|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Martha Nussbaum $15.48
By Marc Cooper $16.47
$19
|
|
|
|
|
By William Pfaff — To understand what is happening in the eurozone, it is necessary to understand something of the past.
|
 AP/Ben Margot
|
By Robert Scheer — Once again President Barack Obama has come tantalizingly close to being terrific.
|
 AP/Stephanie Keith
|
By Chris Hedges — Retired Episcopal Bishop George Packard was arrested for the second time as part of the Occupy protests. His moral and intellectual courage stands in stark contrast with the timidity of nearly all clergy and congregants in all of our major religious institutions.
|
|
By William Pfaff — A novel aspect of the Republican campaign for the party’s presidential nomination has been the importance placed by some candidates, their admirers and some voters on the Catholic religion and certain claims to formal academic certification or endorsement.
|
|
By David Sirota — Here’s a newspaper headline that might induce a disbelieving double take: “Christians ‘More Likely to Be Leftwing’ And Have Liberal Views on Immigration and Equality.”
|
 Illustration by Mr. Fish
|
By Chris Hedges — Another Muslim activist has gone to prison as a result of the government’s criminalization of what people say and believe.
|
 Photo by Mushroom and Rooster (CC-BY-ND)
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — It’s hard not to notice that Christianity hasn’t been presented in its own best light during this election year because Christians have not exactly been putting forward their best selves.
|

|
The “Religion for Atheists” author tells Chris Hedges there’s a lot secular society can learn from religious institutions and traditions and he argues for a “neo-religious vision of using culture as scripture.”
|
 Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey (CC-BY)
|
This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Trayvon Martin and the Million Hoodie March; Rick Santorum’s Christian nation; Dave Zirin is “shock-raged” over the New Orleans Saints, and we get an update on the Super PACs now leasing our democracy. Plus: Mr. Fish and John Lennon.
|

|
This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Trayvon Martin and the Million Hoodie March; Rick Santorum’s Christian nation; Dave Zirin is “shock-raged” over the New Orleans Saints, and we get an update on the super PACs now leasing our democracy. Plus: Mr. Fish and John Lennon.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Republican presidential primaries this year have turned into a religious census. There is little precedent in modern politics for the extent to which a state’s choice for a nominee has coincided so closely with how many of its ballots were cast by white evangelical voters.
|
 Karger Campaign
|
By Howie Stier — Fred Karger is a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination—one of five remaining, if you count him.
|
 AP / Stuart Price
|
By Sara Weschler —
There is an evil man somewhere in Africa waging a brutal war for absolutely no reason. The biggest problem is that no one knows about him. But if “we” spread the word and pressure the U.S. for military assistance, then by the end of this year “we” can capture Kony and end this horror. Where do I even begin?
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — At their national conference this week, Catholic bishops should ponder how they transformed a moment of exceptional Catholic unity into an occasion for recrimination and anger.
|
 AP / Nariman El-Mofty
|
By Lauren Unger-Geoffroy — As American NGO employees await trial, propagandists beat the drums of public suspicion and the military maneuvers to preserve U.S. aid.
|
 White House / Pete Souza
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — They say that President Obama is a Muslim, but if he isn’t, he’s a secularist who is waging war on religion.
|
 Wikimedia Commons
|
Putting aside any of the possible reasons why Rick Santorum invoked the mighty evil that is Satan while spiritually assessing America during a speech at Ave Maria University in 2008, as that would constitute unhelpful speculation at this time, we think Forbes’ Josh Barro has some good points about the telling blind spots in Santorum’s diagnosis.
|
 Illustration by Mr. Fish
|
By Chris Hedges — Love, the defining and most glorious element in human life, reminds us of why we have been created for our brief sojourns on the planet.
|
|
By Joe Conason — President Obama’s adversaries don’t seem to realize they have fallen into a trap, whether the White House set them up intentionally or not.
|

