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Show Me the Way of the Hebrews: The Making of an African American Rabbi

By J. Lester Feder

…d the distracted air of someone trapped in serious concentration. He held classes for students from many different congregations in the row house he converted into a shul by knocking out the walls on the ground floor to create a sanctuary. Aronoff attended classes alongside students from other synagogues around the city, where the rabbi lead informal discussion sessions based each week on a different subject—a ritual’s details, the laws of keeping…

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

By Peter Laarman

…h is also expected to attract the attention and involvement of significant numbers of Roman Catholics and younger evangelicals. Part of the idea is to remind individual Christians who totally embrace LGBT equality that there are millions more like them—a genuine “cloud of witnesses,” to use the biblical expression. [Full disclosure: I was significantly involved for over two years in the early development of this project; my agency was paid for its…

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

By Frederick Clarkson

…d integrity of library staff and trustees. She says, however, “There are a number of organizations that argue that Drag Queen Story Hours are inappropriately sexualizing young children; are attacking conservative Christian values around sexuality.” But, she avers, “we always circle back to the fact that these are not programs that anyone has to attend, that parents are always part of the program and are invited to be there with the children. Some…

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

By Peter Laarman

…to Meacham’s piece: 1) There’s got to be a connection between the smaller number of people, especially young people, wishing to claim the name “Christian” and the cultural prevalence of toxic forms of Christianity in recent years—and there’s growing anecdotal evidence to support such a connection; 2) If conservative Christians are losing adherents and losing cultural power, why are the Democrats so intent on cultivating them—on fighting the last…

Life as a Game Show: Reading Slumdog Millionaire

By Paul Courtright

…iar Bollywood genre. The musical score crackles with energy. There are any number of reasons why Slumdog has emerged as one of this year’s favorites among American audiences. Perhaps the Oscar nominations reflect India’s rise as a global economic power, as well as a cinematic one. And, while the story is set in India, there is something familiar to American audiences about the kid who finds his way to success and love through struggle in an indiff…

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

By Peter Montgomery

…T activists, including two PINK Armenia staffers, were attacked in Yerevan last week. The group filed a complaint with the ministry of health about hospital staff who mocked one of the victims. Mexico: Marriage Equality Spread Continues The first marriage between two men who did not receive an amparo, or federal court injunction, in Guadalajara was held last week; as was the first same-sex wedding in Guadalajara. The ongoing spread of marriage equ…

The Abortion Debate, Texas Style

By Dhawn Martin

…tion on the bill, I was greeted by a few orange-wearing folk. They were outnumbered by anti-abortion activists, wearing blue, and I felt a little intimidated—so much that I texted a friend for moral support. Once I had registered, I walked back through the main hall to a table set up for those opposed to the bill. A woman stationed there greeted me, “What is up with the blue people?” she asked. “It’s like we’re contagious. Have you noticed how the…

The Fretting About Whether Democrats Are “Friendly” To Religion

By Sarah Posner

…ocrats are unfriendly toward religion (22%), up from 15% who felt that way last year but about the same as in surveys conducted in 2005 and 2006. Views of the Democrats’ stance toward religion have soured sharply among groups that were already inclined to view the Democratic Party negatively, such as Republicans and white evangelical Protestants. But they have also turned more negative among both independents as well as Democrats who are ideologic…

Demonized and Demonizing No More.

By Joanna Brooks

…d between atheists and religious communities. Of course, there are still a number of people who are, if not entirely resistant to the ideas in the book, at least deeply suspicious about or don’t see much value in them. One thing I find valuable about Faitheist is that it moves atheism away from the kind of polemic that ends up focusing on truth claims in a very literal way and so mirrors the religious fundamentalisms it would like to dismantle. A…

Amway, Religious Right Pyramid Scheme, Returns to the Motherland

By Bill Berkowitz

…igure. In response to news of the award ceremony, I wrote a piece for Buzzflash entitled “The Fallen Have Risen: Charles Colson honored by White House,” and subtitled “In his final days in office, President Bush is pallin’ around with a former felon and bomb plotter.” Despite the snarky subtitle’s intentional dig at Bush, the article acknowledged Colson’s recent achievements: A few years ago, Time magazine named him one of the twenty-five most inf…