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Now That ‘Serial’ is Over: 2014’s Best Podcasts about Religion

By Andrew Aghapour

…ingness to embed jarring stories within rich and chaotic sonic landscapes. Most episodes are short and sweet. Get started with “The Grandmother and the Vine of the Dead,” which was Slate’s pick for the 25th best podcast episode of all time. After that check out “A Goddamn Missionary,” an empathetic vignette of a Bipolar Disorder sufferer and religious figure, and “Do Crows Mourn Their Dead?”, a mind-bending tale of creepy human masks and the “caco…

Is Twitter Doing Enough to Remove Extremist Content? An Ex-Employee Weighs In

By Sofi Hersher

…ned by ISIS in the recent past, and as such feel perhaps more acutely than most the urgency of these issues. Twitter is tackling solvable problems where they can. I believe that as a culture we need to approach this issue on two fronts: we must continue the practical, on-the-ground conversation of how to remove illegal, hateful, or violent speech from social media quickly and at scale, while continuing to consider why this is done and how it is ju…

Turkish Police Move Against Activists Who Defied Pride Ban; And More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ion and protection of the rights of LGBT people. The Commonwealth, made up mostly of nations that were once part of the British Empire, has accredited the Commonwealth Equality Network, “the first LGBTI-focused organization to be officially accredited by the Commonwealth.” Pink News reports that “at least 36 of the 53 Commonwealth member states criminalise homosexuality.” The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia released…

Mike Johnson isn’t Just Your Average Christian Right Avatar — He’s Influenced by Fringe Movements Unfamiliar to Most Political Analysts

By Annika Brockschmidt

…the Speaker’s office became a possibility, Johnson has kept mum about the most controversial issues. Fortunately, he’s left a decades-long trail that leaves no doubt as to who the third most powerful man in the U.S. is. In his inaugural speech as Speaker, Johnson was crystal clear about what drives him, claiming that only divine providence could have enabled him to assume the second place in line to the presidency: “I don’t believe there are any…

The Next Big Religion Issue: Immigration

By Daniel Schultz

…The answer is relatively straightforward. Working from cynical up, it’s in most denominations’ interest to appeal to immigrants, given current demographic realities. But there are also scriptural imperatives to do justice or to practice hospitality. Most of all, though, immigration is one subject on which the Bible is very, very clear. As Anthony Robinson says, The overall theme of the Bible’s teaching is summed up in Exodus 22:21, “You shall not…

“As Orthodox As They Come”: A Backstage Conversation With Rob Bell

By Andrew Aghapour and Michael Schulson

…s for all of us, and what kind of life Jesus wants us to live, more than almo*]}*st anybody in my life,” Bell told Religion News Service in December). Over the course of his career, Bell has espoused an increasingly universalist message. His work seems to be most appealing to ex-Christians or those on the margins looking for a way to remain in the Christian fold. How, Bell seems to be asking, can I reject as little as possible, while remaining nominal…

Episcopal Conference Lives Up to Episcopal Jokes

By Julie Ingersoll

…ing much happened,” according to a friend of mine who was a delegate. “The most contentious issue voted on had to do with something about priests’ retirement,” and he abstained on that one. This same friend told me a couple of years ago, at what seemed like the height of the battling, that it was all not such a big deal, that the number of dissidents was actually quite small and that he thought his church would be better off once they were gone….

Dieting, Sex, Jesus: The Body as Moral Battleground

By Lynne Gerber

…want to focus just on fatness. I was very aware of how difficult it is for most people to develop and maintain a critical perspective on this issue, especially when words like “health,” “morbidity,” and “death” are raised; words that are often halt critical thinking about fat in its tracks. So I was in search of a case or an issue that would be a productive conversation partner with fatness. Another inspiration for the project was some reading I w…

The Suppression of Sin in Evangelical Abolitionism: The Wilberforce Problem

By Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

…oday, seems like someone whose memory would be easy to celebrate. He was almo*]}*st solely responsible for ending the slave trade and the eventual abolition of slavery in the British Empire, which helped bring about abolition in the United States as well. Then, as now, however, that noble cause wasn’t always as straightforward as one might hope. Wilberforce’s politics, particularly his strident abolitionist positions, were motivated in large part by h…

As New Poll Finds “Increased Xenophobic Streak,” Republicans Heighten Anti-Muslim Rhetoric

By Sarah Posner

…ntrary to Islam. White evangelicals and white mainline Protestants are the most likely religious groups to agree with the statement that Islam is “at odds with American values and way of life” (73 percent and 63 percent, respectively). But the uptick in the percentage of people agreeing with the statement took place across demographic categories, Jones said, as the overall percentage of people agreeing rose nine percentage points in two years, fro…