|
Being a Catholic himself, Stephen Colbert is able to break down for the layperson (read: godless liberal) the Vatican’s stance on contraception, which recently became a hot-button (read: wedge) issue for Campaign 2012.
|
 Christopher Macsurak (CC-BY)
|
By Eugene Robinson — At ease, Christian soldiers. There is no “war on religion,” no assault on the Catholic Church. A faith that has endured for thousands of years will survive even Nicki Minaj.
|
 White House / Pete Souza
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The problem with culture wars is that one side typically has absolutely no understanding of what the other is trying to say.
|
 YouTube
|
John Boehner’s keen instincts have compelled him to zero in on the highly charged—and politically advantageous—dispute about religious organizations and contraception coverage that’s currently reaching the boiling point on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, the House speaker made a special speech devoted to the topic on the floor of Congress.
|
 White House / Pete Souza
|
It’s an election year, so it’s time to play wedge issue roulette. Which culture war favorite is it going to be this time? Gay marriage? The Obama administration’s recent and contested decision to require Catholic organizations to provide birth control coverage to employees? Updated
|
 Flickr / Nate Grigg (CC-BY)
|
Health care, religion and contraception commingled in last weekend’s Sunday services at Catholic churches around the country after new health insurance rules from the Obama administration struck some church leaders as anathema to their beliefs and a threat to their religious freedom.
|
 photosteve101 (CC-BY-SA)
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — On contraception, Obama threw his progressive Catholic allies under the bus, strengthened the very forces inside the church that sought to derail the health care law, and created unnecessary problems for himself in the 2012 election.
|
 AP / Mary Ann Chastain
|
By Deanne Stillman — California may be a blue state in terms of voting patterns, but it’s very involved in red state politics, if you consider the role of evangelical voters.
|
 AP / Amr Nabil
|
By Lauren Unger-Geoffroy — Some Egyptian women have an answer for vigilantes armed with walking sticks: welts and words that are far from submissive.
|
 supremecourtus.gov
|
In a rare show of unity within our nation’s top judicial body, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the American government should steer clear of interfering in the employment practices and policies of religious organizations.
|
 Mr. Fish
|
By Mr. Fish — It said DOG on his food bowl, and because he showed no signs that he’d ever learn how to read or write, she decided that he must be dyslexic. So she called him GOD.
|
 Mr. Fish
|
By Chris Hedges — The true power of the Christian gospel is its unambiguous call for liberation from forces of oppression and for a fierce and uncompromising condemnation of all who oppress.
|
 Photo illustration from an image by Colin Grey (CC-BY)
|
This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Bill Boyarsky complicates the conventional wisdom on Mitt Romney; the Rev. Madison Shockley has a beef with the Catholic Church; a judge wants to ban Mexican-American education in Arizona; Mr. Fish applies his skeptical wit to the political process, and Robert Scheer on Iowa.
Posted on Jan 6, 2012
READ MORE
|

|
This week on Truthdig Radio in association with KPFK: Bill Boyarsky complicates the conventional wisdom on Mitt Romney; the Rev. Madison Shockley has a beef with the Catholic Church; a judge wants to ban Mexican-American education in Arizona; Mr. Fish applies his skeptical wit to the political process, and Robert Scheer on Iowa.
|
|
By Richard Reeves — It would seem that the United States has a five-party system right now. What was done in Iowa last Tuesday could unravel in New Hampshire, but whatever happens next, the United States is more politically fractured than it has been in decades.
|
 Abe Novy (CC-BY)
|
He fought a war against Hitler, gave us some of the best television ever and founded People for the American Way, so Norman Lear knows something about getting the job done. In this stirring editorial, the producer challenges us to get on board the Occupy train and fight for the American dream.
|
 Clay Junell (CC-BY-SA)
|
By William Pfaff — There are only three valid reasons why the Middle East, the focus of international attention as 2012 begins, is important to the United States and the European nations.
|
 AP / Dan Balilty
|
Attempts by ultraconservative Jews to impose their religious views on others in the town of Beit Shemesh have given rise to protests and a national debate about the character of what is, nobody denies, a religious state.
|
 Kevin Dooley (CC-BY)
|
By David Sirota — It’s a holiday tradition. Every December, with media charlatans turning the key, the fake outrage machine rumbles back to life.
|

|
In this excerpt from “The Cross and the Lynching Tree,” James H. Cone writes that the gospel is found wherever the wronged struggle for justice.
|
 barnesandnoble.com
|
When Paris became a Nazi stronghold in World War II, an Iranian diplomat by the name of Abdol-Hossein Sardari used his influence to help more than 2,000 Iranian Jews by making a creative case for their exemption from racial persecution and by issuing hundreds of passports, according to a new book.
|

|
Though he gives credit to Christopher Hitchens’ exceptional talent, Chris Hedges remembers the newly departed writer differently from the way others might in this clip from CBC Radio. In an unflinching appraisal, Hedges recalls what Hitchens got wrong about religion, his biggest intellectual failing and what it was like to engage him in a debate.
|
View the most popular tags overall?
|
|