The Unlikely Catholic Activist Who Believed in Civil Disobedience ‘Animated by Love’

Dorothy Day’s Legacy Continues to This Day Through Followers Like Martin Gugino, the 75-Year-Old Protestor Shoved by Buffalo Police

On June 5, 2020, in the midst of a nonviolent Black Lives Matter protest in Buffalo, New York, 75-year-old Martin Gugino, a longtime peace activist, approached a line of riot police to hand over an officer’s helmet that had dropped to the ground. He was pushed to the sidewalk by the riot police, who then proceeded to walk around him as he lay unconscious, bleeding profusely from his ear, on the concrete. When an officer attempted to bend down to see how badly Gugino was hurt, another officer pushed him …

by John Loughery | June 17, 2020

A Letter From Mumbai, Where Everyday Questions Carry New Weight

For Muslims in India, Lockdowns May Unleash Something More Dangerous and Discriminatory Than a Virus

by Annie Zaidi | April 8, 2020

On local trains, I used to overhear phone conversations. Fights, flirtations, and often the question: Khana khaya? Did you eat?

Mentally, I’d roll my eyes. If someone asked me, my …

Atheism’s Long, Angry, Anxious History

Before There Was a Secular Argument Against Believing in God, There Was a Groundswell of Popular Distrust

by Alec Ryrie | February 5, 2020

“God is dead,” Nietzsche claimed, “and we have killed him.”

Well, maybe. But who is the we here? Who did the dreadful deed, and when, and how?

The usual suspects include …

The Communal, Sometimes Celibate, 19th-Century Ohio Town That Thrived for Three Generations

Zoar’s Citizens Left Religious Persecution in Germany and Created a Utopian Community on the Erie Canal

by Kathleen M. Fernandez | December 1, 2019

Quaint, rural, and hardworking, Zoar, Ohio, is the kind of place that wasn’t supposed to thrive in America.

The citizens of Zoar came to this country as religious dissenters in …

Why George Washington Embraced the Idea of a ‘Nondescript’ God

The First President Wanted to Unite Americans of All Religions Without Alienating Catholics, Freethinkers, and Jews

by Sam Wineburg | June 12, 2019

George Washington issued what might be considered the first executive order. To commemorate the end of a bloody Revolutionary War, Washington set aside the last Thursday of November as a …

Religious Belief Was a 17th-Century Invention

Once Tightly Guarded by Church Authorities, John Locke Redefined Faith as Personal Choice

by Ethan Shagan | April 9, 2019

Until very recently, atheism was neither widespread nor respectable, but today 11 percent of Americans claim not to believe in God. Many people have speculated on where all these atheists …

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