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Rev. Smith Goes to Washington

By Frederick Clarkson

…needed. But our community desperately needs tax reform to stabilize human service and health care programs. Oftentimes such discussions are uncomfortable in a church atmosphere and so I’ve decided to [enter] this race because without such reforms we’ll have to continue cutting vital programs for the poorest of the poor, and I’m not willing to allow that to happen without trying to use government as a vehicle for social change. That is not to say…

Turn on the News: Why Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Faith Doesn’t Matter (But Amy Coney Barrett’s Did)

By Daniel Schultz

…d, as most of us would, that Barrett’s very public Catholicism would be a fair indicator of how she might reason or rule on cases before her. To be fair to Feinstein, she didn’t have much else to go on at the time: at that point, Barrett had never served as a judge at any level. In fact, she had “never tried a case to verdict or argued an appeal in any court,” according to Mother Jones. In other words, Barrett’s thoughts on Catholicism and the law…

LGBT-Friendly Church is Not “Christian” Enough?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ver affirmed, which is one of love for self and others and a dedication to service in the world.” Well, suffice to say, I was informed that following Jesus’ teachings of love and service were not, indeed, enough to be considered a “real” Christian church. This infuriates me. As a member of a group of people who have been excluded, denied membership and generally shunned by Christian churches around the globe, to be summarily dismissed by a website…

A Secret Family History Shows “Regular” Life Under the Reich: Sarah Wildman on Paper Love

By Sarah Posner and Sarah Wildman

…, was discovering that I was not the first to come looking for Valy. In the 1950s and into the 1960s a woman named Ilse Charlotte Meyer wrote from London to the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, searching for Valy. That was a revelation to me, and it also pointed to something else: none of us exist alone. We can’t really search for a single person unless we are willing to open up that search to community, or family, or friends…

What to Wear When Praying with the Pope

By Donna Schaper

…from Clergy Couture, a European outfit that dresses ordained women with flair and fit. But should it be paired with a black skirt, the kind you wear to a foundation visit, or blue jeans, just to join the Pope’s appreciation for those who work “in their quiet ways and sustain our life…”? Or what about something with feminist flair, like my pink tights? Too hot. The skirt won. Plus, I talked with my women’s group online while listening to the Pope…

As Transition Looms, Jewish Studies is Mired in Controversy

By Shaul Magid

…at shaped the institutionalization of the field in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. To offer some context, below I briefly sketch this history, with special reference to the founding of the AJS in 1969 and the published proceedings of the meeting at which it was first discussed. A look back, I suggest, might help us to better understand the stakes of this present controversy and its potential for constructive conversations about the futur…

NPR Largely Misses Critical Distinction on Religious Freedom vs. LGBTQ Rights

By Sunnivie Brydum

…s had been placing foster and adoptive children with same-sex parents since 1987 (which even predates the nondiscrimination statute of 1989). Catholic Charities maintained this policy for nearly two years after the 2004 marriage equality decision, until the Massachusetts Roman Catholic bishops instructed Massachusetts Catholic Charities in 2006 to cease providing adoptions to same-sex couples. This came just three months after a unanimous vote by…

Eddie Long Plays Victim

By Sarah Posner

…ly coerced these young men into sexual acts with him. They were under his “spiritual authority.” They were his “spiritual sons.” They had to call him “Dad.” They had “covenant” ceremonies with him. They were told that sex with Long was ordained by God. The sex isn’t the story—the spiritual authoritarianism is. Flanked by a young man wearing a t-shirt that read, “We Support Bishop Long” (the O in “support” was in the shape of a heart) Long feigned…

In 2012 Bishops Join Fight to Repackage Discrimination as ‘Religious Freedom’

By Sarah Posner

…nizations that play a vital role in providing health care and other needed services either to violate their conscience or severely curtail those services.” They conveniently avoid discussing the fact that many Catholic institutions already voluntarily provide insurance coverage for contraception. Nonetheless, Republicans, with a handful of Democratic co-sponsors, have introduced the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which would amend the Affor…

Conservative Catholics Unhappy About New Book on LGBTs and The Church; and More in the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…came from as far away as Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Jaipur to walk the 1.5km parade route hand in hand, waiving rainbow flags and sporting placards saying “I am Gay and it’s okay” and “I am a queer Muslim, babes, get over it”. Ashock Row Kavi, chairman of India’s oldest LGBT organisation the Humsafar Trust in Mumbai said, “Lucknow was the epicentre of gay culture in the Gangetic plain which was evident in even its literature such as Umrao Jan…