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Kanye West’s Critique of Prosperity Preaching

By Josef Sorett

…o for his song “Prosperity,” I am wondering if Rhymefest is inaugurating a new era in hip hop’s religious sensibilities. Clearly, he capitalizes on a history of crude caricatures of preachers in popular culture (think Bernie Mac as pastor in Ice Cube’s movie Friday), but the critique is still biting. While Rhymefest fails to deploy the litany of race, class, and gender critiques alone, he does effectively call attention to the implications of a no…

ISIS, Walking Dead and Our Zombie Moral Compass

By Evan Derkacz

…a lot of time for reflection on foreign policy and human nature. But the truth is, as Americans concerned with ISIS we’re fundamentally safe. So while the insight offered by The Walking Dead may be a luxury most of us can afford only when our survival isn’t in question—one of the central tensions in the series, incidentally—the truth is, since Americans are more likely to be killed by their falling TV or furniture (or lightning or a cop or a dog…

Ted Haggard on ‘Loveless’ Evangelical Church

By Lauri Lebo

…with a male prostitute and buying crystal methamphetamine from him. “How cruel and mean and brutal people are getting toward one another,” he says. “Even the hatred in the church toward our current administration, I think, is sad.” Evangelicals have gotten too focused on politics and not enough on improving the lives of those around them, he says. After everything that has been said and done in the past several years by the religious right, his r…

An Open Letter to CEO Jeff Smisek On United Airlines’ Blasphemous Safety Video

By Austin Dacey

…he image of an engorged sun bursting from behind the branded tailfin of a cruising aircraft, I heard the unmistakable strains of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” the majestic opening melody of the slow movement, the andantino moderato. From the first moments, it was obvious that the sonorous orchestral instrumentation had been replaced by the sheen of digital keyboards. By the time the music reached the third measure, I sensed the dawning of…

Focus on the Family’s Conversation Starter a Non-Starter

By Sarah Posner

…fights. As far as Daly’s push for “abortion reduction” goes, it’s nothing new. As I reported last year, Daly was advocating making abortion “rare” while remaining committed to “working toward a day when abortion is illegal and relegated to the dust bin of history.” But his current offer to talk led one religious pro-choice advocate, Catholics for Choice president Jon O’Brien, to remark that Daly’s “mindset is not one of understanding, compassion…

Rep. Smith Suggests a New Protected Class: “Immaturity”

By Sarah Posner

…ast year, the anti-choice activist Lila Rose, notorious for her undercover videos at Planned Parenthood clinics, made the horrifically inappropriate comparison of murdered civil rights activist Emmett Till and a fetus. Just as Till’s mother’s decision to show photographs of her dead son’s battered body ignited the civil rights movement, Rose argued, graphic exposure of abortion would spark a civil rights movement for fetuses. Smith today added som…

Supreme Court Will Hear Challenges to Anti-Equality Laws

By Elizabeth Drescher

…g its rhetoric toward the LBGT community and LBGT Mormons in particular. A new website, “Love One Another: A Discussion of Same-Sex Attraction” offers videos from Mormon leaders, gay Mormons, and their families by way of urging greater empathy and love for LBGT sinners that might mute the continued condemnation of homosexual sex itself as a sin. Genuine gift of Christian compassion, or more masterful Mormon marketing in the face of a rapidly chan…

Loughner Admired Conspiracy-Minded Zeitgeist Film

By Sarah Posner

…d impact on Jared Loughner’s mindset,’” according to Osler. Last year, the New York Times ran a piece on “Z-Day, the educational forum associated with the online movie ‘Zeitgeist,’” produced by Peter Joseph. The Z-Day event drew a crowd of 900 in Manhattan and others around the world: “The mission of the movement is the application of the scientific method for social change,” Mr. Joseph announced by way of introduction. The evening, which began at…

Mental Health is a Spiritual and Religious Issue

By Joanna Brooks

…pulation is LDS, it certainly seemed a possibility, even more so given the rumors that his rampage was fueled by anti-government sentiment tinged with Skousen-Beck flavor. But upon reviewing his biography and YouTube videos I found no hints of LDS affiliation. Nor did it seem that the attack happened primarily for political motives. No, it seemed clear to me that Loughner was mentally ill. And that’s when my heart fell. Since then, even as the dea…

LDS Church Launches New Website Calling for Greater Openness and Understanding on LGBT Issues

By Joanna Brooks

…thinks God wants her to turn her back on her gay child. The message of the stories and statements on the website pretty clearly identifies this behavior as destructive and un-Christian.” “It’s time to stop simply talking about what our Savior would do, and roll up our sleeves and actually do it,” said Mitch Mayne, an openly gay LDS man who serves in the leadership of his San Francisco congregation. “I’d like to see congregations emulate what we’re…