newsweek:

Andrew Sullivan writes this week’s cover story on the crisis in Christianity in America, which has been overrun and destroyed by politics, priests, and get-rich evangelists. Sullivan’s argument? Ditch all that and just follow Jesus. Here’s an excerpt:

We inhabit a polity now saturated with religion. On one side, the Republican base is made up of evangelical Protestants who believe that religion must consume and influence every aspect of public life. On the other side, the last Democratic primary had candidates profess their faith in public forums, and more recently President Obama appeared at the National Prayer Breakfast, invoking Jesus to defend his plan for universal health care. The crisis of Christianity is perhaps best captured in the new meaning of the word “secular.” It once meant belief in separating the spheres of faith and politics; it now means, for many, simply atheism. The ability to be faithful in a religious space and reasonable in a political one has atrophied before our eyes.

Keep reading!

[Photo: Brooks Kraft / Corbis]

good:

 Fighting coal and fighting natural gas are two different battles. And environmental groups disagree on how and when to fight those battles. While national environmental groups trained their attention on coal, groups outside the capital came to see natural gas as at least an equal threat, both because gas drilling threatens water and air quality and because switching from coal to gas will not decrease carbon emissions enough to scale back the worst climate change threats. The gas industry has little interest in addressing either of those issues. National environmental groups are pushing back harder on the gas industry than they were, but not hard enough for some grassroots groups. 

Fighting Pollutors Pits Environmental Groups Against Each Other

theeconomist:

Daily chart: capital punishment. Last year only four countries carried out public executions: Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea and Somalia. But there are still plenty of countries that impose the death penalty behind closed doors.

latimes:

Scientists say there are likely tens of billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone that may be able to sustain life.

Image: This artist’s impression shows a sunset seen from the super-Earth Gliese 667 Cc. Credit: ESO / L. Calcada

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

latimes:

Scientists say there are likely tens of billions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone that may be able to sustain life.

Image: This artist’s impression shows a sunset seen from the super-Earth Gliese 667 Cc. Credit: ESO / L. Calcada

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

theatlantic:

The Bravest, Craziest, Most Ironic Voter in Iran’s Election Today

In the mass theater piece that is today’s parliamentary election in Iran, one of the players showed up with an unwelcome prop. A young man voted in Tehran this morning, as shown in the above photo, while wearing a t-shirt that would be considered ironic in the U.S. but seems downright rebellious in Iran. In case you can’t make it out, the shirt reads, “God Bless America / Toby Keith / Pre-Concert Party / October 8, 2004.” There’s an American flag on the shirt, which is a bold fashion choice any day in Iran, but especially on a day when the state-run media are out and the security services are likely to be even touchier than usual.

The photo is funny — this kid’s got chutzpah — but it’s also a reminder of the challenges of protesting Iran’s political system, and even of the complex and sometimes contradictory nature of cultural tension between Iran and the West.

Read more. [Image: Mehr News Agency]