Rethinking Religion

The Insanity of Extremism

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Throughout history, Jews and Muslims have killed each other, Christians and Muslims have killed each other, Christians and Jews have killed each other, Hindus and Muslims have killed each other, Catholics and Protestants have killed each other, Sunni Muslims and Shiite Muslims have killed each other, many faith communities have killed Atheists and Agnostics, and on it goes. We continually kill others and are killed by others over concepts we can never prove.

Environment

Going Beyond Exxon Mobil Corp.’s Non-Discrimination Updates

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This may be fine that Exxon Mobil Corp. has ever-so-reluctantly, though finally, added LGBT workplace protections. However, Exxon Mobil Corp. remains one of the primary environmental polluters in an industry that threatens the Earth and life as we know it. What good are workshop protections in a corporation and in an entire industry that has granted no such protections to our planet?

Culture

Blasting Away Black Faces and Lives

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What members of the Florida National Guard found when they showed up at a shooting range for their annual weapons qualifying training shocked and angered them. Before they arrived, the North Miami Beach Police Department conducted sniper training at the site using mug shots of African American men for target practice. For Guard Sargent Valerie Deant, this was extremely traumatic: one of the hanging mug shots was of her brother, Woody Deant.

Politics & Society

Police and Protesters as Potential Allies

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Examination reveals that in communities where incidents of police killings occur most frequently, law enforcement officers come primarily from similar socioeconomic classes (middle and working class) — while not necessarily from similar ethnic, cultural, racial, or gender backgrounds — of the people they patrol. What we are witnessing is an intra-class conflict in the service of the wealthy ruling class.