The video for Lil Nas X’s latest track is provocative and erotic. It also fits into a tradition of turning the tables on those seeking to oppress marginalized groups through religious dogma.
Army chaplain Emil Kapaun helps a soldier on the battlefield during the Korean War in 1952.
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
In early Christianity, soldiers could be baptized only if they refused to kill other human beings. While this changed over the years, tensions linger over Christian goals.
The term ‘Judeo-Christian’ serves political agendas.
1000 Words/Shutterstock
For members of the minority religion of Wicca and witchcraft – part of contemporary paganism – Halloween is not just a children’s holiday: It is both a celebration and acceptance of death.
God creating night and day.
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Trump recently suggested that a vote for Biden would hurt God. Religion scholars explain what, in Christian theology, it would take to injure the creator.
As workers make matzo for Passover, many families will not be able to get together this year.
Guy Prives/Getty Images)
Some of the Passover Seder traditions are occurring through Zoom this year. A historian of the Bible explains how ancient Israelites changed the ways of their worship.
The Satanic Temple unveils a statue of Baphomet, a winged-goat creature, at a rally for the First Amendment in Little Rock, Arkansas, in August 2018.
AP Photo/Hannah Grabenstein
A group known as The Satanic Temple was started with the political goal of advocating for the value of church-state separation. This group is now challenging the traditional definition of religion.
The pope can order religious investigations that can allow the Vatican to swiftly take action.
Giuseppe Lami/Pool Photo via AP
Early Christians were urged to ‘supervise’ one another. In the present times, that theology is often used by the Vatican for a religious investigation a known as the apostolic visitation.
Theologians deal with some serious questions. Here is Saint Augustine, a Christian theologian and philosopher.
German Vizulis/Shutterstock
Martin Luther is credited with initiating the split in Christianity that came to be called the Protestant Reformation. But don’t count out Erasmus, an early proponent of similarly radical ideas.
Law enforcement officers walking to the scene of a shooting at a shopping mall in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2019.
AP/Rudy Gutierrez
Major changes in the language of white supremacists have happened in the last decade that provide a window into how the groups mobilize support, shape political perceptions and advance their cause.
Many people believe in the idea of a soulmate - one person who will make us whole and happy.
fizkes
Pete Buttigieg’s recent comments on Christian values, have drawn much attention. They might be quite similar to the ideals espoused by the Midwestern progressive Social Gospel Movement.
Ash Wednesday ritual at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 6, 2019.
P Photo/Jim Mone)
Howard Thurman, a mentor to MLK, first met Gandhi during a visit to India in 1936. He came to understand nonviolence as a force more powerful than hate that had the power to transform the world.
A painting showing Saint Francis Borgia, a 16th century saint,, performing an exorcism.
Francisco Goya
Forty-five years ago, ‘The Exorcist’ terrified viewers with its portrayal of a practice that goes back several centuries and continues today in Christianity.
A person dressed as Santa Claus waves as part of the festivities, during Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York.
Andrew Kelly/Reuters
Lisa Bitel, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Behind today’s mythical Santa Claus from the North Pole, is a real saint – St. Nicholas. How he came to be today’s gift-giving jolly figure from the North Pole is a fascinating story by itself.
In the United States, Hanukkah has gained much significance.
Tercer Ojo Photography/Shutterstock.com
Hanukkah is ranked one of Judaism’s minor festivals, but its popularity in the US has a lot to do with America’s Jews trying to fight assimilation into a culture that welcomed them.
What was behind early depictions of hell?
Erica Zabowski/Flickr.com
Professor of Public Theology in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Theology, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State