Ramadan, the holy Islamic month of daytime fasting and spiritual reflection, has ended with the usual Eid-al-Fitr festival fanfare — plus some controversy at Rye’s Playland amusement park (my old stomping grounds), confusion in Indonesia, and continued civil disobedience in Egypt. Now American Muslims are preparing for the 10-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, which…

Hurricane Irene may not have wreaked quite as much destruction as initially feared — my family and friends are all OK, if a bit waterlogged and powerless, but that’s typical after any big storm in the New York suburbs — but let’s remember that we all briefly breathed a sigh of relief when Hurricane Katrina…

I dearly love the premise of GetReligion, a blog that points out weaknesses in the mainstream media’s coverage of faith-related issues, but I do get annoyed at its conservative Christian perspective at times. For example, all the pearl-clutching over Bill Keller’s recent New York Times column, which made the point that since religion plays such…

I’ve been busy this week covering some interesting research studies (blog posts to follow) on  American faith, politics and behavior. In the meantime, the world is still turning — and shaking. Surprisingly, no word yet from Harold Camping or other doomsday Christians on whether this Virginia earthquake is another sign that we’re in End Times. Also, keep…

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