The Immanent Frame

In this age of overt commercialization of the holiday season—where no sooner have children returned from trick-or-treating than Christmas music is pumped through convenience store aisles on loop—Americans have become accustomed to the omnipresence of seasonal cheer. But, as Laurie Goodstein noted in The New York Times the this past week, there is a new band of interest groups wrangling for the holiday spotlight: “Just in time for the holiday season, Americans are about to be hit with a spate of advertisements promoting the joy and wisdom of atheism.”

As I noted in August, one in five Americans mistakenly believes that President Obama is secretly a Muslim.  Yet more disconcerting than the fact that this propaganda has been so widely disseminated, is that one of Obama’s most recent strategies for combating the problem is simply giving in.

French students protest burka ban by hiding face, showing legs.

More than nine years (and a few weeks) have now passed since the events of 9/11, and as Religion in America blogger Paul Matzko noted on the attacks’ ninth anniversary earlier this month, the religious overtones of how Americans remember that day are palpable.

Glenn Beck’s track record of keeping promises may not be pristine (in fact, Pulitzer Prize-winning politifact.com has often given his statements a rating of “Pants-on-fire”), but the August 28 Restoring Honor rally seemed actually less political than past Tea Party gatherings.

As Dina Temple-Rastin of NPR reports, controversy over Park51 has reached a new zenith in way of irony.  Far from helping to win the “War on Terror,” the Right Wing’s open and vociferous hostility has seemingly done the exact opposite.

A recent Pew Research poll indicates that an increasing percentage of Americans believe Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Dr. Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri has founded the United Kingdom’s first anti-terrorism camp, reports Dominic Casciani for the BBC.

As Michael Blood from the AP reported in an article on August 5, audio and transcripts from an interview Sharron Angle gave in April to TruNews Christian Radio indicate that the nominee’s opposition to “big government” is theologically motivated.

The AP reports that Dr. Kenneth Howell, the recently scandalized adjunct instructor of religion at the University of Illinois, has been offered a position teaching a class on Catholicism this semester.