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Religion Lately: The Religion of File Sharing, Sex Toys for All the Abrahamic...
By Kenny Smith, Emory University Do you think that information is holy, and that the practice of sharing it is tantamount to an act religious worship? If so, the new religion of Kopimism, whose holy...
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Religion Lately: Rise of the New Evangelicals, Star Seed Possibilities,...
By Kenny Smith, Emory University Imagine Evangelical Christians who reject militarism, consumerism, and cultural triumphalism, in favor of social justice, environmentalism, and religious...
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Religion Lately: Extraterrestrial Christs and Jedi Blues, Salem Witches...
By Kenny Smith, Emory University Explore artistic renditions of Christ-figures blended with the extraterrestrial, technological, and trans-human. Star Visitor theology, anyone? A journalist ponders...
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Religion Lately: Transhumanism, Rise of the “Preppers,” & Apocalypse...
By Kenny Smith, Emory University Unsatisfied with an average lifespan of 70 odd years? Consider the emerging tradition of Transhumanism which seeks to convince traditional religions to open their...
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Religion Lately: Uller Fest, Atheist Religion , & Tim Tebow, Harbinger of Doom?
By Kenny Smith, Emory University In Breckenridge, Colorado, the town council passed a resolution allowing public consumption of alcoholic beverages for “Uller Fest,” a day-long celebration, complete...
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Religion Lately: Jedi Training Camps and Marian Visions in Texas, Gay-ing...
By Kenny Smith, Emory University In Austin, Texas, yet another “Jedi Camp”offers training for youngsters. In San Francisco, adult Jedi demonstrate advanced light-saber fighting skills. Exactly how...
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Keeping the Eostre in Easter
By Kenny Smith As Lauri Lebo noted in her March 23, 2010 Religion Dispatch post, “although most Christians assume that the ideas and practices surrounding the Easter holiday are native to...
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On Trayvon Martin, Perceived Identities, and Zombie Imaginaries
By Kenny Smith, Religion Bulletin In his recent comments on the Fox News Channel’s FOX & Friends morning show, Geraldo Rivera claimed that the shooting of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was...
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A Brave New Book: Kelly J. Baker’s Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK’s...
By Kenny Smith Dr. Kelly J. Baker is a lecturer in Religious Studies and Americanist Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Seemingly indefatigable, she has written for numerous academic...
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Cannabis: The American Sacrament
By Kenny Smith In an intriguing piece written for the Sunday, June 27 New York Times, journalist David Segal traces out some of the early consequences of President Obama’s October 2009 announcement...
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The Religious Theft of Sacred Culture?
By Kenny Smith In her Religion Nerd piece, Rise of the Jedi Religion, Heather Abraham introduced us to a new religious movement grounded in the mythic figure of the Jedi Knight, a central component of...
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Burning Jesus, Mary, and the Prophets
By Kenny Smith & Heather Abraham In his superb book, The Muslim Jesus (2001), Tarif Khalidi observes that Jesus of Nazareth plays an important role in Islamic religious worlds. As is well known to...
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Religion, Lately: Hug an Atheist trailer, evangelical sea-change in the...
By Kenny Smith While the great state of Massachusetts considers atheist challenges to the 1954 inclusion of “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, a forthcoming documentary tells sympathetically of...
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Syrian Apocalypse, Measles Outbreaks, and the Inevitability of Mythmaking
By Kenny Smith With the possibility of an American military assault upon Syria, a number of conservative Christian voices have begun to read such events not simply through a biblical lens (which was...
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Religion Lately: Rain-god license plate disputes, Happy Yom Kippur and Ganesh...
By Kenny Smith A Methodist minister is suing the state of Oklahoma on the grounds that “Native American imagery on license plates forces him to become a ‘mobile billboard’ for pagan religion.” Oklahoma...
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Religion, Lately: Hell House Outreach, Tough Times for Russian Anti-Gay...
By Kenny Smith Wiccans and neo-Pagans are getting ready for Fall Equinox celebrations (Sept. 21/22), a holiday many know as Mabon, when the hours of light and dark are perfectly balanced. With the High...
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Religion, Lately: Pagan Prides, Occupy Judaism, Atheist Missionaries, and...
By Kenny Smith With the Autumn equinox behind us, Wiccan and Pagan communities look to Pagan Pride. In Pennsylvania, a distinctive approach features crystals, pre-Christian deities, and “a cauldron in...
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“Extreme” Religion
By Kenny Smith My grandparents enforced very few rules at their dinner table, but one they absolutely insisted upon was, “Never talk about religion or politics at the table.” For in their view, “the...
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Religion, Lately: Paganism by 2063, Living Happily Without Religion, and bin...
By Kenny Smith What will Pagan religious traditions (such as Wicca, Druidism, and Asatru, among others) look like in fifty years, in 2063? Full-time Pagan clergy, Pagan celebrities coming out of the...
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Constructing the Religious Worlds of Others
By Kenny Smith…As the noted scholar of American religious history, R. Laurence Moore, once wrote, “if you do not commodify your own religion” – that is, if you do not transform its teachings,...
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