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Anti-Gay Evangelicalism is the Norm: A Less Rosy Take on the Evangelical “Tipping Point”

By Chrissy Stroop

…h Alcorn who was driven to suicide by her evangelical upbringing. Her heartbreaking words survive, including her call for her death “to mean something.” Are evangelicals listening? “We loved him unconditionally,” Carla Alcorn told CNN, misgendering the deceased Leelah and appealing to a fundamentalist “love” that was certainly not unconditional. In fairness, some evangelicals are listening with open hearts. I have seen some come around to LGBTQ af…

From the “God Beat” to the “None Beat”

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…part from an overwrought headline (“millennials leaving church in droves”) CNN’s Daniel Burke was able to get into some nuances of the survey results. And Emma Green at Atlantic took the time to note the complexities of religious identity revealed in the report, especially with a rise in interfaith marriages and religion-switching. As Green reminds us, “Not everyone in America is ditching religion, but people are finding more and more flexibility…

Before Oprah, There Was the “Hour of Power”: Crystal Cathedral Pastor Robert H. Schuller Has Died

By Cathleen Falsani

…ith its 10,000 panes of glass, seating for more than 2,700, and one of the world’s largest instruments — the Hazel Wright organ —was completed at a cost of $18 million and dedicated in 1980. In 2011, after mounting financial problems and infighting among church staff — including a rift between Schuller and his son (and heir apparent) the Rev. Robert Schuller, Jr., over the direction of church ministry — the Crystal Cathedral filed for bankruptcy,…

New Accusations Force the Question: Will Bishops “Be Held Accountable” on Sexual Abuse, as Francis Promised?

By Patricia Miller

…e held accountable’ for failing to protect children from sexual abuse,” as CNN put it. But can we expect former Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Joseph Adamec and current Bishop Mark L. Bartchak to face consequences for their failures? Will they be swift and severe? Accusations that a priest from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese had been molesting children at orphanages in Central America on his annual visits went unheeded by the PA diocese for five years. T…

The Black and White (and Blood-Red) Roots of ISIS

By Hasan Azad

…d the women are being taken as wives by ISIS members. If such reports are true, these acts are in major contravention of the most basic precepts of Islamic rule. But then again we are dealing with a group that draws its inspiration from Wahhabism, a fundamentally anti-intellectual tradition. Taking its name from its founder Ibn Abdul Wahhab (1703-1792), Wahhabism is based on the idea that Islam has been corrupted over the centuries; that Islam has…

Mad Men’s Matt Weiner, Warrior Against Woo

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…u were an adult, and had lived through some fairly interesting things like World War II and the Great Depression and then this came along. And there was tremendous change, and the clichéd word turbulence, and free love, and things like that. But there’s free love in the 1920s; there’s free love in the 1930s; the beatnik movement in the 1950s. No one invented any of this. What was different in the 60s, according to Weiner, was that baby boomers wer…

Gay Republicans Ask for Social Issue Cease-Fire

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…push their own agenda—particularly as it relates to social issues.” A new CNN poll shows that the authors of the letter are right in saying that the election was not a mandate for the Republicans. Of those polled 70 percent said their vote was a “rejection of the Democrats” with only 17 percent saying they voted to give Republicans a mandate. But, mandate or not, social conservatives say they still expect Republicans to put social issues in the f…

Is Evangelicalism Too Nice?

By Eric C. Miller

…ist’s divinity, death, resurrection, etc. Both believe the Bible to be the Word of God, though they may quibble about its inspiration and interpretation. Both believe that Christian faith requires action in the world. But while Evans emphasizes the “nice” elements of the gospel, Darling fixates on the mean stuff. He then insists that the mean stuff be manifest in policy. The conflation of orthodox belief and discriminatory social policy is likely…

Debate Heats Up Over “Francis Effect”

By Patricia Miller

…“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 about the chu…

Giving Up God—Not Just a Spiritual Stunt

By Becky Garrison

…h. And I realized I’m starting to appreciate art and beauty in the natural world without attributing this to any deity. Say more about the reactions you gotten from your peers? A few fundamentalist types have told me I’m stupid, which is to be expected. Some who know me well have indicated they feel I might be self-destructing. But most people are supporting me in my journey even though this isn’t a path most of them will take. They’ve known me as…