Please Stop Making God an Accomplice to the Newtown Massacre
No one knows what to say in moments like this. But we utter many things about God. Do we really mean these things? The divine love is not complicit in their deaths. The divine love does not call the victims out of their lives. The divine love does not withhold protection.
Saint Reagan, Pay For Us (Sangre de Reagan)
Turning the blood of Ronald Reagan into a commodity and a means of profit fits alarmingly well with the ideology of those who have worked tirelessly to transform the ex-President into an American Saint.
It Is Time to Occupy Christmas, and End the Real War on Christmas
The Real ‘War On Christmas’ is not the one over which the right-wing punditocracy annually wrings its hands. Too long has the profit motive occupied Christmas. Perhaps it is time for Christians to Occupy Christmas, instead…
The 99% Occupy Movement: We Need Interclass Dialogue for Mutual Transformation, Liberation
The Occupy Movement has identified itself using the term 99%. On the face, this seems to present a permanent dichotomy between the 1% of richest people, and the 99% of the rest of us. Of course, there is no way to erase the simple fact that there will always be a richest 1%, and so [...]
Vocation and Failure: How Bachmann, Cain, Perry, and Santorum Can All Be ‘Called’ to Run
According to their own testimony, God has called Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum to run for President. God has even, reportedly, called Mike Huckabee to keep his cushy media job and not to run. There is no shortage of coverage of these divine vocations. Much of the writing on the subject [...]
Interreligious Dialogue and 9/11? Fanaticism is Not Religion.
As we hurry forward toward the tenth anniversary of 9/11/2001, all sorts of discussions are popping up, and many of them have an interfaith perspective. I am a huge fan and proponent of, and participator in interreligious dialogue. But, I honestly don’t see what the actions of fanatics on 9/11 has to do with an [...]
Stop Worshipping the Enriched
So, do you think that God is a really-really-, super-, mega-, über-rich being in the sky? Even if you say you don’t, I challenge you to question a little deeper. If your tax and political ideology effectively worship the rich, by giving all to them then I think you really do worship money, you really do worship the enriched persons who by their actions impoverish the rest of us.
Magical Thinking in Politics and Religion
Okay. Let me throw this out there, and then let me know what you think… The TeaParty Republicans who are seriously threatening to rain down suffering in every direction through dismantling the world economy by thwarting efforts to increase the US debt-ceiling must believe that the vast structures and infrastructures and services that are the [...]
Same Sex Marriage and Interfaith Dialogue: Mere Equality or the Right to Be and Act Differently?
No doubt we are all aware of the outcomes of the collaboration of Republican and Democratic politicians in New York on 24 June 2011 which made New York the sixth state (in the United States) to legalize same sex marriage. In the wake of this, so much has been said about this triumph of equality, [...]
The Body of Priced
These used to be regarded as failings, deficiencies and sins: greed, envy, gluttony, lust. Now our highest values seem to be embodied in these once deadly sins which are now reformed into virtues. By the forces of materialistic consumerism and consumption we are being consumed. Every day we are fed a steady diet of dissatisfaction, frustration and [...]
Paul Joseph Greene
Paul Joseph Greene is attending the second year of his doctoral program, seeking a Ph.D. in systematic theology at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota. "Let's talk interreligiously about liberation, identity, power, privilege, creative transformation, process, politics, and Glee! And by virtue of our relationship, let's become a new creation together."
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Contributing Scholars
Daniel HallAs a staff member of the Soka Gakkai International-USA Buddhist Association, Daniel directs awareness raising initiatives centered on the U.N. Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace. In May 2012, he completed a Master of Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California and has since conducted research in this area as an independent scholar. His research interests include faith diplomacy, media and religion, and the role of transnational non-state actors in global affairs. In 2013, Palgrave Macmillan will publish his article titled "Pope John Paul II, Radio Free Europe and Faith Diplomacy" as part of a new volume on religion and public diplomacy.
Adam HollowellAdam Hollowell received a Ph.D. in theological ethics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 2009, where his research focused on Christian political theology, philosophical perspectives on church and state, and theories of justified war. Through his current position at Duke University Chapel, he teaches undergraduate courses on religion, politics, and ethics in the department of religion and Sanford School of Public Policy.
SujatoBhante Sujato is a Buddhist monk from Australia. He ordained and practiced in the Thai forest meditation tradition before setting up Santi Forest Monastery near Sydney, Australia. He is a historical scholar of early Buddhism and has published a number of books, which may be found at santipada.org. He is deeply involved in the interfaith and environmental movements in Australia, and is well known as an advocate for women's rights, especially the full ordination of women in Buddhism.