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Family Planning is Vatican’s Blind Spot on Environment

…d center would be significant. And let’s be clear, most of those Catholics use or want to use family planning. The continued blind spot of the Vatican on contraception is tragic. The papal commission on birth control reported to Pope Paul VI in 1966 that there was no impediment to permitting the use of contraceptives. The Pope rejected the report fearing loss of authority. Almost 50 years later, the loss of papal authority is seen not only in Cath…

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New Poll: Americans Disagree with Hobby Lobby

…g at Democratic respondents. Just 30% said businesses should be able to refuse service to LGBT people (vs. 67% who disagreed), while 68% said trans people should be able to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity (27% were opposed). In fact, when respondents were separated by religious affiliations, a majority of Catholic, Jewish, Black Protestant, and unaffiliated Americans said businesses should be required to serve everyone…

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Islam in Conflict with Democracy? A Response to Stanley Fish

…seeks as a religion,” only heightens this possibility. It also further confuses matters because it ignores the differences between two very different religious cultures, the United States and Britain. The United States remains a proudly religious nation, while Britain is significantly more modest in its observance and public expression of religion. This much is bothersome as a wide range of culture warriors, from those who insist that this is a “C…

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The Sacred and the Dead: Three Ways to American Beauty

…n environment,’ which is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard.” ~Music Promoter Bill Graham, April 29, 1971 One sentence, spoken by an anonymous “usher” to a maverick producer who then riffed to boisterous audience at the Fillmore East—all the words spoken then say more than any of us digitally-connected folk will be able to say. But as Bill Graham tells it, “you can use sentences and sentences,” so we might as well try. I nominate the Gratefu…

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SCOTUS’s Incoherent ‘Masterpiece Cakeshop’ Decision

…to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to—to use their religion to hurt others. It’s simply a factual statement followed by an anodyne opinion. I don’t think people should use their religion to hurt others, either. Does that make me a bigot? The broader point here is that Kennedy’s reasoning is simply incoherent. There is no way for government to remain “strictly neutral” when it comes to religious values. B…

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The Far-Right Embrace of the Knights Templar isn’t Just About Faith, Tradition or History — It’s About Hate

…so-called culture wars.” And this is where we can return to the far-right use of Templar imagery, because taken out of their Catholic context, the Templars have become a totem for the far-right and a way to vice-signal their anti-Muslim beliefs and conspiracies. In the United States, the imagery is rooted in the American reaction to 9/11, and especially in our 2003 invasion of Iraq, a war in which Christian supremacist rhetoric—including the infa…

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Did the Pope Claim Gay Marriage as a Threat to Humanity or Didn’t He?

…eaucracy is arrogant, secretive, suspicious of outsiders, and given to the use of almost impenetrable jargon. Sometimes, as a journalist, you have to explain what they mean. But none of this explains, still less excuses, the claim that he had said gay marriage was a threat that undermined the future of humanity. He didn’t. Well, did he or didn’t he? Shouldn’t be that hard to check. Here’s what the Reuters story said: Pope Benedict said on Monday t…

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Trump is a Nightmare, Sure, But Can He Actually Do Anything?

…call attention to things—that’s part of the strategy. In other words, you use everything you can use.” There’s no question that Trump has thus far leaned heavily on executive action to advance his policy goals—which is not uncommon for presidents faced with a divided (or, in this case, deeply dysfunctional) Congress. And while Trump has signed more executive orders to date than any president since Harry Truman, the actual policy impact of those o…

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Hajj Journal: Using the Toilet at the Grand Mosque

…everyone also does this manual flush, because, well, I’ve used enough outhouses at amusement parks or natural sights in America with no water to be thankful for what I had. Then I needed to make wudu’ and headed for the nifty wudu’ stations. Unfortunately, these too were saturated with water. Never mind my description before of the drain for removing the waste water—it was there, alright, but like the toilet, I don’t know what made it impossible f…

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Will SB 1146 End LGBT Discrimination in California’s Religious Schools?

…th-based institutions explicitly subject” to California non-discrimination codes. Of course, that’s because non-faith-based institutions are already subject to the state and federal anti-discrimination laws. “The targets of this bill are religious colleges and universities, but the true victims of this legislation would be the innocent students,” wrote California Assemblyman Matthew Harper early last month. Since the anti-discrimination requiremen…

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