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Former Employees: Racism & Abuse in Leading Religious Right Org.

By Sarah Posner

…the oldest, largest, and most radical religious right groups, and it has always played a major role in the right wing movement’s efforts to denigrate gay Americans and to convince conservative Christians that liberals are out to destroy religious liberty and silence people of faith,” said Michael Keegan, president of People For the American Way. “The AFA has also played an active role in driving the national right-wing agenda—at the so called Valu…

Dialogue or Demonization? Where Gays are Concerned, Focus on the Family Wants it Both Ways

By Cody J. Sanders

…ess the true model presented by Jesus Christ in the Bible—who didn’t back away from speaking truth.” It would seem that the subject is a “biblical” model of marriage and sexuality. But the subject is proposed in a way that sets up another false binary division, suggesting that the dialogue is between those who believe in the “true model” presented in the Bible and those who do not. This seems an attempt to control the discourse on (“Christian”) fa…

Eddie Izzard on Atheism, Transgender, and “The Invisible Bloke Upstairs”

By Becky Garrison

…He said, “I’m looking at it as a gift.” So I thought of this as a positive way of looking at it. It is actually a gift because women talk to me in a different way. If I had more makeup on and was more girly, I think I’d be more sensitive to it, but I’m able to walk around in heels and nails and not give a monkey’s blok about it. If you are an alternative sexuality, you have to look at it as a gift or otherwise it’s going to grind you down. In the…

Both the Joy and the Uproar Over the Pope’s Blessings for LGBTQ Catholics are Small Potatoes Compared to this Age-Old Church Problem

By Mary E. Hunt

…nts the reinforcement of the power structure status quo. The current papal way of operating tempts even well intended progressive people to act in disingenuous ways. It’s hard not to laud the Pope when he does something however tiny, like the blessings, which seems to be moving the Church in the right direction. But people making decisions together rather than having such imposed on them are, in the long run, far more important than any single pro…

By the Way: Riverside Minister’s Abrupt Resignation Reveals the Perils of the Pulpit

By Randall Balmer

…decent and kind, parishioners less charitably disposed can find ingenious ways to make a minister’s life miserable: criticism of everything from comportment and grooming to sermons, salary and administrative style. If you’re decisive, you’re an autocrat; if you seek to build consensus, you’re a weak leader. Late in my father’s very successful ministerial career, the board of elders in a large and affluent congregation demanded that he personally…

Pariah or Charmed Hero: America’s Obsession with Jews and Israel

By Shaul Magid

…states this rule cannot be ironclad. The Israel Lobby attempts to show the ways in which Israel’s and America’s interests do not always coincide and to then argue how the United States, influenced by the Israel lobby, has acted against those interests in its support of Israel. Whether this is true in practice or not is not the point here. My point is simply to suggest that the United States has often acted as if these interests were identical (and…

To Be Christian, Intellectual and Black: A Response to Vincent Lloyd

By Joshua L. Lazard

…f the way he occupies the public square. He does so in a large and visible way—a way that is accessible by many public entry points. Lloyd offers a fair premise about the need for a public black theology in the 21st century. Based on the landscape as I see it, there are numerous persons who did so in the 20th century and there is no shortage of those who are doing it in the 21st century. The seat of critique as I see it rests with the larger metho…

Finding Love—and Dogma—in Unexpected Places: Jeff Chu’s Gay Christian Odyssey

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…sations where they may make themselves vulnerable. Could there be a middle way for people to come together on the issue of homosexuality? How can you come forward in vulnerability when you feel either victimized or hurt? I think we all need thicker skins and I think we all need more grace. Maybe I’m an idealist when I imagine a church where we can—not necessarily agree because I don’t know that we’ll ever entirely agree on these issues—but at le…

To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise

By Diane Winston

…ederal funds to further their own professional goals. Government was a one-way street: the expectation was that it should support entrepreneurship without expecting anything in return. It was the old Populist notions reinterpreted by Christian capitalists on steroids. Walton’s collegiate programs eventually led to foreign exchanges that paved the way for setting up shop globally. Adding a new dimension to American evangelism, Christian universitie…

The Wrong Man: Why Falwell’s Paying for His Indiscretion But Trump Gets a Pass

By Leslie Dorrough Smith

…ound threats of an impending national enemy. As a result, there’s no other way to talk about, or justify, or translate their wayward sexuality that can redeem them as strong, national protectors. With this in mind, what that photo exposed is far more than Falwell’s underwear. Rather, it exposed the fact that playing political hardball involves a tricky calculus regarding which story about masculinity the public will more readily digest. More to th…