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An Extravagant Welcome For All: Believe Out Loud, a Faith-Based LGBT Campaign, Launches

By Peter Laarman

…om that links American Christianity and homophobia misses the large and growing number of Christians who are committed to building an inclusive church and an equal society. The trouble is that the pro-gay Christians haven’t had all the tools and resources needed to spread their message and build their movement. And they’ve worked in some degree of isolation from one another; within denominational silos and without much common issue framing. A bold…

Exclusive: Christian Right Bill Mill, Project Blitz, Hasn’t Gone Away, It’s Just Gotten More Secretive

By Frederick Clarkson

…he two-dozen state legislative Prayer Caucuses that the CPCF had organized with what they viewed as easy wins. They also wanted to set up opponents with an ambush of negative publicity, advising, “If any legislator opposes this, it will be helpful to get him or her on the record against this heritage and freedom.” This is just what they did to Minnesota State Senator John Marty (D-Roseville), who was cast as part of an “anti-faith movement” that s…

A Post-Christian America? Not Quite—Though Devoutly to be Wished

By Peter Laarman

…’t you duck when given a chance, on a confidential survey, to say “I’m not with them”? You witness the Terri Schiavo madness, the loony 9-11-related comments of Falwell and Robertson, Ralph Reed’s embrace of Jack Abramoff, the Ted Haggard melodrama—who wouldn’t cringe in embarrassment? Who wouldn’t want to have another religion, or no religion, rather than be identified with the Christers? The second point deserves some discussion. Frances Kisslin…

Life as a Game Show: Reading Slumdog Millionaire

By Paul Courtright

…as the story is—a fairy tale—we are caught up in the hope that the prince will not give up and will find his love at last. There is an echo for some with the story of our young prince in the White House, who came from obscurity, got the princess, and won the grand prize. The Obama story, to some at least, has a similar “it is written” quality about it. Perhaps the film holds a special appeal these days as many Americans reckon with a financial vu…

Catholic Leaders Offer Criticism, Support to Boxer Pacquiao After Anti-Gay Comments…

By Peter Montgomery

…ntinue an anti-LGBT crackdown following an election in which politicians inflamed anti-gay sentiment to win political support. Philippines: Catholic Leaders Offer Criticism, Support to Boxer Pacquiao After Anti-Gay Comments At New Ways Ministry, Bob Shine reviews some of the reaction by Catholic officials to the international controversy over anti-gay comments by boxer Manny Pacquiao, who said in a recent interview that people in same-sex relation…

The Abortion Debate, Texas Style

By Dhawn Martin

…a small tam adorned with an orange pompom—an activist for choice. She was flirting with one of the DPS officers. Love and politics in the afternoon, I smiled to myself. But what happened next surprised me. The young woman bent down near the bowed head of the older woman, placed a hand on her shoulder, and said, “I’m sorry to bother you, but I was wondering if you’re OK.” The woman in blue lifted her head, smiled, and nodded yes. I couldn’t hear w…

The Fretting About Whether Democrats Are “Friendly” To Religion

By Sarah Posner

…y can afford,” wrote Clara Dobay of Houston. “This issue should be decided within the family without coercion from any church. The cardinal’s effort to influence secular government on family decisions by holding Congress hostage is outrageous and should be considered a breach of the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.” Another issue here is transparency. Churches can lobby, as long as it comprises an insubstantial percentage…

Demonized and Demonizing No More.

By Joanna Brooks

…oming out as queer, what really made it possible for me to identify myself within a queer narrative was the fact that there were a number of different narratives available to me. Identifying as an atheist, I went through a similar process, but there weren’t the same range of narratives. And I kept meeting other atheists who felt the same way I did—who felt like their identities and their stories weren’t represented in the most dominant atheist nar…

Amway, Religious Right Pyramid Scheme, Returns to the Motherland

By Bill Berkowitz

…ar motivational organizations lose money. Instead of promised wealth, they wind up with garages full of products, motivational tapes, and sales booklets, for which they paid a handsome price. Few have explained the inner workings of the company better than Eric Scheibeler, who, along with his wife, reached the founder’s Emerald level—a level less than 1/25th of one percent of Amway participants are able to achieve—before they uncovered company fra…

When God and Gender Mix: New Book Examines the Southern Holiness Movement

By Colin Chapell

…to be clear that I think that religious belief can be, and often is, intertwined with other things, but it is still a defining variable in establishing personal identity. On the other hand, there are people who believe that gender construction, what it means to be a man or woman and how that looks in society, is a static and timeless idea. They want to harken back to a time when “women were strong, men were good-looking, and all children were abov…