self-loathing, assimilation and paranoia? Turn to Philip Roth. You want bright young women resisting and yet conforming to family expectations? Check out Allegra Goodman. You want the passionate rediscovery of Jewish history and values? Turn to
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Moderates Storm The Religious Battlefield
You might think of 2007 as the year the atheists won. They didn’t succeed in converting the 86 percent of Americans who say they believe in God into nonbelievers
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Bless This Bottled Water
You need only go back to the first chapter of Genesis to see how elemental water is to the observance of faith: “And the Spirit of God,” the Bible says, “moved upon the face of the waters.” In the Torah, water is used to ordain priests and to purify the sons of Aaron before they
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AIDS And The Pastor’s Wife
You might think of this week as Kay Warren’s coming-out party. Her husband, Rick, who is perhaps the most celebrated evangelical pastor in the world under the age of 60, has long said that his commitment to solving the international AIDS crisis, culminating in the third global AIDS summit held at his Saddleback church in
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✴︎ Religion
The Myth of the Evangelical Voting Bloc
Rick Warren, the influential pastor of the Saddleback megachurch in Orange County, Calif., invited eight presidential candidates to speak at his third annual “Global Summit on AIDS and the Church,” but only Hillary Clinton came. (Five other candidates made appearances via pretaped video.) Clinton’s speech at the church on Thursday