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How a Ruling for Masterpiece Cakeshop Could Embolden White Nationalists

By Sunnivie Brydum

…hat expansion is fundamental to the conservative Christian logic behind supporting a plaintiff like Phillips, or the willingness to turn “conscientious objectors” to marriage equality like Kim Davis into right-wing martyrs. “The cultural power and cultural availability of religious freedom as a legal argument shapes the way that people think about what their religion is,” she explained. “So it kind of encourages people to frame arguments in that w…

The Incredible Shrinking Catholic Church

By Paul Gorrell

…the United Nations, where it opposes resolutions like the recent one in support of gay rights. We might call this strategy “the tyranny of the minority.” Through the “small Church” ecclesiology of Benedict, many Catholics are already being encouraged to take their spiritual business elsewhere. We have seen an increase in the number of American politicians who are asked to remove themselves from communion lines and, recently, priests have even deni…

Do Atheists Belong in the Interfaith Movement?

By Chris Stedman

…a semantic disagreement with the word “faith,” I think that is a missed opportunity. Wondering if interfaith cooperation is more than just “kumbaya”? Try it out and let me know what you experience. Your conclusions about the importance of interfaith work very well might not match mine, but I’d love to get your feedback. Based on my own work in the interfaith movement, I’m hopeful that other atheists will find themselves pleasantly surprised. As m…

Growing Up Cult: A Memoir of Life with Sri Chinmoy

By Brittany Shoot

…ority, that person is singled out and punished. Perhaps what is the most important common trait is that in order to preserve unity and to keep total authority, there is a clear separation between those inside the group and those outside the group. Finally, if someone does leave the group, that person is punished by being banished, excommunicated, stripped of economic support, and is sometimes put in physical danger. Do you worry that your labeling…

My Womb for His Purposes: The Perils of Unassisted Childbirth in the Quiverfull Movement

By Kathryn Joyce

…Christian Growth Watch), have argued, “The Above Rubies’ emphasis on the importance of wombs, breasts, motherhood, and fertility, the judgmental comments against all forms of contraception… provide a ready groundwork for the acceptance of the more extreme and bizarre claims of Carol Balizet.” Similarly, as Vyckie Garrison noted, her Quiverfull convictions led her to desire total reliance on, and trust in, God, neglecting her own instincts and heal…

The Dirty Little Secret of Every Ponzi Scheme, or: Bernie Madoff’s 150 Year Sentence

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ff and Law stories has something to do with the confusion created by large numbers. The point is, in the financial sector, numbers need to correspond to some reality. Law’s paper notes were supposed to correspond to the gold held in his bank’s reserves. When the gap between numbers and real things grew too great, his system collapsed. It became, almost unwittingly, a nationwide French Ponzi scheme. Law was encouraged by the French regent to covert…

The 50 Shades of Evangelicalism

By Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

…g in what once was understood as a unanimous and uncritical evangelical support of Israel as epitomized by a 2006 New York Times headline noting that, “For Evangelicals, Supporting Israel Is ‘God’s Foreign Policy.’” Just last month, Christianity Today featured a review of Caitlin Carenen’s The Fervent Embrace, in which Wheaton College professor Gary Burge took issue with the author’s broad categorization of evangelicalism as unilaterally Zionist,…

Mexico moves toward national marriage equality; Greek govt announces civil partnership legislation; Pope warns against ‘secularism and relativism’; Global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ional news last June when riot police violently removed LGBT protestors supporting a resolution supportive of LGBT rights when they clashed with religious conservative protestors before the beginning of a meeting of the Organization of American States in Asunción last year. López told BuzzFeed News on Thursday that they are counting on the pope to “address the issue” of violence targeting LGBT people “since the OAS repression went completely unnot…

The Resurgence of Right-Wing Anti-Semitic Conspiracism Endangers All Justice Movements

By Ben Lorber

…et cabal of Jews who, in their quest for world domination, asserted “we support communism….in order that the true meaning of things may not strike the Goyim before the proper time, we shall mask [our plans] under an alleged ardent desire to serve the working classes.” And it’s important to note that this was not a concept adopted only by marginal groups and individuals; in 1920 Winston Churchill warned that “Bolshevism among the Jews is nothing ne…

In the Papal Pocket: Benedict XVI and the Press

By Mary E. Hunt

…is well known to many of them), how can we expect them to be helpful in reporting on Judaism, Islam, the Baha’i faith, Wicca, or any number of other groups that form the pluralistic religious mosaic in the United States today? No reporter or anchor could be expected to be an expert on the ins and outs of such groups. But as a matter of journalistic practice, I think it is reasonable to train reporters to look at more than meets the eye on religio…