Jeffrey Weiss
Jeffrey Weiss is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Jeffrey Weiss
How I’m happy despite my brain cancer diagnosis
By Jeffrey Weiss — January 9, 2017
(RNS) For me, there’s a particularly Jewish attitude toward life and death that I think my late father helped plant in me.
This way to the egress
By Jeffrey Weiss — December 28, 2016
(RNS) Spiritual advice for how almost everybody who will eventually run into bad news should live digitally from now on.
COMMENTARY: Mike Jacobs was Holocaust survivor; he also lived a happy life
By Jeffrey Weiss — August 1, 2014
(RNS) Several hundred people endured a rainy Dallas morning to crowd the synagogue where Mike Jacobs had been a member for many years. And yes, they heard about his Holocaust-related history. But that wasn’t all. Not hardly.
COMMENTARY: When it comes to personhood, science is a ‘category error’
By Jeffrey Weiss — July 8, 2014
(RNS) Science is all but useless in arguments about personhood. Because almost everyone who takes a position does so on the basis of religious belief.
COMMENTARY: Ukrainian order to register Jews may have a Westboro corollary
By Jeffrey Weiss — April 21, 2014
(RNS) What’s this got to do with Westboro, the church whose members are notorious for bringing their “God hates fags” signs to military funerals? Lots.
COMMENTARY: Jamie Coots’ snake theology was not that crazy
By Jeffrey Weiss — February 18, 2014
(RNS) To most people, a few biblical passages are a crazy justification to handle deadly serpents. But I evaluate these kinds of claims through Weiss’ Law of Religious Relativism: Any religion is, by definition, crazy to a nonbeliever.
REVIEW: The Lego Movie’s got religion
By Jeffrey Weiss — February 12, 2014
(RNS) "The Lego Movie," well-reviewed and making money by the brickyard, builds its story upon religious and moral themes. They don’t all snap together securely, but that’s in keeping with the rest of the film.
COMMENTARY: An abyss of historical ignorance
By Jeffrey Weiss — January 31, 2014
(RNS) Cavalier Nazi comparisons disrespect the actual victims of the Nazis by suggesting that any perceived wrong is like the Holocaust. It's not.
COMMENTARY: Sorry, Megyn: Santa is an American adaptation
By Jeffrey Weiss — December 13, 2013
(RNS) The image of Santa is anything but eternal. And it’s been revised any number of times.
COMMENTARY: Does refusal to wear a skullcap signal disrespect?
By Jeffrey Weiss — October 14, 2013
(RNS) Last week, the Greek prime minister got dinged for showing insufficient respect for Judaism. It’s possible his critics have it exactly backwards.
ANALYSIS: ‘Gravity’ and the unanswered questions of unbelief
By Jeffrey Weiss — October 7, 2013
(RNS) Most of the reviews for "Gravity" don’t mention that the main character represents an increasingly common theme in American religion: The spiritual “none of the above.”
COMMENTARY: Pay no attention to the man behind the burning Qurans
By Jeffrey Weiss — September 9, 2013
(RNS) A Florida pastor plans to burn a pile of Qurans on the 9/11 anniversary, and interfaith activist Mike Ghouse hopes no one pays him an ounce of attention. “It is not what (the pastor) will do, it is what we do as Americans and American Muslims.”
Steve Jobs: Prophet of a new religion
By Jeffrey Weiss — August 20, 2013
(RNS) Steve Jobs was a “none” before anybody knew what that meant.
ANALYSIS: Pope Francis, the improbable pop culture icon
By Jeffrey Weiss — August 6, 2013
(RNS) Cultural icons surge and retreat like tsunamis. But even in this viral era, lightning international popularity with a moral message is something unusual. Since the dawn of broadcast media, who else has managed this trick as well as Francis when starting with so little in the way of fame?
COMMENTARY: A history of discrimination earns President Obama a right to speak
By Jeffrey Weiss — July 22, 2013
(RNS) Imagine that Joe Lieberman had been elected president. And that in a moment of crisis, he felt compelled to explain that some American Jewish support for Israel is partly explained by the Jewish cultural memory of the Holocaust. Would he be accused of whatever the Jewish equivalent of “race-baiting” might be?
