In 2012

Tune in this weekend to Interfaith Alliance’s weekly radio show and podcast State of Belief to hear an update on the state of the 2012 race with Greg Lebel, one perspective of what Americans of no faith think about all of the religious talk in this year’s presidential primaries with Harvard’s Chris Stedman, Rabbi Eric Yoffie examine the origins of the language-of-war phenomenon dominating religious doailogue in our politics today, and a closer look at the problems with the NYPD’s far-reaching surveillance of Muslims.
State of the Race

This past Tuesday, Mitt Romney came out ahead of Rick Santorum in the Arizona and Michigan Republican presidential primaries, but not by much. Greg Lebel, presidential campaign veteran and assistant professor of Political Management at the George Washington University, joins us to re-cap the race up until now, and preview Super Tuesday, when people will go to the ballot box in 10 different states. Find out if either of the leading GOP candidates is doing anything right – or if they each are holding themselves back. Extended interview and transcript.

The Origins of the Language of War
“Obama’s war on religion.” “The assault on religious liberties.” “The trampling of religious freedom.” These are among the incendiary right-wing talking points that have become commonplace in our political rhetoric. Inevitably, progressives have been drawn into this as well, with phrases like “the attack on women’s reproductive rights” often being used. When did we get to this point? How and why did honest disagreements over sincerely-held values become a powder keg of conflict and contentiousness? Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the outgoing president of the Union for Reform Judaism, joins us this week to discuss this language-of-war phenomenon, which he wrote about earlier this week over at the Huffington Post.

Americans of no faith in the 2012 Election
If you’ve been following the race thus far, you know how extreme the statements of the presidential primary’s official “culture warrior” continue to be. Knowing how offensive Rick Santorum’s polarizing statements are, and how damaging they are to both religion and to politics, as the debate continues to pander to religious conservatives, how is it resonating with Americans of no faith? Chris Stedman, Interfaith and Community Service Fellow for the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University, shares his concerns. Extended interview and transcript.

The Big Problems with the NYPD Surveillance of Muslims
For weeks, the list of potential civil rights violations perpetrated by the New York City Police Department in its surveillance of Muslim students and others well beyond the department’s jurisdiction, has continued to grow. What is it about the culture within the NYPD that made this seem justifiable? And how does this kind of profiling make all of us less safe? Haroon Moghul, Religion Dispatches associate editor and fellow at the Center on National Security at Fordham Law and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, helps answer some of those questions.

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