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The Story Behind the Catholic Church’s Stunning Reversal on Contraception

By Patricia Miller

…control from the Vatican II proceedings, which were already dealing with a number of controversial doctrinal issues, and had no real intention of changing the policy on birth control. Originally there were no lay members on the commission, but when they were added they were all married Catholic couples drawn from conservative Catholic family organizations who could be expected to mirror the hierarchy’s position on contraception. The commission stu…

How Religion Shapes (or Doesn’t) Our Views on Public Issues

By Daniel Schultz

…ocial issues come in dead last on a list of voter concerns. It’s not even close. Even more startling, however, just 7% of respondents said that religion is the biggest influence in their thinking about immigration. And only 6% say the same thing about the environment. That’s despite the messages they’re getting from the pulpit: about 1-in-4 said they’d heard clergy talk about immigration, and nearly half said their religious leaders had spoken out…

Did North Carolinians Vote Against their Own Beliefs?

By Peter Montgomery

…their families and deny them equal rights as citizens. The second saddest number comes with its own silver lining. Public Policy Polling reported on Sunday that most North Carolina residents believe that gay couples should have access to some legal protections. But because most voters didn’t understand just how extreme and far-reaching the amendment before them today was, they would vote for it to “protect” marriage. According to PPP: In some sen…

‘It’s a Gay Problem,’ and Other Myths From the Catholic Church’s Sexual Abuse Crisis

By Joelle Casteix

…hat some of the abuse is due to the “homophobia that keeps gay men in the closet, bars them from growing up and results in distorted sexuality for many gay priests.” In other words, the “homosexual subculture” isn’t the problem, though the demonization of queer sexualities could certainly contribute to the failure to develop a healthy adult sexuality. Ask any victim of clergy sexual abuse—male or female—and they will tell you: child sexual abuse h…

Packed with Threats of Political Violence, Media Largely Ignore the NAR’s ‘Million Women’ Rally in DC

By Frederick Clarkson

…lor thought it was less. But certainly tens of thousands attended, and the number may even exceed a hundred thousand. Whatever the actual number at the Mall, the audience was much larger since the event was live-streamed on Facebook, YouTube, and Rumble and translated into several languages. The Jumbotrons that lined the Mall were alternatively closed captioned in English and Spanish. It’s difficult to imagine any other religious or political even…

A Peek Inside the ‘Onion’ of Scientology

By Kristin Rawls

…vertising—at the expense of substance. What I mean by this is that they’ve lost some of their best counselors, those people who had a real connection to the material and who really knew what they were doing. While the substance has diminished, the externals of the Church have greatly expanded. So, you may look at the Churches of Scientology all over the world and say, “Wow, they’re really big!” But when I went to the New York organization five ye…

Punks vs. Monks: Rockers Speak Out Against Genocide in Myanmar

By M. Sophia Newman

…ey are “Bengali” illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh. While the number “969” is derived from Buddhist concepts, the movement appears to rely on economic anxieties, rather than religious philosophy, to incite anti-Muslim sentiment. While some monks have called the 969 movement a fringe group, anti-Rohingya protests have drawn hundreds of monks in capital city Yangon in the past year. Burmese dissident Maung Zarni has called the movement…

Like a Virgin

By Donna Freitas

…forthcoming in April from Oxford University Press on the subject), I met a number of evangelical Christian young women who had “repackaged their virginity” (as one woman called the process). I wonder how dismissive and cynical people would be after hearing some of their stories? There was nothing funny about these young women’s sexual identities. Yes, my feminist radar went up and pushed me to simply critique what, at least on the surface, sounded…

If You Liked The Martian You’ll Love These 3 Sci-Fi Shorts

By Andrew Aghapour

…. Luckily, Weir offers a treasure trove of short stories on his website, a number of which break with The Martian’s goal of approximating reality, grappling instead with some of the same issues that we discuss here at The Cubit. Without further ado, here are the top three short stories for anyone jonesing for more Weir: Bored World. The story of a mischievous, trans-dimensional plane of existence. Is this a god, or the story of sci-fi itself? Anti…

Exclusion is Causing Great Harm: A Conversation With Suspended UMC Pastor Rev. Cynthia Meyer

By Joel Pitney

…hey just struggled with the church being in the news. But that was a small number, and most folks have been very receptive. Many immediately began telling me about their family members, and all of their personal stories. My vulnerability in sharing let them open up, and we had great conversations. They’ve really hung in there. The church is not yet a reconciling congregation, but they had done some study about that before I had arrived, and they’r…