“In the academic as well as the popular imagination,” Dr. Sorkin writes, “the Enlightenment figures as a quintessentially secular phenomenon — indeed, as the very source of modern secular culture.” But contrary to this “secular master narrative,” he argues, “the Enlightenment was not only compatible with religious belief,” it actually generated new formulations of that belief.
Nearly 1,000 Christian families have fled their homes in Mosul since Friday, taking shelter on the northern and eastern fringes of Nineveh province, according to provincial governor Duraid Kashmula. He said the violence was the worst against Christians in five years.
A new national study by two Brigham Young University sociologists finds that religious involvement makes teens half as likely to use marijuana. “Some may think this is an obvious finding, but research and expert opinion on this issue have not been consistent,” said BYU sociology professor Stephen Bahr and an author on the study. “After we accounted for family and peer characteristics, and regardless of denomination, there was an independent effect that those who were religious were less likely to do drugs, even when their friends were users.”
The Economist has a fascinating essay on whether it makes sense to allow the sale of transplant organs. Would this increase the supply of donated organs? Would it save more lives? Or would it cause the exploitation of the very poor?
An atheist soldier who accused U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Defense Department of violating his religious freedom dropped the lawsuit Friday, citing his plans to leave the Army next spring.
Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard, a young gay man from Casper, Wyoming, who was severely beaten, tied to a fence and left to die in a remote area east of Laramie, where he was attending college. The Rev. Susan Russell points us to a remembrance and reflection from her colleague the Rev. Michael Hopkins, who knew Shepard personally and was president of IntegrityUSA at the time of Shepard’s death.
The Pew Forum features Yuval Levin and Todd Gitlin exploring the idea that there is always a cultural war behind US politics. Although with slightly different descriptions of the “war” both see it as longstanding and foundational in the US.
“Has Rowan Williams actually been to a service in an Episcopal church since he became Archbishop?” a friend asked me recently. Perhaps he has, but I could not think of an occasion.
In a letter mailed last week to national and local church leaders, Bishop Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, who has disciplinary authority over the Seattle priest, said a church committee had determined that the Rev. Ann Holmes Redding “abandoned the Communion of the Episcopal Church by formal admission into a religious body not in communion with the Episcopal Church.”
Many American voters have received a copy of a DVD titled “Obsession” in the mail in the past few weeks. But there’s no clear answer to who is behind the making of the 2006 movie about radical Islam or who has paid for its distribution.