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As Pat Robertson Retires, Here Are 10 of His Most Cringeworthy Moments

By Chrissy Stroop

…ure “news” magazine broadcast, The 700 Club, the 91-year-old Southern Baptist minister and Christian media mogul Pat Robertson is retiring. Many religion journalists and commentators are writing about the news in ways that normalize Robertson, a right-wing Christian extremist whose legacy shouldn’t be soft-pedaled. This piece is meant in part as a corrective. To be sure, many of the outlandish things Robertson has said over the years are funny—but…

Along Came a Spider: What the Pope Doesn’t See

By Anthea Butler

…nate to delay reporting of sexual abuse claims to the police until the priest in question could be defrocked, and you have set of players that would rival a mafia movie. The malfeasance and criminal behavior is shocking to say the least—and all, incidentally, coming to light during the “Year of the Priest” declared this year by Pope Benedict XVI. Outsiders might be tempted to think that all of these issues are about sex, and in one sense, that is…

Exclusive: Religious Leaders for Immigration Equality for Gay and Lesbian Couples

By Sarah Posner

…FA would provide an “immediate non-judicial solution that would help the most number of families.” Ralls acknowledged that “this Congress presents a steeper hill to climb,” but that “we’re hopeful that other coalitions like the faith coalition will help us deepen support among lawmakers to built the support for the votes we need to go forward.” I think that’s optimistic for the current Congress, but the public, faithy statements of support are ess…

‘My Name is Legion’: Sources and Forces of White Supremacy in the U.S.

By R. Drew Smith

…a cloaked racial chauvinism. It is the cloaked versions of white supremacist constructions (in the form of racially-coded hate-mongering) that must be taken into account when assessing the scale and scope of white supremacist operations within this country. These cloaked narratives are frequently rehearsed by right-leaning mainstream leaders who troll for political support from across the right-wing spectrum, emboldening the racist right in the p…

The Religious Right and the Tea Party on “Education Choice”

By Julie Ingersoll

…arter schools as quasi-privatized schools (and also fear that this is a first step toward further privatization). They see even these limited charter schools as a threat to funding for public education—especially in these difficult budget years where public education budgets are already being slashed. Proponents, on the other hand, tout charter schools as “educational choice,” and a way to effectively reach students who don’t do well in a traditio…

Mormons Fight Marriage Equality in Mexico; Is Catholic Church Italy’s Anti-Gay NRA?; Nigerian Anglicans Cut Ties With UK Diocese; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…the wedding, after the speeches, when it all hit him. “All of a sudden I just started bawling. I just completely broke down,” he said. “I never thought in my wildest dreams that I could have the wedding that I wanted with the person I loved and with all my family and my friends.” Syria: UN Foundation interview with Syrian refugee and LGBT activist United Nations Foundation published an interview with Subhi Nahas, a Syrian refugee who testified bef…

Teach Your Children Well: Challenging Religion-Based Sexism

By Sikivu Hutchinson

…faith with female virtue and morality is still pervasive in our post-feminist post-racial Christian nation. Indeed, for some women of color, being “married to Jesus” is the only lifeline to genuine personal and spiritual validation. As Anthea Butler has noted, “having a husband meant that they could not give their ultimate all for the number one man on most African-American womens’ lips, and it’s not Denzel.” Women as Sluts, Men as Savages As the…

The Black Church: Institution or Abstraction?

By Anthony B. Pinn

…churches committed to some version of the social gospel whereby they understand Christian commitment to involve service to community. The latter involves a more rigorous attention to personal salvation as the primary concern of Christian ministry and practice. And all of this is just in terms of Protestant churches. I have not even mentioned the roughly three million African American Catholics in the United States. Nor, have I given any space to…

Five Social Media Trends that are Reshaping Religion

By Elizabeth Drescher

…ble for conversation at a nearby coffee shop or brewpub. Jerry Whirtley, pastor of First English Evangelical Church in Victoria, Texas, sees LBS check-ins as digitally incarnational ministry: I check in everywhere I go… If I can interact with somebody because they know where I am, or they can find me more easily because I’m on Twitter or where I check in on Foursquare, then I think I need to do that simply because it allows me to be more accessibl…

Religious Kids Are More Selfish: The Stickers Don’t Lie

By Michael Schulson

…nts out, the fact that the researchers did any kind of rigorous altruism test, instead of just asking kids and parents to self-report about their moral feelings and behaviors, sets the Decety study apart from many others in the field. Wisely, Galen adds that the study should be read in the context of a larger set of recent studies finding that religion might not be the magic prosociality-booster-pill that some other generalizers have claimed it to…