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Church=State in Putin’s Orthodox Empire?; Evangelical-Orthodox Anti-Gay Alliance; Malaysian Court Protects Transwomen; Catholicism (Still) Declining in Latin America; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…minalization of LGBT people removes them from the job market, among other things. “This research delineates the macro- and micro-level costs of not having an LGBT-inclusive workforce,” said Stephen O’Connell, USAID’s chief economist. Malaysia: Islamic Councils Assertive, but Court Overturns Anti-Trans Prosecutions Last Friday Malaysia’s Putrajaya Court of Appeal ruled that it is unconstitutional for the state of Negeri Sembilan to criminalize tran…

Conservative Christians Insist the Toxic Theology Portrayed in the Duggar Family Doc is ‘Fringe’ — But is it Really All That Different?

By Caroline Matas

…ans and organizations that have—knowingly or unknowingly—inherited his teachings, his strict theologies of gender and sexual control live on through the myriad conservative Christian churches and ministries whose own theologies of gender and sexuality don’t diverge meaningfully from the IBLP’s. As former IBLP members attest in Shiny Happy People, the organization’s strict behavioral guidelines and emphasis on immediate submission to authority enfo…

Change v. Change at NPR

By Warren Throckmorton

…an called Wyler’s therapy “a softer, conversational treatment that allowed him to return to his conservative Christian roots.” In addition to mislabeling Wyler’s church, Schumacher-Matos misunderstands Wyler’s therapy. At Religion Dispatches, Ted Cox and I gave brief descriptions of what Wyler now offers. Male leaders cuddling male participants like babies and vicariously beating their fathers into a pulp are not features I would associate with so…

Turn On The News: This Isn’t a Split, It’s a Tiny Sliver of Conservatives Walking Out the Door — Introducing A New Media Criticism Column

By Daniel Schultz

…cally diverse,” said Dan Ackerman, ARC’s director of organizational leadership. This clarifies matters somewhat. Like many Reformed splinters, they’re going to re-emphasize doctrinal agreement. What are the prospects for such a strategy? Again, it’s not discussed. What does this mean for the average reader? Well, that does come out fairly quickly: “As the RCA was attempting to define and clarify marriage,” said Barr, “and efforts had been happenin…

Newsweek’s Strange Faces of the Christian Right List

By Sarah Posner

…at Obama has had a most remarkable right-leaning spiritual evolution from Chicago to Washington. Considering Newsweek chose this list to represent the increasingly “diffuse” movement, it missed much of what makes it tick. The people on the list represent a visible slice of the Christian right (or don’t represent the Christian right at all) but it’s precisely because the movement is diffuse that the list doesn’t offer much in the way of illuminatio…

Christian Epistle on Islamophobia

By Haroon Moghul

…confused people. I offer this as a Christian and student of the Word that is called by God to obey and not simply know Scripture. As we seek to understand, to relate, to pursue friendship with those who are different things can change. I’m trying to do my part of that here in Eastern Washington. Peace to you, [Name withheld]…

“One of Us”: Rick Santorum and the Politics of (Very Big) Family

By Kathryn Joyce

…erences (the Duggars are Baptists who have followed the fundamentalist teachings of Bill Gothard, while Santorum is a staunch Catholic) seem barely a second thought among supporters, who take for granted that fidelity to culture war issues supercedes faith. There, the Duggars and Santorum seem to speak with one voice. At CPAC in February, Michelle Duggar participated in a panel satirizing The View, and was feted by fellow panelist Star Parker for…

Obstacles for Secularists

By Sarah Posner

…nations or ethnicities or sports fandom, can easily demarcate their membership—it’s the people who look like us, or talk like us, or dress like us. Tribes organized around religious belief have rituals, sacred texts, and physical spaces that all serve to bind the participants together. Atheism has none of these things—most of the time it’s an individual choice, made and kept alone. In my piece, I point out how even Democrats still resort to appeal…

A Queer Atheist In the Heart of Mormon Country

By Chris Stedman

…able news or in online comment threads. Today I strive to build a relationship whenever I can—even with people who think that who I am is innately wrong—because if I refuse to engage, how can I hope for change? I’m glad I had the opportunity to not only interact with nontraditional Mormons, but also with more conservative individuals and with traditional institutions like the Orem Utah LDS Institute of Religion—to not only build relationships with…

The Threat to Democracy Runs Deep, But Mathematics Could Address the Abominable State of Representation and Voting

By Ismar Volić

…overnment that purportedly acts on their mandate has never been stretched this thin. Underpinning all this is a failure of mechanisms that run our democracy. A failure of algorithms, of the choice of mathematics—yes, mathematics—that governs voting, allocation of legislative seats, districting, and representation. A vast majority of our 520,000 public officers are elected in mathematically abominable winner-take-all races that cause spoilers and v…