Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported on a controversy that erupted over the decision by Missouri tax authorities to…
Taxing yoga: exercise or spiritual practice?
American politics
Unchurched believers
In 2002 we reported that the fraction of American adults with no religious preference doubled from 7 to 14 percent…
Religious “nones” and the future of American religion
A number of recent studies have attempted to analyze the emergent and fast-growing segment of American society that declines any…
Religious and sexual freedoms are not opposed
On June 1st, President Barack Obama proclaimed June 2009 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month and called "upon the…
Still the two Americas
As Barack Obama stood on the stage at Grant Park in Chicago on election night, my euphoria yielded to a…
This song is old. But is it true?
Obama calls upon Americans to "give our all to a difficult task" and "carry forth a precious gift" of increasingly…
Teaching for democracy
When Obama intoned, "This is our moment. This is our time...Yes we can," we needed to ask, of course, "yes,…
Not an end, but a beginning
Here we enter the necessary if unglamorous world of organizing, of reframing debates and dialogues at every level, of animating…
Common sense
Obama's speeches are glorious. They are a joy to listen to and to read later. He is able to dig…
Toward a universalist exceptionalism
American exceptionalism has been dealt a body-blow. I want to suggest, however, that the variant of exceptionalism that was upset…