Jan 2, 20244 min read
Goodbye to Pat Robertson, Hello to the Falwells’ Pool Boy
For the New Year, let’s recall two milestones on the Christian Right from the past year. One of the key architects of that movement, Pat...
Oct 21, 202016 min read
III. Pros, Cons, and Whiplash: Studying US Religions from a Base in Religious Studies
In the first and second sections of this three-part post—introduced here and expanded from an article in the Encyclopedia of American...
Sep 27, 20209 min read
II. Creation Myths of Religious Studies: Starting Over After Death Vs. Evolution from Old Roots
In the first section of this three-part post—introduced here and based on my article in the Encyclopedia of American Religion—I broached...
Sep 18, 20203 min read
A Dinosaur Who Cares About Reference Books Introduces an Essay
I am so old that I can remember when people used hard copies of encyclopedias! I read the World Book Encyclopedia as a kid, and later I...
Sep 18, 20208 min read
I. Exactly What Does “Religious Studies” Study?—the Evergreen Question
As discussed in this introductory post, MBE is republishing a piece I wrote for the Encyclopedia of American Religions about the academic...
Apr 30, 20209 min read
Experiments in Defining the ”Spiritual But Not Religious”
Like all too many aspects of polling about religions and secularisms, the discourse about "spiritual" is largely broken. It registers...
Aug 4, 20191 min read
Normalizing Domestic Terrorism
I suppose I’m less and less unique all the time, but I have personal friends who have been touched directly by a mass murder, perpetrated...
Apr 20, 20193 min read
We Do Not Have to Live Like Rats Fighting for Scraps
I've imagined this as a place to gather and repost—when timely and useful—earlier pieces that are “blog-friendly” but scattered to the...
Oct 14, 20173 min read
“Academic Jargon Is Bad.” Please Discuss
Recently I visited a UT class that was discussing Judith Butler. It provoked the perennial complaints about Butler’s prose—leading toward...
Jul 27, 20174 min read
Why are Religious Leftists Building Luxury Condominiums Outside My Window? How Can I Defend Them?
NOTE: I've tagged this for "oldies but goodies," partly because it's a follow-up to my piece on Chris Hedges referenced below, and...
Jul 25, 20171 min read
My first post (including my essay on “Remembering Prince”)
I published this at Sacred Matters a few weeks ago, and I want to see how it looks here. Click on the picture to access it. Meanwhile I...