ReligionDispatches.org

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

When Conservatives celebrate votes to oppose same-sex marriage, they’re overlooking the financial bonanza that same-sex marriage can bring to a state.

Jonathan L. Walton.

Is the house that King built trying to end it all?

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

Here’s hoping the president will do the right thing in the wake of this week’s promises to LGBT Americans.

Jonathan L. Walton.

How sad and ironic that the revocation of citizen’s rights via Constitutional bans, is not on the SCLC’s radar. Is it a Movement or Museum?

Jonathan L. Walton.

With a new essay on black, gay civil rights giant, Bayard Rustin, Rev. Sekou makes the case for comparisons between the gay rights and Civil Rights movements.

Sarah Sentilles.

To deny the parallels between the Civil Rights Movement and the fight for LGBTQ civil rights obscures the fact that the forces opposing both used the Bible and Christianity to do their dirty work.

Randall Balmer.

To all the breathless detractors of “flyover country,” think about the history of Iowa before expressing shock.

Jonathan L. Walton.

Due to the widespread acceptance of black civil rights, some members and friends of the LGBTQ community have hitched their conceptual wagons to the black freedom struggle of the 20th century. While gay rights are no trifling matter, those eager to make comparisons may want to hold their horses.

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

In a weird turn of phrase, Utah's governor announces that he supports enhanced civil rights for gay people.

Emilie Townes.

We no longer have the focus of the civil rights movement or of the great leaders of that time, but we are called, nonetheless, to change our world.

Jonathan L. Walton.

In a series of short essays, special to Religion Dispatches, religious historians, philosophers, and ethicists celebrate Obama’s place in American history while heeding Dr. King’s continued prophetic challenge for our nation.

Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou.

Unlike the recent document claiming reconciliation between evangelicals and progressives the only way democracy has ever been expanded in the US, according to the Rev. Sekou, is by the defeat of conservative evangelical positions.

Kathleen Sands.

Prop. 8 opponents frame the struggle in the context of the larger civil rights movement. But what if the right to marry for LGBT people is actually a question of religious freedom?

Sarah Posner.

Since the 2004 defeat of John Kerry, a handful of religious Inside-the-Beltway Democrats—called the religious left by some—have seen their influence rise dramatically. But how progressive is their “broader agenda?” And what of religious left leaders who include reproductive justice and LGBT civil rights on their list?

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

An interview with Neil Giuliano, president of GLAAD, in the wake of a new poll that shows much wider concern for LGBT rights than might be expected, even among conservative Christians.

Jonathan L. Walton.

The Civil Rights Movement needs to be understood in its historical context...

LeRhonda S. Manigault.

Barack Obama tried to run a color-blind campaign, and he won. But don't believe the hype: an Obama victory doesn't mean an end to racism in our culture, or that we should blithely forget the history of racial injustice.

Michael A. Elliott.

Forty years after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, veterans of the Civil Rights era still expected that they would not live to see an African American elected to the presidency. But iconic figures like C.T. Vivian supported Obama and believed that the arc was bending toward justice.

Candace Chellew-Hodge.

Gay and Lesbian people are weary of being used as a political and spiritual football, tired of being kicked around. This election brought history-making moments for progressives, but some crucial setbacks for the rights of gay citizens.

The Editors.

Is the Obama campaign a candidacy or a movement? Civil Rights leaders in Birmingham talk about the meaning of the Obama campaign.

Peter J. Paris.

A distinguished scholar and minister reflects on the persistence of racism in US political history, on the role of religion in political culture, and on the fulfillment of long-awaited vision of a world community built on justice and freedom.

Andre C. Willis.

Does Obama's coded evangelical language signal a shift from black prophetic politics to the evangelical politics of personal salvation?

Kim Bobo.

A major union's Labor Day concession to Muslim workers sparks anti-immigrant outrage in a Tennessee town...

Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo.

Pierrette Sotelo on the role of progressive religious activists in the immigration debate...

Evan Derkacz.

By “celebrating” liberal victories years after they’re even remotely controversial, the religious right rewrites itself into history’s good book while continuing to play to the worst elements in our contemporary culture.