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Refusing the Monsters on Maple Street: A First-Person Commentary from the Mass Hysteria at JFK

By Marion Grau

…alse—swept through the terminals, sending passengers, law-enforcement, and airline workers scrambling for cover and eventually onto the tarmac. The responding authorities found neither shooters nor evidence of any shots fired. The most likely explanation offered for the panic was that the cheering of Olympics fans for Usain Bolt’s performance in the 100 meters sounded like gunfire. In an episode titled “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” from…

Waiting for Lightning to Strike: A Wobbly Agnostic among the Atheists

By Carolyn S. Briggs

…says. (Later in the conference we will hear that initial contact with the city of Des Moines resulted in a curt reply that Des Moines was a Christian city, thank you very much and don’t call again. Someone apparently got through on the second try.) The potbellied MC crosses the stage in that wide-legged stride that identifies him as an ex-jock, a guy who crushed the quarterback for the pure joy of it. Back at the podium, he tells us that many we…

Gingrich Downplays Adelson Money, Stokes Fear of “Second Holocaust” at Florida Church

By Sarah Posner

…ughter Bella was hospitalized.) Organizers said they had distributed 1,800 tickets, and the pews in the church were nearly full, with several hundred, if not nearly a thousand people in attendance. Gingrich was the only candidate to appear; Staver, the “forum’s” moderator took pains to point out that they had invited the other candidates. Santorum and Ron Paul had commitments outside of Florida. Mitt Romney, the candidate Staver and other leaders…

Catholic Bishops End Family Synod With Little To Say To Gays; World Congress of Families Has Plenty To Say, None of it Good; How Same-Sex Marriage Came to a Buddhist Temple in Japan; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ng of Religious Social Conservatives The World Congress of Families met in Salt Lake City last week, the ninth of these global gatherings of social conservatives and the first held in the United States. Conference sponsors and participants included many American religious conservative groups along with their counterparts from around the world. Among those honored at the conference was Theresa Okafor of Nigeria, who repeatedly defended African coun…

Snake-Handlers, False Messiahs, and a Few Great Souls: 14 Who Died in 2014

By Daniel Silliman

…t Moore self-immolated in his hometown of Grand Saline, Texas, calling the city and the country to repent. In a note left on his car, Moore wrote that “American, and Grand Saline …have never really repented for the atrocities of slavery and its aftermath.”He had previously worked to desegregate Texas churches in the 1950s, helped organize the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and went on a hunger strike in 1995 to protest the Methodist…

More Mixed Signals from Pope Francis; Church of England Wrestles with Rifts; Faith Groups Lobby Pro & Con on Irish Referendum; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ore from the Blade’s Michael Lavers: Javier Soto, a pastor from the resort city of Viña del Mar, is among the most outspoken critics of the expansion of relationship recognition and other rights to LGBT Chileans. He said God sparked a massive forest fire in the coastal city of Valparaíso last April because lawmakers were considering the civil unions measure. Soto frequently confronts Rolando Jiménez, president of the Movement for Homosexual Integr…

Mormon Group Digging for Scriptural City of Zarahemla in Iowa is a Portrait of Religious Nationalism

By Hanna Seariac

News outlets like Iowa Starting Line and The Salt Lake Tribune have recently reported on a group called The Heartland Research Group (HRG) which has taken to the cornfields of Montrose, Iowa in search of Zarahemla, a city frequently mentioned in the Book of Mormon. From the coverage one might reasonably conclude that a Latter-day Saint group is simply seeking to find corroboration for their scriptures—which is certainly the case—but lurking benea…

Why Build a Mormon Complex in Philly?

By David Krueger

…ill spark a surge of enthusiasm among millennials, but the odds are against them. Still, just in case it doesn’t work out, the LDS church is including the residential and commercial development with the Philadelphia temple as an investment opportunity, a similar approach it used in Salt Lake City a few years back. As the New York Times reported: “The project also represents an investment opportunity for the church in a strengthening real estate ma…

Mexican Marriage Marches Show Struggle Between Church and Secular State; Pro-LGBT Mormon Group Grows After ‘Apostate’ Declaration; Botswana Gives Anti-Gay US Pastor the Boot; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…couples “apostates” and denied baptism to their children. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Affirmation’s dues-paying membership has topped 10,000, and it has held conferences in Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and England, as well as the U.S. The group’s 2016 international conference was held in Provo, Utah over the past few days. As the Tribune notes, church officials in Mexico are still urging the 1.4 million church members…

Going Negative: Traditionalist Churches Gang Up on ‘Progressive Christianity’ in Arizona

By Daniel Schultz

…y is totally bonkers. As reported by the local Fox television affiliate in Phoenix, eight traditionalist churches in the suburb of Fountain Hills, Ariz., have combined forces to work against “Progressive Christianity” and its beliefs. There’s only one problem: literally just down the street from one of the conservative churches, there’s a self-described “progressive Christian” congregation, Fountains United Methodist Church. Fountains’ pastor, the…