Sorry, Christian wingnuts, but you got scammed. By Evan Hurst.

The signing would represent a major triumph for Vice President Mike Pence. By Timothy Alberta and Shane Goldmacher.

The alt-right was key in getting Trump into power. But its strain of misogyny differs in sometimes surprising ways to that of the traditional Christian right. By Matthew N Lyons.

We underestimate the stupid, and we do so at our own peril. By Corinne Purtill.

A Christian doctor removed my clitoris when I was three years old as a ‘cure’ for masturbation, writes Renee Bergstrom. (Dec. 3, 2016)

In 1976, the Peoples Temple founder was courted by Bay Area politicos, praised by a famed newsman and invited to meet with Washington luminaries. Five others — a Bay Area congressman, three American journalists and one of Jones’ ex-disciples — had been shot and killed at a nearby airstrip… By Kevin Canfield.

Kelsey L. Munger on her childhood and her devout parents, who raised her to fear and battle demons.

Websites like the Ottoman Generation and Muslim Mainstream have become gathering points for supporters of Erdogan in Germany. But they are also being used to incite hatred against the Turkish president's critics. By Susan Djahangard and Katrin Elger.

Frances FitzGerald answers the recurrent question, “Where did these people come from?” She says there is no mystery involved. They were always here. We were just not looking at them. By Gary Wills.

The Turkish people are voting in a momentous constitutional referendum this month that would give the president unprecedented power. By Tezcan Gumus.

Cannibalism is not uncommon… By Ben Thomas.

More people are better educated than ever before, and knowledge is easier to come by. So why do we so often scorn those who plainly know more than we do? By Tom Nichols.

The fallen archangel and antagonist of the epic poem. By Edward Simon.

Betsy DeVos’ appointment as Education Secretary marks crowning achievement of Christian right’s campaign to infiltrate America’s secular institutions. By Janet Reitman.

The dogged effort of a determined historian in a small Irish town uncovered one of the greatest tragedies in modern Irish history. By Tom Sykes.

Mapping the spread of antigay ideology. By Masha Gessen.

Texas Republicans talk a lot about religious freedom, meanwhile GOP leaders impose their own beliefs about abortion and LGBT rights on everybody else. By David R. Brockman. (Nov. 1, 2016)

On March 15, 2002, 15 Saudi girls burned to death inside their school in Mecca. They were not trapped by fallen debris, or unaccounted for by firefighters. The mutaween, Saudi Arabia’s religious police, would not allow the girls to leave their burning school because they were not covering their hair or wearing their abayas... By Felix Biederman.

Why worldview threats undermine evidence. By Michael Shermer.

Robert Dear shot up a Planned Parenthood clinic and killed three people. Did the right-wing media help turn a disturbed loner into a mass murderer? By Amanda Robb.