Should Faith-Based Orgs Be Allowed to Discriminate in Hiring? Introducing: A New Collaboration with Bloggingheads
In this first installment, RD Contributing Editor Peter Laarman debates evangelical professor David Gushee over the Obama administration’s decision to effectively continue to allow recipients of federal faith-based funding to discriminate in hiring. In other clips, the two tangle on gay marriage, whether the Christian Right is dead, and more.
Population Growth Divides Climate Change Advocates
As religious groups advocate for urgent measures to address climate change in poor nations, the role of reproductive justice gets swept under the rug.
Military Abortion Ban: Female Soldiers Not Protected by Constitution They Defend
Unable to get an abortion during a tour of duty in Iraq, a soldier is left with no option but to do it herself—a humiliating but not uncommon dilemma. Women in the military are forced to obtain a leave to get the care they need; but if they’re honest about why, they put their military career in jeopardy. If they’re not, they put their military career in jeopardy.
By the time this book tour is finished, she will have succeeded in splitting the republican party, solidifying a new hard right religious base, and making enough money to turn Alaska into the New Jerusalem.
The Anti-Gay Highway: New Report Details Mutually Beneficial Relationship Between US Evangelicals and African Antigay Clergy
A new report documents the trend of evangelicals like Rick Warren exporting sexuality issues to Africa, whose clergy, in turn, support the minority antigay view in mainline denominations, weakening them. The author of the report speaks with RD at length about what he found.
Not only does a new study point to a thriving religious left, but the impact may even be greater than the numbers suggest.
Hitchens Debates Conservative Evangelical: Nothing Happens
A new documentary called <i>Collision</i> follows the collegial debate between new atheist Christopher Hitchens and conservative evangelical Doug Wilson. Spoiler alert: Neither budges and both gloat to the respective choirs they’d been preaching to. Is this the best we can do?
A new study dispels some common myths and should help the religious left understand its growing political power.
Barbara Ehrenreich’s Bright-Sided Explores the Dark Side of Positive Thinking
A new book reveals the historical roots and conservative uses of the positive thinking movement, showing how it encourages victim-blaming, political complacency, and a culture-wide flight from realism.
Huckabee in the Holy Land: A Christian Zionist Campaign
The religious right’s preferred presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee recently returned from a visit to Israel. What prompted Time to call it his first campaign stop in the 2012 race?
New Poll Shows Religious Right and Left Look Very Different
Those on the religious right and left not only diverge wildly on everything from abortion to torture, but in their composition and distribution as well.
Far-Right Evangelicals And The Campaign Against Obama
From the media influence of the “birthers” to suggestions that the president wants to euthanize the elderly, a propaganda campaign against Obama is in full swing. Who, exactly, is behind it?
Cornerstone Video Diary Day 3: Death to the World
On the final day of the Cornerstone Christian Music Festival our reporter locates the zine of “Punk Monks.”
Is Obama the Antichrist? Why Armageddon Stands Between the President and the Evangelical Vote
While the president has reached out to the faithful, he has yet to realize that he is dealing with a countercultural movement that at its foundation is obsessed with the apocalypse. But he will know it soon enough as evangelical interpretations of the Bible point to Barack Obama as the Antichrist.
Cornerstone Video Diary Day 2: Something I Didn’t Think I’d Find...
From sweet and soulful to Christian death metal, RD’s reporter on the scene talks about the music.
Day 1: Cornerstone Christian Music Festival Diary
A video diary from an evangelical music and culture festival near Bushnell, Illinois.
Beyond the Spin: Palin Hurt the GOP, According to the Numbers
With her resignation as Alaska’s governor, rumors are flying about Palin’s plans to run for president in 2012. But what do the numbers reveal about her effect on the McCain ticket in 2008? In fact, among key religious demographics, they don’t bode well for the “hockey mom” from Alaska.
Obama Threaded the Moral Needle of Latino Evangelicals in ’08
Obama won, in part, by flipping the vote of Latino evangelicals back from their support of Republicans in ’00 and ’04. This switch, argues Prof. Gastón Espinosa, is due to a combination of targeted and aggressive outreach to evangelicals, the candidate’s ability to talk about his faith, and a compromise on the abortion and gay rights issues.
Leahy’s Immigration Provision Sows Sex Panic Among Key Religious Groups
Who is really pointing the dagger to the heart of immigration reform, the senator who seeks to include permanent partners (including gays) or the Bishops and evangelicals who oppose it?
The Defense Department Gospel and America’s Desert Crusade
Bush-era intelligence briefings featured cover pages subtitled with decontextualized and misunderstood scripture in deference to the piety of the administration. Where were the Christian and Jewish moderates, and why didn’t they denounce this extremism?
Evangelical Church of Torture and Jack Bauer
A recent poll showed that white evangelicals are the religious group most likely to support torture. How can that be?
Christian Punk Meets American Pop; Evangelicals in the ’Burbs
How did Christianity become so commercial? Is religious punk rock an oxymoron? The author of a new book on suburban evangelicalism and Christian heavy metal shows how Christian youth culture has been commodified and sold to secular audiences.
Arguing Liberally: Rift in Religious Coalitions Goes Public
A public row threatens to break out between the DC-based “Religious Industrial Complex,” which seeks new Democratic voters, and a small group of rabble-rousers who claim that they’ve compromised their progressive souls in reaching out to religious conservatives. How did it come to this?
Plus: Let the Judicial Wars begin; Falwell Jr. warns of The Rapture; Out gays will create ‘turmoil’ in the military, says anti-gay leader, and more.
RDBook: Selling the Good News
Who put the mega in megachurch? Two new books, one on star evangelicals and one that focuses on African-American televangelists, tell the story—and explain the remarkable influence of celebrity preachers in the religious marketplace.