Did Protestant Christianity Create the Dismal American Prison System?

Puritans’ Focus On “Right Living” Helped Justify Our Harsh Treatment of Prisoners

While in Ireland teaching a criminal justice course this past semester, I had the opportunity to take a tour of an Irish prison.

The Irish prison service states one of its key missions is to protect human rights—the rights of the public and the rights of the offender. A tour of a temperature-controlled prison in the Irish city of Cork revealed prisoners had access to Wi-Fi, educational programs, drug treatment, and counseling. Clients interact with staff on a first-name basis. Prison food is high-quality and health care is equivalent to …

By John Carl | July 27, 2016

My Antidote to L.A’s Madness Lies Less Than 100 Miles Outside the City

Finding Peace in a Benedictine Abbey Transplanted From China and Thriving in California’s High Desert

By Paula Starr Sherrin | July 26, 2016

Driven. Rushed. Anxious. These adjectives describe me and many of the nearly 4 million people with whom I share the malls, freeways, and surface streets of Los Angeles. Some days, …

The Oakland Pentecostal Women Who Defied Convention to Change Their Churches and Their Communities

In the World's Fastest Growing Christian Movement, a Rare Local Tradition of Female Leadership Remains Unbroken

By Abraham Ruelas | June 14, 2016

When I was 17, God put it in my heart to attend Patten Bible College (now Patten University)—and thus brought me into contact with Willa Bebe Patten, a Pentecostal minister …

God Calls My Name, but the Church Won’t Let Me Answer

The Roman Catholic Ban on Female Priests Is Leaving Women—and Thousands of Parishes—Idle and Powerless

By Jamie L. Manson | March 22, 2016

“What do you do when God calls you and the church blocks you from answering?” a journalist once asked me.

It was the pithiest articulation I’d ever heard of the …

Why Fat Tuesday Survives in Our Secular, Commercial Society

The Boozy, Anachronistic Feast Is an Enduring Tie to the Cycles of Plenty and Want

By Anne Bramley | February 9, 2016

To imbibe the heart and soul of the holiday called Shrove Tuesday—or Carnival, or Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday—you could head to Rio or Bourbon Street. Or you could dig …

Europe Has a Problem With Immigrants, Not With Islam

Reforming Schools and Labor Laws Would Help a Lot More Than Fixating on Religion

February 3, 2016

In Germany last month, the debate over Europe’s growing Muslim population reached a fever pitch. More than 100 robberies and sexual assaults were reported in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, …

religion

Did Protestant Christianity Create the Dismal American Prison System?

Puritans’ Focus On “Right Living” Helped Justify Our Harsh Treatment of Prisoners

My Antidote to L.A’s Madness Lies Less Than 100 Miles Outside the City

Finding Peace in a Benedictine Abbey Transplanted From China and Thriving in California’s High Desert

The Oakland Pentecostal Women Who Defied Convention to Change Their Churches and Their Communities

In the World's Fastest Growing Christian Movement, a Rare Local Tradition of Female Leadership Remains Unbroken

God Calls My Name, but the Church Won’t Let Me Answer

The Roman Catholic Ban on Female Priests Is Leaving Women—and Thousands of Parishes—Idle and Powerless

Why Fat Tuesday Survives in Our Secular, Commercial Society

The Boozy, Anachronistic Feast Is an Enduring Tie to the Cycles of Plenty and Want

Europe Has a Problem With Immigrants, Not With Islam

Reforming Schools and Labor Laws Would Help a Lot More Than Fixating on Religion

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How America Invented St. Patrick’s Day

Immigration and Nativism Transformed a Quiet Religious Celebration into a Day of Raucous Parades and Shamrock Shakes

How Conservative Christians Co-Opted the Rhetoric of Religious Freedom

By Adopting the Language of Individual Rights, Evangelicals Cast Themselves as a Beleaguered Minority

In Whose God Do Americans Trust?

How the Religious Right Projected Evangelical Conservatism Onto the Founding Fathers

The World Calls It a Prison Town—And I Call It Home

A 20-Year Resident of Folsom, the Town Johnny Cash Made Famous, Reflects on the Relationship Between the Community and Its Prisons

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