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Cafeteria Cockroaches and Synagogue-State Relations in Israel

By Shalom Goldman

…d Talmudic citations that forbid the consumption of bugs. For the Orthodox community, the prohibition is not as arcane as it might seem. In the past few decades Ultra-Orthodox communities have encouraged their members to check all fresh vegetables, especially lettuce and broccoli, for the presence of bugs. Rethinking “Kosher” While the term kosher has a wide range of usage in the United States (ranging from “kosher style” to “strictly kosher”), us…

Will Pope’s African Tour Change Attitudes on Divorce and LGBTQ Among African Catholics?

By Kaya Oakes

…vened by the Pope to take up issues relating to the family. With divorce becoming more common internationally, including in Africa, the Catholic teaching that divorced and remarried Catholics are barred from receiving communion unless they are granted an annulment by the Church has come under criticism from liberal members of the church, who had hoped the synod might speed up that process. Instead, it ended on a note of ambiguity, leaving the issu…

New Poll Reveals Jews May Be Open to Change in Israel Policy

By Benjamin Weiner

…id to have been rejected by Arafat, but which actually fell apart due to a complex series of failures on both sides). The 69% of respondents (the number is even higher among Jews under 30) opposed to Avigdor Lieberman, the ultra-nationalist politician who has advocated the “transfer” of Israeli Arabs and will most likely be taking up a minister’s portfolio in the new Netanyahu government, further emphasizes the survey’s dovish tilt. But an importa…

A Reforming Tradition Struggles With Change

By Brent Hege

…CA has taken its stand for justice and has given every indication of being committed to that stand, come whatever may. Additionally, the church has repeatedly insisted that it will respect the “bound conscience” of dissenters and will work to continue in faithful and productive mission and ministry with those who disagree with the actions taken at the 2009 churchwide assembly. Already, though, there are signs of pressure to rescind the decisions m…

Pious White Reformers and Race, Then and Now

By Peter Laarman

…lsewhere, the special fecklessness of white Christian progressives when it comes to the hardcore issues of race and class. The difference between today’s progressives and the “benevolent” reformers of 200 years ago is that those pious reformers actually had the ear of Congress and of six successive chief executives—whereas faithy liberals in our era talk mainly to themselves. But there is also a telling and dolorous similarity between the two grou…

Park51 and the Ground Liberals Are Forced to
Fight On

By Sarah Posner

…inciples so it’s kind of important when you see a poll that says a growing number of Americans think you might be a Muslim. The President continues to tell everyone he’s a Christian but yet the number rises. See that? Which came first, the thought he was a Muslim or the lack of trust? If he is a Muslim, he can’t be trusted? Or if you can’t trust him, he must be a Muslim? In any case, Obama strained mightily to placate the likes of Graham and Brody…

Pro-Choice, Pro-Life, and Pro-Home Birth

By Katherine Don

…Slate). These articles reflect an emerging consensus that home birth has become more common and less countercultural, a consensus supported by CDC data showing that between 2004 and 2009 home births increased by 29%. The home birth movement has been galvanized by the fight for legislation that ensures better access to home birth care, yet some birth advocates have found themselves among strange bedfellows: individuals who disagree—often vehemently…

Religion Round-Up: What’s Going on in Religion Around the World

By Diane Winston

…are, according to Pew, surprisingly high. Moreover, they represent a large number of people, “nearly equal the estimated number of religiously affiliated adults in the United States” Accordingly, the 1-plus % of the Chinese population that identifies itself as Muslim equals some 20.3 million people—a population almost as large as Saudi Arabia’s. (More to the point, as one of China’s ethnic minorities, Muslims are not bound to the one-child per fam…

Gambian Prez Rails Against Gay ‘Evil Empire’; Irish Priest Comes Out During Mass; Trans Talk on Tunisian TV Sparks Debate; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…t LGBT rights in the Cayman Islands,” reports Pink News. “The debates will come in the form of a number of free public lectures.” Despite the Cayman Islands being a British Overseas Territory, meaning residents in many ways are treated as British, including passports, access to the UK and EU, the territory does not have many of the protections for LGBT people. Some issues faced by LGBT people in the Cayman Islands, whether visiting or living there…

Dispelling the Zombie Myth of White Evangelical Support for Trump

By Robert P. Jones

…supported by the preponderance of evidence. Broken down, this myth has two components: The overall drop in church attendance in the general population has produced a significant increase in the number of WEINOs, White evangelicals who seldom or never attend church; and Support for Trump is strongest among White evangelicals who are not connected to churches. Let’s take each of these in turn. Myth 1: A Large and Growing Number of White Evangelical…