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Sacred&Profane: The “Cult” of Oprah Inflames Religious Right

By Gary Laderman

…healing wisdom for the national, and now certainly global, masses. Her non-sectarian, bible-influenced, spiritually-based therapeutic power to transform individuals and society itself was fittingly on display during America’s darkest hours after the 9/11 attacks. Oprah hosted the national memorial service after the tragedy, an intimate, familiar, trusted face who could lead Americans in the socially urgent rituals of death that did not exclude th…

LDS Church “Non-Negotiable” on Women’s Ordination

By Holly Welker

…of Proposition 8 in California, for instance, split families and congregations, but that wasn’t a divisive move: that was the church doing God’s will. Any ensuing division was the fault of people who were simply too hard-hearted or cowardly to support God’s righteous decrees. This is the context in which to read the church’s March 17 response to Ordain Women (wonder if they realized it was the anniversary of the Relief Society?): …

Economy Bankrupting the Culture War?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…e is still politically charged, said Richard Land, leader of the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention, based in Nashville, Tennessee. “Opposition to same-sex marriage is the most unifying issue among Baptists, exceeding even abortion,” Land said. “When they offer same-sex benefits to federal workers, they are using taxpayer money to pay for them and that is something we would be very concerned about and oppose.” The religious right, even…

Persecution, Betrayal, and the Zero Sum Fight for Global Domination — Day 1 of NatCon 2024

By Annika Brockschmidt and Ben Lorber

…rikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies (an anti-immigration think-tank founded by a eugenicist and a White nationalist), suggested that asylum be abolished, and that women visiting the US on a tourist visa should be asked if they’re pregnant, and be denied entry to the country until after having given birth. A war for a Christian nation In a session on “lawfare,” panelists railed against the criminal prosecution of Dona…

One Year After 1/6, Media Still Refuse to Recognize Authoritarian Christianity

By Chrissy Stroop

…. And this Christianity is not a less authentic form of the faith than turn-the-other-cheek Christianity just because we may find it less congenial. As I’ve argued many times, the dismissal of authoritarian Christianity as “fake” Christianity only serves to reinforce Christian hegemony by perpetuating the equation of “Christian” with “good” in the common imaginary, an equation we don’t make for members of any other religious or non-religious demog…

Ordain Women Transforms Mormon Feminism

By Holly Welker

…r ago today, Ordain Women celebrated the creation of the Relief Society on March 17, 1842 by launching its website with 19 profiles of individuals calling for the ordination of Mormon women. Today it has more than 250 profiles—and has completely transformed Mormon feminism. I continue to be impressed and pleased with the extremely thoughtful work Laurie Goodstein and Jodi Kantor are doing on Mormon women. I recommend a conversation on “The Evolvin…

As US Reaches a 1940s Fork in the Road — Which Path Will We Choose?

By John Stoehr

…ay out of European affairs; some Americans were sympathetic to Germany post-World War I. The radio priest, Charles Coughlin, broadcast these views to millions. He was kind of the Rush Limbaugh of his day. Nazi influence in the US culminated with a huge march and rally in New York City in 1939. Thousands gathered in Madison Square Garden to listen to blatantly fascist speeches under the banners of George Washington adorned with swastikas. In 1940,…

Damn You Auto-Correct: Creationist Edition

By Lauri Lebo

…o the toilet, FTE editors quickly went through the manuscript with a search-and-replace word processor option, taking out “creation science” and replacing it with “intelligent design”. Really. That’s all they did. But when the Kitzmiller legal team went through the earlier creation science version of Pandas and compared it to the intelligent design one, they noticed that other than those small wording changes, practically nothing else had been alt…

Proposition 8, Mormonism, and the Other Fight for Alternative Marriage

By Holly Welker

…ontemplate suicide. The documentary relates the story of Stuart Matis, a 32-year-old gay Mormon who, in February 2000, shot himself on the steps of the LDS chapel in Los Altos, California. Matis’ parents issued a statement saying that after their son’s suicide, they finally felt at peace. During the account of Matis’ death, the stillness in the Salt Lake City theater where I saw the film was punctuated by sobs from the audience. Weeping and exclam…

Gimme That Old Spice Religion

By Frederick Clarkson

…cey, a marketing and communications consultant from Ashville, Alabama—an up-and-coming Republican politician—topped a field of ten finalists with thirty percent of the vote (3038 votes). He is now honored as one who knows “what it means to be a man,” which includes a $2,000 prize “and a manly stash of Old Spice products.” “It was not possible,” according to the contest rules, “or even desirable to quiz each candidate about their political, religio…