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The Sacred and the Dead: Operator, Can You Help Me?

By Maren Haynes

…out in Utah, Gotta find a private line. ~ “Operator” In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented a device that could represent accurately the human voice. It thoroughly, irreversibly altered our interconnection, enabling us to talk to another person across an enormous distance with the sonic clarity of being in the same room. A special series on religion and culture produced in collaboration with the Office of Religious Life at the University of Sout…

Yes, It’s Worse To Be Gay in Russia

By Chrissy Stroop

…ught English at the American Home in Vladimir, Russia during the 2003-2004 academic year, I unabashedly brought up the issue of gay marriage in an advanced English class. In fact, I had my students read a news article on the debate surrounding the issue in the US that had been sparked by the ruling of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that the denial to same-sex couples of the right to marry was unconstitutional. Part of what I was doing, w…

Trayvon Martin and American Exceptionalism

By Anthea Butler

…decided to hunt and kill Trayvon after muttering “These A—holes always get away with it” to the 911 operator. Zimmerman even calls Trayvon a “F’in coon” in the 911 recording. As of this writing, Zimmerman is not charged with any crime, courtesy of his friends on the Sanford, Florida, Police department reading of the “stand your ground law” which allows one to shoot if they feel threatened. Last time I looked, a pack of Skittles isn’t threatening,…

The Contested Religious Powers of Baseball on Display in Cuba

By Sean O'Neil

…this week, and in the wake of a terrorist attack in Brussels, President Obama sat in a Havana stadium extolling the sacred power of baseball to a trio of ESPN commentators: I did not play a lot of baseball as a kid; I was more of a basketball player, but there is something about baseball that is so fundamentally woven into our culture. And in some ways, at a time in our lives where everything is a mile a minute and kids are on their phone all the…

“Giving Godhead”: A Bloody Vision of Religion’s Deepest Influence

By Spencer Dew

…ventive and successfully performative works to appear in living memory.” Dramatic words for the Gray Lady. Giving Godhead Dylan Krieger Delete Press August 2017 And a shock, surely, to the small press that had produced the volume. Orders placed in the wake of that review’s publication were filled just this month, an interval that only furthered expectation regarding Simmons’s claim that the poems here went “places I have never seen any poet go bef…

Swiss Priest Sacked for Blessing Lesbian Couple; Mormon Equality Advocate Excommunicated; Pope-Backed Anti-Gay Referendum Fails; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…below the 50 percent required to make the referendum binding. More from GLAAD: To take advantage of the 50% rule was a plan put together by the liberals and LGBT advocates from the beginning. Fearing the possible outcome of the referendum, Slovakian LGBT groups, led by Iniciatíva Inakosť, launched a portal nejdeme.sk (notgoing) where they encouraged people not to vote at all. Under the tagline “there are no right answers for bad questions”, the g…

Recovering From Rejection: The Second Coming of Ted Haggard

By Wendy Norris

…ous laughter. He wisecracks that God’s preoccupation with keeping tabs on Barack Obama may delay immediate answers to their prayers. A joke about the biblical significance of preaching in ramshackle sheds glides effortlessly into tonight’s homily from Acts 28:17, in which Paul, exonerated, returns to Jerusalem from Rome to persuade the Jews that the Messiah has indeed come. In Haggard’s reading, he is Paul: not guilty as charged by the authorities…

“You’ve Never Met a Muslim”

By Hussein Rashid

On the occasion of the anniversary of 9/11, and in honor of the end of Ramadan, four New York Muslims reflect on piety and patriotism, on sharing classrooms and rituals of community life, on the courage and goodness of New Yorkers, and on the horrific event that has shaped a generation of American Muslim life. Hussein Rashid_________ September 11, 2001. The day I became Muslim. That’s a lie. I am now a Muslim. I was not always. America made me…

“Guerilla Warrior of Judeo-Christian Political Commentary” Stars in Anti-Newt Video in Iowa

By Sarah Posner

Charisma magazine reports: A Sioux City, Iowa pastor, prominent in the defeat of three Iowa Supreme Court justices last year for their same-sex marriage ruling, announced today that a hip-hop video calling Newt Gingrich “the GOP’s Kim Kardashian for his many infidelities on marriage—gay, straight and his own” would be delivered, via text messaging starting Thursday, to every registered Republican or non-aligned Iowa voter with a cell phone on rec…

Religious Exceptions Not So Exceptional According to New Study

By Patricia Miller

…up” seeking exceptions, as suggested by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s new analysis of employer health benefits plans? Kaiser found in fact that 10 percent of nonprofits with more than 1,000 employees have requested an accommodation to the contraceptive mandate, as did five percent of firms with between 200 and 999 employees. According to Kaiser, “many of the nonprofits who have sought the accommodation are likely health systems or educational ins…