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Putting the “Protest” Back in Protestant: Reclaiming the Spirit of Resistance

By Peter Laarman

…sty in regard to the truth claims of one’s own beliefs). • Resistance as a way of life: recognition of the flawed nature of all existing political and social arrangements (for those Protestants who are actually and actively committed to religious life, the correlate here is taking sin seriously). Areopagitica in Reverse: The Shame of Today’s Domesticated Protestantism I turn now to the reason for this lengthy but necessary meander down historical…

Biblical Inerrancy: Responses to “What Do ‘The Christians’ Believe?”

By C. Joshua Villines

…dissonance. On the other hand, if we allow his response to help us brush away all the detritus of easy caricatures and selfish political agendas, we can then answer honestly. When we do, we can preserve a voice that is uniquely Christian, and we can allow that voice to speak in a way that is neither shrill nor strident. Instead, the Christian voice becomes one that can sing in harmony with the rest of us, the rest of humanity, as we all seek to f…

What is Community?

By Amina Wadud

…the “best ummah“; and to be the ummah of the middle, moderate or balanced way (i.e. not the extreme way.) But what really drew my attention was the reminder that Allah says, “We could have made you into a single ummah….” Surely then, the command for moderation is not a command for superiority, but rather for cooperation between diversities. So, what makes a collective? What makes an ummah? In these days of the nation-state, it is not a single geo…

The Battle Beneath the Battle: Do Gay People Exist?

By Jay Michaelson

…ecognize that, in my experience at least, whether or not one is “born this way” does seem to matter to a whole lot of people. For political as well as intellectual reasons, LGBT activists are loathe to base our rights on the latest scientific or pseudo-scientific data. This strikes me as wise. But as I talk about these issues with folks in the “movable middle,” I’ve noticed that the reluctant allies, semi-supportive family members, and more-or-les…

By the Way: A Radically Conservative “Faith-Based Initiative”

By Randall Balmer

President Barack Obama’s plan to more or less continue the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, an innovation of the George W. Bush years, represents a gesture of confidence in the ameliorative efforts of religious groups, as well as a political sop to evangelicals and other religious voters. But it also flirts dangerously with Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation” between church and state, opening the possibility for all sorts of Fir…

Jay Bakker on LGBT Justice and the Demands of Grace

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ying to expose the truth to him but I found it more graceful to just stay away and not continue the conversation because I would get angry. So sometimes walking away is graceful? Yeah, I think so. Sometimes telling people how you feel is graceful, too. You have to go situation by situation. In your book you talk about how your mom, Tammy Faye, reacted to the news that a friend of yours was gay. You were devastated, but her response was basically,…

Politicized Religion Fuels Christian-Muslim Violence In Nigeria

By Elizabeth Dickinson

…nd ownership system in rural Nigeria aside from customary law, so the only way to defend your turf is to do exactly that. Thus comes the religious violence, bred from an awful situation and making the situation so much worse. Once the first attacks took place, the region began down an almost unstoppable path toward retribution after retribution. When you have nothing to lose anymore, you can only gain by taking away from others what you have lost….

Op-Ed: Liberal Hatred

By Laurie Patton

…t in religious studies—even more so since 9/11. Some scholars focus on the ways religions find justification in their own scriptures for acts of violence. Others focus on the ways economic and political oppression create a cult of martyrs; the only meaningful life is one which ends in a violent death, resisting the oppressor. Some focus on the “ethnic” elements of religious conflicts, or the “religious” elements of ethnic conflicts. Still others a…

State of the Union Stuck in that Olde-Time Semi-Niebuhrianism

By Ira Chernus

…een, and still is, so little economic oppression (none at all, some have always maintained); we bear no burden of past strife because the past has been so harmonious. Presidents have always been expected—indeed, for all practical political purposes obligated—to confess their faith in this economically-laden theology. But we might expect something different from this president, the first to publicly acknowledge a close study of and allegiance…

Ugandan Anti-Gay Fallout: New Laws, New Violence, New Underground Railroad

By Peter Montgomery

…ch. A prominent supporter of gay marriage, he told worshippers at the Broadway church that the Christian tradition holds “the root of marriage is not sex but companionship”. He said: “The idea that marriage is about friendship has become extremely powerful in England.” Christians must symbolise “good news”, he said: “One of the really painful things I have had to learn is how the Church can be really bad news to people”. This can “stir feelings of…