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Death in the Desert: Riding With the Samaritans

By Lauri Lebo

…pushed the most desperate of these immigrants to take their chances on the more remote areas of the Arizona mountains and deserts. Which is why, Father David and Millsap believe, the number of deaths have climbed this past year. Many of the bodies are too decomposed or mutilated by animals to ever be identified. Kat Rodriguez of Coalicion de Derechos Humanos, a nonprofit advocacy organization which collects data on the deaths, says she gets calls…

Scott Lively’s Crimes Against Humanity Aren’t Conservative Christian Outliers

By Sunnivie Brydum

…Lively’s book-length claims that Nazism was “an outgrowth of the German homosexual movement” seem like the standard whackadoodle rantings of a religious zealot easily dismissed as “fringe” or a “bad apple” among otherwise decent, if conservative, Christians. But Lively’s hateful rhetoric is not, in fact, an outlier among his peers. Originally from the supposedly liberal bastion of Massachusetts, Lively made a name for himself peddling anti-LGBT a…

Defying Eternal Damnation, Catholics will Vote Democratic

By Sarah Posner

…vice notes, in June, the same poll found Obama barely leading Mitt Romney among Catholic voters, 49-47%. But in September, he’s pulled ahead, and now leads Romney among Catholic voters 54-39%. Pew’s comparison with 2008 exit polls showed that Obama’s current standing among Catholics is identical to the percentage of Catholics who voted for him in 2008. But Romney is behind where John McCain fared among Catholics—despite picking a Catholic running…

Good (Enough) Christians — Russell Moore in The Atlantic Illustrates the Limitations of ‘Christian Nationalism’ as Category

By Chrissy Stroop

…for every careless word they speak’ (Mt 12:36). In fairness, I appreciate Moore’s moral clarity on this subject, and, while the man has glaring ethical blind spots, this stance is consistent with his record. Moore has never wavered from his advocacy of the misogynistic belief in divinely ordained male leadership and female submission that was once called “biblical patriarchy” but that now goes by the more genteel-sounding name of “complementarian…

“Debt” is a Spiritual Word

By Donna Schaper

…ven inside a debt ceiling “crisis.” Right now it feels as if the energy of most Americans is that of a barn-bound horse, or a rootbound plant. We are wound around the economy as though it were our lifeblood. People aren’t working, even if we are working. We are looking for a rebirth of wonder and blessing and engagement. How do you pay off debt? You forgive it in another. You receive the blessing, then, of the poor. Maybe you even stop being so a…

Christians are ‘Jerks,’ The New Scopes Trial, Pastafarians’ Rights

By Michael J. Altman

…built in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Meanwhile, the county’s hearing over the mosque’s construction is becoming a poor man’s Scopes trial. More Americans see Christianity as an important part of being “truly American.” If Christine O’Donnell blew a church-state dog whistle, then Minnesota Secretary of State candidate Dan Severson is playing a church-state bugle. The Republican candidate denies that it’s possible for there to be a separation between c…

Scott Lively Defends Anti-Gay Uganda Work in Federal Court

By Peter Montgomery

…h Jerry Falwell-founded Liberty University, and itself home to some of the most anti-gay activists in the public arena. Lively’s lawyer, Harry Mihet, said in an online conversation hosted by The Huffington Post on Tuesday that the case is “ridiculous and frivolous.” He echoed claims that Liberty Counsel has been making that the lawsuit is an effort to silence Lively and others for expressing their personal beliefs about homosexuality. CCR Attorney…

Wherein An Elected Official Gets His Holiday Miracles Mixed Up

By Sarah Posner

…illiams said at a Chabad Lubavitch-sponsored Chanukah menorah lighting ceremony, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” Williams pointed the finger at the Chabad rabbis for his blunder: The city councilor said he referenced Jesus Christ, whose birth is celebrated every Dec. 25 by Christians worldwide but not by Jews, after participants in the ceremony mentioned “the bright light” of 2,000 years ago – an allusion to Christ, according to Williams. “T…

A Third Reconstruction? Rev. William Barber Lifts the Trumpet

By Peter Laarman

…at the Right is up to, but in 2016 we know that vast “black pools” of anonymous money will be in play. Does this development not represent a whole new level of challenge to those trying to restore democracy and reclaim a common good ethic? With love, I suggest the word “secret” is more accurate than “black” when talking about the billions of dollars being spent to buy candidates’ souls. Of course, secret pools of money buying Southern elections is…

America’s Savior: Lincolnolatry’s Hidden Cost

By Peter Laarman

…dentified with the rough-hewn Nobody who rose to become a real Somebody, almost godlike in his towering moral majesty. Sure, we were also fed the usual pap about George Washington’s flawless character, but our sense of who this Washington was remained distant and blurry. We already knew that GW’s story had been carefully burnished beyond credibility. E.g., we knew that the attributed line, “I cannot tell a lie,” was itself a lie. But Mr. Lincoln w…