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Hookers for Jesus: Sex and Salvation on the Strip

By Nicole Greenfield

…d maybe also God, to know her experience wasn’t her fault. At least not all 16 years of her experience. She was coerced, she was forced, she was threatened. She couldn’t leave. Her account is certainly moving, and it also makes for a great born-again redemption story. The precise details of Lobért’s ultimate escape from her former lifestyle are unclear but two things are certain: she overdosed and she found Jesus. It was only after a mix of cocain…

Wall St., Main St., Religion, and the Bailout

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ident that it can do so right here in Quitman. Yet there were a perplexing number of Antique and Gift Shops, the sorts of thing that normally require a significant tourist industry or leisure class to support. That kind of shopping takes place on the weekends, yet all but one store on Main Street in Quitman was closed this Sunday. I was especially taken by the two largest of them, both of them going out of business. Romine’s Furniture especially c…

Interview with Karen Armstrong

By Andrea Bistrich

…dern.” The first of these is independence. The modernization of Europe from 16th to the 20th century was punctuated by declarations of independence on all fronts: religious, intellectual, political, economic. People demanded freedom to think, invent, and create as they chose. The second quality is innovation as we modernized in the West: we were always creating something new, there was a dynamism and excitement to the process, even though it was o…

Does War Make Sense? Science and Religion on the Battlefield

By Nathan Schneider

…ne to a similar tactical physics. The night before marching on Rome in the year 312, the pagan Constantine I had a dream and ordered the sign of the cross painted on the shields of his warriors. When Constantine’s outnumbered force won a swift victory the next day against Maxentius (acting on divine prophecies of his own), he gave enough of the credit to Jesus that, within a few years, nascent Christianity was on its way to becoming the official c…

NC’s Gay Marriage Ban: “It’s Going to Hurt the Church”

By Nicole Greenfield

…n North Carolina. Referring to Bakker’s theological “feel-good stance” as “cheap grace,” Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League attributed Bakker’s preaching of a “toxic and counterfeit gay-affirming gospel” to being injured by the church as a child. “In some ways he’s right,” Bakker told me in response. “It’s called empathy.” He continued: “Every time someone accuses me of cheap grace, I go back and say no, it’s free grace. Grace is free…

Grasping At Straws: The Problem with Common Ground on Abortion

By Frances Kissling

…ortions say it is in part because they cannot afford a child. That is about 800,000 women and girls each year. The only bill they support, The Reducing the Need for Abortions and Supporting Parents Act, includes only a fraction of what would be needed for women to be able to provide for children. The bill was first introduced in 2006 and has never even made it to full committee consideration. None of the groups or individuals active in the common…

Swiss Priest Sacked for Blessing Lesbian Couple; Mormon Equality Advocate Excommunicated; Pope-Backed Anti-Gay Referendum Fails; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Poudyal in Kathmandu, the country’s capital, on Monday. Malaysia: Court upholds opposition leader’s sodomy conviction Malaysia’s high court upheld a conviction and five-year prison sentence against former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim this week, which Anwar described as the “murder of judicial independence.” The Washington Blade reports that Anwar had been acquitted of charges under the anti-sodomy law in 2012 but that prosecutors refiled th…

“I Died Inside.”

By Joanna Brooks

…on?” Yes, the whole bit. I raised my hand when they asked our class of six-year-olds who was going on a mission. I was always active in Church. And scouting—I received my Eagle Scout. I received the priesthood [all worthy Mormon men are ordained to the lay priesthood at age 12] and served in the leadership of my priesthood quorums. And I was preparing to serve a mission. This was what I was supposed to do: the next step on the ladder. The ladder?…

Teen Births Rise; Can Faith-Based Leaders Help?

By Frances Kissling

…iguring out what kind of life they want to have. The article’s poster child 16-year-old Jewel Morris Davis says: “I am the first person in my family to reach 16 without getting pregnant—or getting someone pregnant.” Some in the religious community who preach abstinence is best for teens as well as chastity for all before marriage could learn something from this approach. But, progressive religion has even more to offer. It holds far more nuanced p…

Forget Right or Wrong

By Elizabeth Drescher

…ligious demographic in America. Indeed, the ARIS study shows that 18 to 29 year olds are 30% more likely to self-identify as a None than are adults in general. If the traditional practice of prayer in the context of traditional institutional religions is increasingly meaningless for a significant and growing proportion of American believers and seekers, one wonders what the spiritual or civic value is of attempting to encourage the practice throug…