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Are Women “Secondary” in Catholic Church?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…h is out of touch, and as the religiously unaffiliated continue to grow in number, how women—the majority of active church-goers—experience the church is hardly a secondary concern. Gendered church language seems as good a place to start as any. The liturgies of most churches are lousy with sexist godtalk. This is the case well beyond the limited texts in which, arguably, tradition and aesthetics make make gender changes difficult. First on the li…

Mitt Romney’s Best-Known Mormon Critic Tells it All. One Last Time.

By Joanna Brooks

…I went to Uganda, and it was an incredible experience. I came back, and a number of Mormon feminists said, “We want to go with you.” I organized a trip of Mormon women to build homes for the most vulnerable women in vulnerable neighborhoods. The first week we arrived, there were bombings. We slept at St. Monica’s, a tailoring school for girls run by nuns. Night commuter children came to sleep on the school lawns during the war—it was a refuge for…

How are Mormons Responding to the Election Results?

By Joanna Brooks

The LDS Church issued a gracious, politically neutral official response to Tuesday night’s election results, congratulating President Obama on his win and encouraging “Americans everywhere, whatever their political persuasion, to pray for the President, for his administration and the new Congress as they lead us through difficult and turbulent times.” Meanwhile, Mormon feminist bloggers reached across the partisan aisle to foster reconciliation i…

Can We Ask Mitt About Mormonism’s Racist Past?

By Darron T. Smith

…ion of Bott’s comments, it missed an opportunity to make an undisputed and official apology for its past. These are serious issues about which Romney has remained remarkably silent, neither breaking free from his religious convictions nor offering any consolation with regards to the teachings of his faith that could provide a glimpse into his own racial beliefs about black people. Little has been said about his record on civil and social justice,…

Electionpocalypse, Part II: The Mythical Jewish Vote

By Sarah Posner

…ently “pro-Israel.” But the out-Israel-ing each is the stagecraft of self-preservation for an audience that has other things on its mind. There is no “Jewish vote.” Jews vote. A small number of them vote for Republicans. Most of them vote for Democrats. Every cycle the Republicans try to improve on their last performance, but Jews are overwhelmingly liberal. So Republicans try to draw them in by talking about Israel, an issue very few of them vote…

Does Romney’s Religion Condone Torture? [UPDATED]

By Joanna Brooks

…ding to be torture, Romney responded “I don’t.” Romney’s stance led one UN official to warn last week that his election would amount to “a democratic mandate for torture.” While some LDS media observers have denied a pattern of Mormon involvement in torture, others in the Mormon community have called for closer consideration of this serious moral and ethical matter. And it does matter. It matters because unlike in most contemporary American religi…

Not God’s Army: The Front Lines of the Fight Against Proselytizing in the U.S. Military

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

Since this interview took place RD has learned that one member of the armed forces, having been the object of persistent harassment from a military superior in their direct chain of command for their religious afﬁliation, has attempted suicide. In the coming weeks, this MRFF client faces an ofﬁcial military proceeding. Due to the sensitive nature of the situation all identifying information has been omitted. –Eds. Last month, right before his ret…

Clint Eastwood Upstages Mitt Romney with a Chair

By Anthea Butler

Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech for the official nomination was a historic moment for the LDS Church, much as the nomination of President Barack Obama was for so many of us; I’m sure that for many Mormons it was a long-awaited moment of acceptance after years of persecution. Grumpy old Uncle Clint, talking to President Obama’s empty chair, however, upstaged that poignant moment. In a monologue that was clearly a WTF moment, Clint Eastwood perform…

Profiling of Muslims Produced No Terror Leads, NYPD Concedes

By Sarah Posner

…s that in court testimony unsealed yesterday, a New York Police Department official conceded that the Department’s Demographic’s Unit, which targeted Muslim citizens in mosques, stores, restaurants, and other locations, failed to produce a single investigation of a terrorism threat. [Thomas] Galati, [the commanding officer of the NYPD Intelligence Divisio], testified as part of a lawsuit that began in 1971 over NYPD spying on students, civil right…

The Theological Roots of Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comment

By Sarah Posner

…on the separation of church and state: The civil magistrate [a government official] is responsible to God. He is to discharge his duty according to God’s will. The Bible is the supreme revelation of God’s will. Because church and state are neither subordinate to the other but to God, the civil magistrate is under obligation to recognize the Bible as authoritative in the exercise of civil magistracy. The Lordship of Christ in all areas of life is…