hinduism

American Christians in earthquake-ravaged Nepal—but not evangelism as usual.

The Leftovers: Hot HBO Drama or Hot New Religious Trend?

Pat Robertson, the notorious and influential television evangelist and founder of the Christian Coalition of America, is not new to the yogaphobic maelstrom that has been brewing for as long as…

Modi’s recent efforts are mired in inaccurate myths of yoga’s static essence and Indian origin.

Over the past few months, Louisiana Governor Piyush “Bobby” Jindal has been making aggressive moves to prepare himself for a 2016 presidential bid. In addition to rejecting a Medicaid expansion (and…

The Flood story forces us to grapple with the deeply impersonal forces of the universe that are set against human civilization.

From India to China to Africa, events this month leave no doubt that the struggle for LGBT rights has gone global.

Religions are richly variable in their organizations, belief systems, rituals, and practices. This is true across cultures and history. Grand statements about what “all religions” say or believe about…

I’m not arguing that Islamophobia is racist, or that Islamophobes are racists, because that’s not quite what’s happening. For one thing, Islamophobes embrace ex-Muslims like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and racists wouldn’t (indeed couldn’t) do the same. But consider the similarities: the Islamophobe must assume Muslims suffer some sort of pre-Islamic inferiority, sufficient to explain how some (largely non-white) people—actually, a lot of people—not only fell for Islam in the first place, but then stayed down. How long do enforced ideologies last? Nazism: twelve years. Communism: some decades. Islam: Fourteen centuries and counting.

Fear of a yoga planet, part MMCXVII.