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A Twisted Love Story: How American Evangelicals Helped Make Putin’s Russia and How Russia Became the Darling of the American Right

By Katherine Kelaidis

…the more extreme. Among the less extreme consequences was that the rising number of conservative American Christians who identified as Orthodox started to soften opinions and change American rightwing perceptions of Russia. Arguably, what this influx of American evangelicals into American Orthodox churches did was create a bridge over which American evangelicals in Russia were able to cross. An alliance began to take root which shaped Russia and…

The Story Behind the Catholic Church’s Stunning Reversal on Contraception

By Patricia Miller

…e the Latin mass and the teaching that Catholicism was the only road to salvation-change as a result of Vatican II and widely expected the contraception ban to be lifted. It seemed that the church was perfectly willing to evolve doctrine—except when it affected women. The day following the encyclical’s release, eighty-seven leading Catholic theologians released a statement condemning it, saying it relied on outmoded conceptions of papal auth…

LGBT Christians Respond to Southern Baptists’ Call For Kindness, Understanding

By Mike Greer

…s with Moore, about a dozen LGBT Christians and LGBT advocates did meet privately with the same number of conference participants for dialogue on Monday evening, though they agreed that they wouldn’t comment about it afterward. In addition, Matthew Vines, author of God and the Gay Christian, met privately and off-the-record with Al Mohler during the conference. ThinkProgress also interacted with clergy and laity in those public sessions. It will b…

Conservative Republican Muslim Condemns Fox Report on Congressional Staffers as “Anti-Muslim Bigotry”

By Sarah Posner

…approached then-Speaker Newt Gingrich about obtaining a room for the small number of Muslim staffers to hold Friday prayers. Gingrinch granted that request, and the tradition continued through the tenures of Speakers Dennis Hastert, also a Republican, and Nancy Pelosi. Over the years, the number of people attending grew, eventually leading to the creation of the CMSA around 2007, when Khan has already left Hill service and was working in the Bush…

As Pat Robertson Retires, Here Are 10 of His Most Cringeworthy Moments

By Chrissy Stroop

…aving those flags in God’s face if I were you.” In 2005, he also made some vague remarks on The 700 Club to the effect that legal abortion just might have something to with the prevalence of terrorist attacks and natural disasters. Go to top Comments about September 11 On the September 13, 2001 episode of The 700 Club, Jerry Falwell, Sr. maintained that God had probably “lifted the curtain” of divine protection around America, thereby allowing “ou…

New Research Links Spiritual-Not-Religious to Mental Disorder

By Elizabeth Drescher

…and so on that do not necessarily have any relationship to religiously-motivated activity. They argue that “to discuss the association between ‘religion’ and health is overly simplistic given the complex ways that people live their religious lives.” Thus, at a minimum, we need to consider if psychological, social, and physical benefits correlated to religion have to do with believing in certain ways—having “a religious life-view.” Or, rather, are…

The “Mormon Moment” Yields… Not So Much

By Joanna Brooks

…lves: down from 65% of Americans surveyed to 61%. Some measurable gains have been made among mainline Protestants: 28% surveyed in 2011 said they have “a lot in common” with Mormons; now, that proportion is 42%. And when asked to give a one asked to give a one-word descriptor of Mormonism, the number of respondents offering a positive word like “good,” or “honest,” increased from 18% in 2011 to 24% in 2012. All of these gains were concentrated a…

Five Social Media Trends that are Reshaping Religion

By Elizabeth Drescher

…in LBS for ministry. 3. O Holy App With more than half a million apps now available for the iPhone or iPad, and maybe 232 for the Android, it’s clear that the number of religiously-themed apps is growing. Apps are available for adherents to just about any religious group you can think of (including Pastafarians), and have been developed for a large number of congregations, dioceses, and other religious organizations (though it’s hard to know what…

If You Liked The Martian You’ll Love These 3 Sci-Fi Shorts

By Andrew Aghapour

…. Luckily, Weir offers a treasure trove of short stories on his website, a number of which break with The Martian’s goal of approximating reality, grappling instead with some of the same issues that we discuss here at The Cubit. Without further ado, here are the top three short stories for anyone jonesing for more Weir: Bored World. The story of a mischievous, trans-dimensional plane of existence. Is this a god, or the story of sci-fi itself? Anti…

‘Imagine Better’: Can Harry Potter Change the World?

By B. Howell Belser

…n account for in his thin description of that phenomenon. In his article “Avatar Activism” Jenkins identifies the phenomenon of the HPA as an example of “participatory culture” whereby the innovation of “digital media has allowed many more consumers to take media into their own hands, hijacking culture for their own purposes… fans are acquiring skills and building a grassroots infrastructure for sharing their perspectives on the world.” In particu…