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Does Multiverse Theory Bring Theology Into Science?

By Andrew Aghapour

…to explain the bounty or harmony of the world around us. Given an infinite number of universes, a few of them are bound to be life-friendly at some point, and we’re in one of them. The problem, of course, is that the price of getting rid of God is an infinite number of universes we can’t see. So sober-minded contemporary scientists end up on the same side as (some) theologians in arguing that the multiverse is extravagant, unnecessary, and unscien…

Can Faith-Based Organizing for Gun Control Work?

By Sarah Posner

…ail the number of gun deaths in America, the number of mass shootings, the number of accidents, the number of suicides. The movement would have more than these grassroots activists. It would have willing politicians, a legal strategy, and lots of money. All of these components would work in tandem to change people’s minds, to pressure lawmakers, to intimidate politicians running for office, to go to court when necessary. With these political, legi…

Eddie Long in Hot Water Again

By Anthea Butler

Bishop Long and his church New Birth are in trouble again, this time over video gaming machines. Fox 5 Atlanta has an expose about Ephren Taylor, who Long introduced to the church as “his friend and brother,” allowing Taylor to make a financial presentation about investing in his video game machines. Parishioners who invested at their bishop’s recommendation, according to the report, “instead of making big profits, they found that Ephren Taylor’s…

The Bishops Did Send a Message with Their Vote on Biden and Communion; Are We Sure It Was The One They Intended?

By Daniel Schultz

I hate to say “told you so,” but the opportunity comes along so infrequently I feel obliged to take it when I can. The plan among U.S. Catholic bishops to bludgeon Pres. Biden with a statement on the Eucharist that would highlight his unworthiness to receive has flopped, more or less as I predicted. Contrary to the New York Times, I never thought this was an effort to deny Biden communion itself. As the Times and any other intelligent observer kn…

Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua Dies: Potential Witness in Philly Sex Abuse Trial

By Anthea Butler

Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died last night at the age of 88, just one day after being approved as legally competent to testify in the upcoming sex abuse trial of the Philadelphia Archdiocese. The trial of Monsignor William Lynn is expected to commence at the end of March 2012, and the case promises to be an explosive one. Prosecutors and the Philadelphia DA want to set a precedent for showing how the archdiocese instructed Monsignor Lynn to move…

“Own Your Heresy”: The Argument Over Who Gets to Do Public Theology Takes a Sharp Turn

By Kaya Oakes

The topic of Ross Douthat’s Erasmus Lecture for First Things magazine this week was “The Crisis of Conservative Catholicism,” a timely one given the recent public tussles over the Synod of the Family in Rome. On the same evening, a group of prominent Catholic theologians released an open letter to the editor of the New York Times, responding to Douthat’s October 17th column on “The Plot to Change Catholicism.” In the letter, the theologians objec…

Grassley Staff Memo on Televangelists Makes Clear Religious Right Opposition to Government Oversight

By Sarah Posner

…r auxiliary organizations, which are frequently for-profit operations: The number and types of entities, including private airports and aircraft leasing companies, raises concerns about the use of the church’s tax-exempt status to avoid taxation. However, given the four churches’ refusal to provide tax information, we are unable to determine whether and the extent to which they are reporting and paying taxes on income earned in those entities. Tha…

When Nazi Comparisons are “Civil”

By Sarah Posner

Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson and Sojourners’ Jim Wallis take to the pages of Christianity Today to call for “civility”: In the aftermath of the horrible and senseless shooting in Arizona and some of the troubling responses to it, we, as leaders in the faith community, affirm with one voice our principled commitment to civil discourse in our nation’s public life. The President rightly said that no act of incivility can be blamed for the…

Bishop Finn-dicted For Protecting Pedophile Priest

By Anthea Butler

Kansas City Bishop Robert W. Finn was indicted along with the Diocese of Kansas City on Friday for failure to report an egregious case of child abuse. The misdemeanor indictment involves Finn’s protection of a pedophile priest, Father Shawn Ratigan, who kept child pornography on his computer. Ratigan was allowed to continue priestly duties throughout the diocese, including contact with children, even though hundreds of photographs of children wer…

Days of Reckoning for the Philadelphia Archdiocese

By Anthea Butler

“That man molested me. He knows it. He knows it. He knows it.” So was the testimony of “Mark” on April 5, Holy Thursday, in the case of Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan, currently on trial in Philadelphia. Lynn is accused of attempting to hide evidence of abuse by clergy, moving pedophile priests among parishes, and of endangering the welfare of two children. Brennan is accused of raping a 14-year-old boy, “Mark,” whose abuse is…