Search for "help find cheap airline tickets phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Betrayed at the Polls, Evangelicals of Color at a Crossroads

By Deborah Jian Lee

…ving on the church’s racial justice committee because she believes she can help dismantle racism within her community. She just goes elsewhere for spiritual development. One Sunday, she left the sanctuary mid-sermon, upset because her pastor was not addressing current injustices impacting vulnerable communities. She scrolled through Twitter, where most of her spiritual discussions have migrated. There she read some revelatory tweets about a friend…

Welcoming the Stranger: Sister Simone Campbell of Nuns on the Bus Speaks Out on DACA

By Kaya Oakes

…o when I meet these people who are pro-Trump, anti-immigrant, is to try to help them see what power they do have, how they can make a difference, and how immigrants aren’t different than them. What are the Catholic and moral arguments for immigration? With the whole blowup with Bannon saying Catholic churches need “illegal aliens,” and how fast the bishops responded, how can moral and religious arguments help with immigration reform? It’s very cle…

Jeb Bush’s “New Way” Of Talking About Gay Marriage

By Sarah Posner

…ther,” said Bush. “Asked her to participate as a friend in the wedding, to help organize it. And she thought about it, and said, look, I love you, you’re my friend, but I can’t participate. It goes against my conscience.” Of course Bush isn’t a lawyer, so he may not be aware that many states, including Washington, have laws that prohibit discrimination in public accommodations based on sexual orientation. As he and Brody noted, the baker must serv…

Falling in Love With the Earth: Francis’ Faithful Ecology

By Jacob J. Erickson

…g in the rhetorical feel, the affective language of this letter that might help pull a reader through. The letter’s laments are couched in the language of praise. Francis the pope lures the reader in with the poetry of Francis the saint. The encyclical reads, Saint Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us… This sister now cries out to us b…

Hitchens Debates Conservative Evangelical: Nothing Happens

By Eric Reitan

…f course, it only works if your opponent agrees to play by the rules. This helps to explain why Hitchens expresses such appreciation for Wilson’s willingness to stick trenchantly to his conservative theology. “I know where I am with him,” Hitchens declares. Put another way, he knows where the goal posts are. He knows what will count as a score against his opponent. And as I reflect on the character of the confrontation between Hitchens and Wilson…

Healed of the Sin of Religion: At Church with Sara Miles

By Lisa Webster

…t. Almost all the volunteers are people who came to get food and stayed to help out. But that’s exactly who I am. I really understand what that’s like, to come in shame and fear to some church and be fed—and then want to stick around to help others. And people want to give something, so much. They wind up giving to people who aren’t like them, or who irritate them, or people they adore. And it’s funny, the desire of churches to make it into a soci…

Exodus “Ex-Gay” Ministry Closes Up Shop

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…lesbian kid feels like the first place, the best place, to call or go for help is the church,” said Exodus leader Alan Chambers, in his opening remarks at the ex-gay ministry’s 38th annual convention in Irvine, Calif., Wednesday night. To the ears of most gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people, that sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Church has in fact been the very last place for LGBT people to seek help—a claim validated by the Pew Re…

Tyler Perry’s Museum of Blackness

By Sevonna Brown

…e most deserving investors, including Jake’s church, but only with Madea’s help. In a cinematic gesture to the ’90s blockbuster Ghost, Madea goes to New York City under an assumed identity to transfer millions of dollars from offshore accounts back into the accounts of thirteen investors. Thanks to Madea, George salvages his damaged career, and the Needleman dysfunctional family dynamics take a turn for the better as they learn the importance of f…

Capricology Week 5: Fathers, Funerals, and the Ethics of Gaming

By Henry Jenkins

…because a religious ritual finally appears to sink our teeth into—maybe to help the viewer understand the role and function of identity and belief on Caprica. Even better, the virtual world is more than just Club V, but a series of places we can go to. I have to say what intrigued me this week was cubits, how money was used as a religious piece in the Tauron “funeral” ritual, as a way of passage, to the cubits that were currency in the virtual wor…

Obama Under Fire From Civil Liberties Groups Over Faith-Based Policies

By Sarah Posner

…ral grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them – or against the people you hire – on the basis of their religion. Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques can only be used on secular programs. Religious supporters of a federal faith-based project immediately reacted negatively after Obama delivered that speech in Zanesville, Ohio in July 2008…