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What’s Behind a Conservative Mormon’s Call For “Religious Freedom” Advocates to “Stand Down” on LGBT Rights

By Sunnivie Brydum

…ucial key to understanding Mero’s perception of LGBT rights and “religious freedom.” As a Mormon, Mero is predisposed to view religious freedom as a shield to defend the outsider, because that foundational principle has proved crucial to his church’s survival. To hear Mero tell it, modern religious freedom issues can be broken down into three concentric rings: the outermost ring is occupied by the institutional church, and concerns itself with wha…

American Brokenness: A Lament

By Daniel Schultz

…ers; and to welcome them with open arms into the shared project of finding freedom, justice, and power together. That, as I always say, does not mean surrendering core principles or compromising them away. The truth, after all, is the truth. But I would love to see a sign at the next health care town hall meeting declaring WE SHARE YOUR PAIN AND WE NEED YOUR HELP. I would love to see Barney Frank or any other Congressperson say to a protester, “I…

Texas Board of Education Wants to Change History

By Lauri Lebo

…at teaching this nation’s Christian heritage. “This is a guy talking about freedom of religion as part of the history of the United States,” said Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network. “And what happened to Ann Hutchinson is why separation of church and state is so important. And now they want that example taken out of the standards.” “It’s a perfect example of censoring ideas you don’t like and distorting history to feed an agenda.” Panel Leader…

Hate Crimes Drop, But are Gays Safer?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…contribute ‘a lot’ to negative perceptions of gay and lesbian people.” The Southern Baptists in South Carolina are even urging their pastors to preach even more negative messages about homosexuality. We may see the results in those efforts in next year’s hate crimes numbers. Burroway also notes that to keep the numbers in perspective we have to consider population size as well. For example, African Americans make up about 12.4% of the population a…

Condoms and Common Sense

By Frances Kissling

…other sexually transmitted infections than is an exclusive focus on condom promotion. Regrettably, however, many scientists, HIV prevention educators, and AIDS activists are so fixed on condom promotion that they do not give due attention to the risk avoidance that is possible to achieve through abstinence outside marriage and mutual, lifelong fidelity within marriage.” Who, one asks, are these scientists who believe in the “exclusive focus on con…

Why Are Some Muslims Calling to Replace GMT with Mecca Time?

By Salman Hameed

…ly the true “center of the world.” This line of reasoning has been heavily promoted and popularized by a prominent Egyptian cleric, Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawy, who claims that, unlike other longitudes, Mecca is in perfect alignment with the north magnetic pole. Some Arab scientists have also lent their authority to these claims. For example, Abdel-Baset al-Sayeed of the Egyptian National Research Centre claims that Mecca is a “zero-magnetism zone….

Forgiving LeBron, Fetal Jesus Sonogram, and Hummus Wars

By Michael J. Altman

…of Islam.” The Chaplain for the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers is asking fans to forgive star LeBron James for taking his talents to South Beach and the Miami Heat….

Are You Rapture Ready?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…predicted on a van parked in a shopping center parking lot near Columbia, South Carolina months ago, so I suppose I’m already behind in my preparations. I count myself among the scoffers of second coming date-setting since Jesus himself said we won’t know the date or the time of his return. Evans is prepared with his answer to me and others who laugh off their efforts: “Sadly, only eight people survived the flood in Noah’s time,” he said. “The nu…

Congress Reads the Constitution, Tea Party-Style

By Paul Harvey

…“not trying to protect the framers of the Constitution.” James Clyburn (D-South Carolina), responded that “it could have been very educational if all the members talked about the United States Constitution as a living document, talked about how this country wrestled with things like race and gender.” A Refuge for the Powerful It could be even more educational if a central tenet of American historical writing about the Constitution—that it was mad…

Everything You Think You Know About the Dark Ages is Wrong

By Nancy Marie Brown

…d with rhetorical flourishes. To further his education, his abbot sent him south to Christian Barcelona, which then had diplomatic ties with the Islamic caliphate of al-Andalus. In the caliph’s library in Cordoba were at least 40,000 books (some said as many 400,000); Gerbert’s French monastery owned less than 400. Many of the caliph’s books came from Baghdad, known for its House of Wisdom, where for 200 years works of mathematics, astronomy, phys…