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Euthanasia Billboards, Post-Rapture Pet Care, Can You Tell a Burqa from a Hijab?

By Michael J. Altman

…ng! May Impair Judgement.” Speaking of poor judgment, a non-denominational Florida church plans to host “International Burn a Qur’an Day” on the anniversary of 9/11. The same Gainesville church made news in the past with its “No Homo Mayor” signs opposing an openly gay mayor. Lt. Governor of South Carolina André Bauer discusses how he uses shoes to save souls. New York Governor David Paterson denied reports that he had swapped Judaism for his Cath…

The Unholy Battle Over the Ground Zero Cross

By Becky Garrison

…of a public monument to atheism alongside a Christian monument in Starke, Florida. In both cases, they argue that under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, government cannot favor one religion over other faiths. In their view, a Christian symbol can be placed on public land provided that there will be equal representation of those from different faiths, including those who call themselves nonreligious. Also, this fight points to a…

New Challenges to Gay Marriage Bans From Within States & Denominations

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ebsite), The Disciples of Christ voted at its general assembly in Orlando, Florida this month to affirm LGBT people as members and leaders in the denomination. On the heels of that move, 85 retired United Methodist clergy announced they would defy their denomination’s ban on performing same-sex weddings. “We will refuse to treat people as inferior, second-class citizens of God,” Fado said. The clergy could face revocation of their credentials, as…

Why I Fear The Post-Trayvon Martin Sermon

By Elizabeth Drescher

…dered a bit murky by our very familiarity with it. Indeed, in light of the number of posts I’ve seen this morning on how people are planning to preach on the parable, I feel compelled to point out that the “neighbor” Jesus describes doesn’t include the robbers, who strip and beat the stranger then leave him on the side of the road, the people who pass him by, or the legal expert (who, the gospel reading specifies, is “seeking to justify himself”)….

California Inmates Protest the Abuse of Long-Term Solitary Confinement

By Sarah Sentilles

…olor further calls into question the use of this abusive practice.” As the numbers have grown, so have the numbers of critics, Wired reports, citing a series of “scathing reports and documentaries” released in 2012 by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. That same year, the US Senate held its first-ever hearings on…

Expelled: Christian Student Claims Discrimination, But Judge Says No

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…with their criteria. Just ask Jarretta Hamilton, a fourth grade teacher at Florida Christian School, who was fired after she got pregnant nearly a month before marrying her fiancé. Or, ask Bruce K. Waltke, an Old Testament professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, based in Jackson, Mississippi, who was fired after saying Christians can believe in evolution. The religious right can’t have it both ways—expelling and firing people they disagree wit…

The Year in Mormons: Top 7 Stories of 2012

By Joanna Brooks

…hunch, not a scientific observation: we’re still waiting for the Pew Forum numbers on this one. But can you really talk Mormons in 2012 without saying the names Jimmer Fredette, Manti Te’o, and Jabari Parker? Te’o, a linebacker from Laie, Hawaii, finished his senior season at Notre Dame as the most decorated defensive player in collegiate football history. Shooting guard Fredette finished his senior season at Brigham Young University as the leadin…

Rubio Leaves Science to the Theologians, or the Free Market. Or Something.

By Sarah Posner

In an interview with GQ, Florida Senator Marco Rubio is asked, “how old do you think the earth is?” His answer: I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going t…

Romney Behind Closed Doors

By Joanna Brooks

…ve. At least in the abstract. But it’s hard to watch Mitt Romney’s leaked Florida fundraiser footage without feeling that the presidential candidate harbors a disdain bordering on contemptuousness for millions of Americans he is presumably running to serve. Conservative commentators like David Brooks and William Kristol have already taken Romney to task for skewing facts about who pays taxes—just about everyone besides the elderly and the very po…

Tragic Violence in Libya: No Excuse for Perpetrators—or for Provocateurs

By Haroon Moghul

…lims, for whom the spectacle of violence against Islam—burned Qur’ans at a Florida church are inseparable in the minds of some from insults against Islam wrapped into techniques of torture and humiliation at Abu Ghraib—is cause for violent action. This is reprehensible, and clearly and openly un-Islamic. The Prophet Muhammad is famous in the Islamic tradition for being “a mercy to all the worlds,” so kind and gentle that he once rent his own garme…