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Is the Rise of “Nones” Actually the Decline of Catholics?

By Patricia Miller

…ls of religiosity. And while the rise of the “nones” will continue to make headlines and shape culture for a long time to come, there is another largely unnoticed trend lurking in the numbers: just how much the growth in the nones has been fueled by the disaffiliation of Roman Catholics. According to PPRI: While non-white Protestants and non-Christian religious groups have remained fairly stable, white Protestants and Catholics have all experience…

As Midterms Approach, White Christian Nationalism is Mainstream for the GOP — And it’s Only Getting Worse

By Annika Brockschmidt

…pieces of the puzzle fitting together.” A feeling that the pre-existing structure of their world view, which is shaped by a more mainstream White Christian nationalism, neatly fits into a larger picture, when they’re exposed to far-right material. This, she explains, is often referred to as red-pilling in far-right spaces, but is also compared to a spiritual experience: “like being baptized or reborn, an awakening.” The prevalence of the far-righ…

Both the Joy and the Uproar Over the Pope’s Blessings for LGBTQ Catholics are Small Potatoes Compared to this Age-Old Church Problem

By Mary E. Hunt

…the blessing document was rolled out was dubious. A would-be synodal pope ruling by fiat does not make a pretty headline. No wonder the press focused on same-sex blessings despite the fact that the Declaration really represents the reinforcement of the power structure status quo. The current papal way of operating tempts even well intended progressive people to act in disingenuous ways. It’s hard not to laud the Pope when he does something howeve…

The Story Behind the Catholic Church’s Stunning Contraception Reversal

By Patricia Miller

…de devices—all of which were common and widely used in the early Christian world to frustrate conception. The first formal theological condemnation of contraception was made by St. Augustine in the early 400s, when he declared that it is “a procreative purpose which makes good an act in which lust is present,” and that married people who contracept “are not married.” It was a proclamation that would guide Catholic thinking about contraception for…

“Equality is Not a Feeling”

By Joanna Brooks

…session’s scheduled six o’clock start, maintenance crews parked a garbage truck between the line of waiting women and the Tabernacle door. “I thought it was strange to have a truck weaving in and out of the traffic on Temple Square during Conference,” said Ordain Women participant Heather Olsen Beal of Nacogdoches, Texas. When the truck pulled away, a church official had drawn a barrier across the Tabernacle doors. Participants returned to a loc…

Republicans Claim Shari’ah Law Threatens Constitution

By Sarah Posner

…ell, if you ask me, I would tell you, no.” Which of course suggests that Yerushalmi is the legalistic purist, but, uh… oh, never mind. While he claims that strict adherence to Jewish law is required to be a “good” Jew, Yerushalmi misapprehends shari’ah as a set of requirements and, more ominously, punishments. As Haroon Moghul wrote here just after Oklahoma voters passed a shari’ah ban last year: Shari’ah is, for Muslims, the “path to the water,”…

Census Reveals Gay People are Shockingly… Normal

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…have right-wing media like the Christian Post scratching their heads, with headlines like this that rival anything over at The Onion: “Gay Couples Spread in U.S., Behave Like Straight Couples” Um, yeah, well, duh. What exactly are gay couples supposed to act like? Wild hyenas? The story that follows that headline would be just as funny if it didn’t signal the death knell for the religious right’s jihad against gays and lesbians. The article marvel…

Founding Father John Adams’ Advice to Rick Perry: Don’t Meddle in Religion

By Warren Throckmorton

…t of us can take a lesson from Adams’ hindsight. On June 4, 1812, Benjamin Rush had written to John Adams with news of a motion made at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to petition the President to declare a national fast in advance of impending war with Great Britain. To Dr. Rush’s dismay the motion was defeated by the delegates. Lamenting the lack of a national fast, Rush reminded Adams of his support for one during the revolution…

Are Religious Right Leaders Telling Bob Vander Plaats to Go to Hell?

By Sarah Posner

…s abortion, immigration, global warming, and “rebuilding the family.” And trust me, I’ve seen Jackson address a crowd many times, and he knows a few things about rambling. Jackson appears, with God’s blessing, to be supporting Herman Cain, who, like all the GOP candidates save Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, did not sign Vander Plaats’ pledge. Jackson, who is black, told the Christian Post that he was disappointed the pledge addressed only sta…

Size Matters According to New Study

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…and who funds them, the conclusion the reader is supposed to draw from the headlines is obvious: the evangelically and “born again” religious are pinheads. Small brain means little intelligence. Which is about as pinheaded a conclusion as one can imagine. The study concluding that born-again Christians have, on average, smaller brains than the norm might be helpfully juxtaposed with cognate studies at the University of Wisconsin indicating that B…