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Dear White Evangelicals: A Black Square Ain’t Gonna Cut It

By Jhas Williams

…ces instead of segregating the art forms. How do your Black parishioners feel? Included? Celebrated? Appreciated? Probably not. Until white evangelicals are willing to rework the entire framework of their teachings, they can ‘Blackout Day’ till they’re blue in the face, but their overall message will remain loud and clear: Black people are a stain. A moment, only to be tolerated but never fully accepted. And the only square that will prove to matt…

Jesus Christ and Super Stars: How The Holy Rolled Mainstream in Pop Music

By Alana Massey

…within the walls of the church. Julien Baker told The New Yorker, “‘Ultimately, I feel like there is just a pervasive evidence of God… Though I know that is maybe a controversial thing to say.” A survey of the musical landscape suggests otherwise. Though Baker and other artists are reluctant to identify as Christian artists or explicitly state their religious influences, the fingerprints of the Gospels on their works is undeniable. These are not t…

Debate Heats Up Over “Francis Effect”

By Patricia Miller

…ound no real “Francis effect” from the pope’s first year. According to Daniel Burke at CNN.com in a lengthy, mostly anecdotal piece, “there’s more way than one to measure the pontiff’s influence” than, say, actual metrics like the number of people going to mass or returning to the church. According to Burke, you just have to “ask around” Boston to find folks who know someone who’s thinking about returning to the church or who feels less horrible a…

8: The Mormon Proposition Gets It Right

By Joanna Brooks

…sequences. One of these consequences is that the Church has now branded itself as the leading anti-gay-rights religion in the country. That’s an expensive bit of turf to hold in an unsustainable legal and political fight. Every day, I read news stories from across the country about Mormons. And let me tell you, this movie alone has gotten ten times more coverage than the Church’s incredible humanitarian efforts in Haiti and the greening of its cha…

Americans Say Religion is “Losing Influence”

By Diane Winston

…Two findings are striking. First: Gallup reported that although Americans felt religion’s influence was declining, many—75 percent—agreed that more religion would be positive for the country. Not surprisingly, churchgoers were most gung-ho about religion’s beneficial impact. But “over half of those who seldom or never attend [services] and close to one in the three Americans who say religion is not important to them personally still say it would b…

What Do ‘The Christians’ Believe? Easter Reflections from a Non-Christian

By Gary Laderman

…by much—of Christian communities in America affects politics, ecumenical relations, and inter-religious dialogue remains to be seen, but American Christianity today belies any notion of common ground or uniformity. Maybe it really is inaccurate to speak about “the Christians” or assume that those who self identify as “Christian” think alike or act in the same way—an inaccuracy, I would hasten to add, that exists in the same manner when speaking a…

An Unholy Holy Week: Is the All-Male Rule of the Roman Catholic Church Self-Destructing?

By Anne Eggebroten

…tal change in the Church. “It seems to me that the Vatican don’t actually believe in God at all. They’re certainly not acting like they believe in a God that watches. A Christian is supposed to ask ‘What would Jesus do?’ and try to do it. Would Jesus have covered up for decades all of this abuse?” Like many others, O’Connor has chosen not to leave the church but to work for change. Her most dramatic call for change came in 1992 when she tore up a…

The Best the Largest Progressive Jewish Org Could Come Up With?

By Jay Michaelson

…particular, and not particular enough. It excludes many Jews, and perhaps deliberately depicts Jewishness as a secular, American immigration narrative that is accessible to non-Jews as well – such as, importantly, readers of this publication. This is good for building bridges with the wider progressive world and with contemporary immigrant communities, and maybe that’s the point. This is a Jewishness everyone can relate to. And it resonates with t…