Search for "American Airlines 1800-299-7264 Customer Service Center"

A Nazi, a Jewish Prisoner, and a “Magic” Bible, Or, Christian Romance Fiction Gone Very, Very Wrong

By Julia Seymour

…he gripped my hand in the doorway of the church, following the Good Friday service, “I’ve never really liked Jews.” I had just finished a sermon in which I decried present-day harassment of Jews in the Ukraine and noted that we are kidding ourselves if we thought we would treat Jesus better now than he was treated then. We prayed. We grieved. I again felt the chasm between Christianity, the religion of my heart, and Judaism, the religion of my blo…

Wheaton and the “Same God” Controversy: A Theological Opportunity Squandered?

By Benjamin Dueholm

…for relationship with God; moral precepts are ordered to the knowledge and service of this God. This philosophical language and these intertextual themes are less prominent in Christian thought today, especially among Protestants. Where Christianity’s similarities with the monotheisms—whether of Greeks, Jews, or Muslims—were once central to Christian interfaith apologetics, now it is the distinctive marks that predominate. Some evangelicals have a…

Conservative Bishops Headed For Synod Victory?; Indonesian Sharia Official Says Gay Caning Law Meant To ‘Safeguard Human Dignity’; Slovenian Court OK’s Referendum on Marriage Equality Law; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

The World Congress of Families, which brings together American Religious Right activists with their counterparts from around the world, gathers next week in Salt Lake City, Utah, the first time one of its annual summits has been held in the U.S. WCF officials have responded to sharp criticism about the anti-gay work carried out by its partners and participants by declaring themselves committed to respect and civil dialogue. That claim does not st…

Why We Must Reclaim “Religious Freedom” from Christian Conservatives

By Bill Berkowitz

…I think the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., is a turning point in American politics and jurisprudence, the effects of which will be felt for a long time. The case stemmed from a claim by the conservative evangelical owners of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores that the Obama administration’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act included four kinds of contraceptives that they considered to be abortifacients, and that therefore the…

“Even the Rich Suffer”: An Interview with Google’s Jolly Good Fellow Chade-Meng Tan

By Max Zahn

…you envisioning a situation in which I have access to a secular meditation center where I can practice meditation outside of my routine of daily prayer? Yes, of course. Not just that, I hope it can enhance the practice of Islam. So by doing meditation, you become an even better Muslim. It sounds like you’re you saying there’s something lacking in other religions… I think every religion lacks something. Buddhism is very, very advanced in its medita…

Clinton’s Faith Talk Not New, But Was There a Better Answer?

By Sarah Posner

…o-Clinton project Correct the Record, recently wrote for the Religion News Service about his admiration for Clinton’s faith and how he has “loved every second of getting to know this woman with such strong Midwest, Methodist sensibilities.” Faith Voters for Hillary tweets quotes from Clinton that promote this view of her faith. Quoting her remarks at a 2007 forum on faith for Democratic presidential candidates, the group highlighted that she prays…

Same-Sex Marriage May Lead to Polygamy, But So What?

By William E. Smith

…igious folks get to make the same claims on public life, including wedding services, as their non-LGBT peers. And would this not also apply to non-religious LGBT people since they surely have rights to the “freedom of conscience” that Sprigg ties to freedom of religion as well? Do not polyamorist and polygamists, furthermore, have such legal rights too? Is not marriage—including polygamy—a way to live one’s life in accordance with a person’s relig…

Women Are Leaving Church, And the Reason Seems Clear

By Patricia Miller

…immering trend in U.S. religious observance: While attendance at religious services has declined for all Americans, it has declined more among women than men. In the early 1970s, 36 percent of women and 26 percent of men reported attending church services weekly, a ten-point gap that reflected the long-standing trend of women being more religiously committed than men. The gap reached its widest point in 1982, when it hit 13 percent, but then it be…

Why I Miss Scalia: SCOTUS Punts on Religious Freedom

By Patricia Miller

…offer any hint as to what magical means the Department of Health and Human Services will deploy to learn which plans aren’t offering contraceptive coverage and whom to contact to let them know their insurer will cover contraception anyway. It seems to envision some form of the “compromise” it suggested in its equally bizarre request for additional briefs after the initial hearing. Under this compromise, the plaintiffs would contract for a plan tha…

“Excruciatingly Different” Mississippi Religious Lib Law Specifies Beliefs

By Stephanie Russell-Kraft

…pi “religious liberty” law that will soon allow public officials to refuse service to same-sex couples and transgender individuals was hit with two legal challenges last week, one by the ACLU and the other by the Campaign for Southern Equality. Both suits argue the law, HB 1523, violates the constitutional protections laid down by the Supreme Court in last year’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which it clearly does. But it also brazenly violates t…