Common wisdom holds that the people who take the Bible most seriously in America are those from the conservative traditions who claim a literalist interpretation of the “The Bible says it and I believe it” variety. But try telling these same people that there are two creation stories or that God refers to God’s self in the plural and they give you a blank expression. …

Like Paul, I grew up in a tradition that didn’t pay much if any attention Good Friday, or see anything terribly ironic about the adjective “Good.”  I’ve come to see that omission (and with it the implication that the crucifixion didn’t really happen on any meaningful level, or represented sort of a magic trick played on…

All day Wednesday, MSNBC advertised a discussion about the “new role” of religion and politics to be aired on the Chris Matthews Show.   When the show began, guest host Mike Barnicle announced that the debate would feature atheist Christopher Hitchens and Religious Right activist Ken Blackwell.  Why does the media insist on believing that American…

Yesterday, on the first day of Holy Week in the western Christian world, President Obama addressed Turkey’s Grand National Assembly and declared that the United States “is not and never will be at war with Islam.” “Our partnership with the Muslim world is critical in rolling back a violent ideology that people of all faiths…

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