FEATURES
Essay
Declaration of Conscience
On June 1, 1950, Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), a Republican Senator from Maine, delivered her “Declaration of Conscience” speech to the U.S. Senate. Though she …
By Margaret Chase Smith
Report
Same-Sex Marriage Comes to the Supreme Court
On March 26 and 27, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in two cases—one challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the other California’s Proposition …
By Calvin Massey
Essay
Theology Has Consequences: What Policies Will Pope Francis Champion?
Now that the smoke has cleared from St. Peter’s Square, the future of the Roman Catholic Church is on the minds of many. Catholics are …
By Mary E. Hunt
Report
Evangelical Ketubah, Messianic Mezuzah: Judaica for Christians
Carrie Love is a self-professed “Scripture nerd.” Raised in an evangelical church in Louisiana, she now lives in Manhattan where she works at an educational …
By Hillary Kaell
Essay
Can Atheists and Muslims Support Freedom of Conscience Together?
Thomas Jefferson once wrote: “But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks …
By Qasim Rashid and Chris Stedman
Essay
Why We Wait for a Non-European Pope
As Pope Benedict steps down this week, speculation stirs that the next pontiff could be a man of color or from outside Europe. And while …
By Tiffany Stanley
Essay
A Brief History of Papal Resignations
The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, announced for February 28, is an action virtually without precedent. No pope has resigned in modern times. No pope …
By Daniel Bornstein
Profile
Idol Worship: The Beatitudes of Lady Gaga
One evening in the spring of 2011, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, more popularly known as Lady Gaga, rolled down the window of her car to …
By Xarissa Holdaway
Review
The Father of Modern Political Cartoons
Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political CartoonsBy Fiona Deans HalloranUniversity of North Carolina Press, 2012 For those of us who work on American religion …
By Leigh Eric Schmidt
Excerpt
Book Culture and the Rise of Liberal Religion
In 1904 the Quaker mystic and philosopher Rufus Jones published Social Law in the Spiritual World with a grand ambition. “The cure for skepticism,” Jones …
By Matthew S. Hedstrom