Search for "help find cheap airline tickets phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Reconsidering “Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin”: An Interview with Ethicist Eric Reitan

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…lf-love and a recognition, especially online. I’m trying, with my book, to help to lay the groundwork so this kind of positive dialogue becomes a real possibility. I find it fascinating that, in the book, you view Kim Davis through this Christian ethic lens and come to her defense in some ways in an effort to help readers understand where she was coming from according to her particular strain of Christianity. I don’t support the position that she…

Rethinking Religion After Latest Holistic Death

By Joseph Laycock

…five-day “Spiritual Warrior” retreat organized by James Arthur Ray, a self-help expert who appeared on Oprah and in the film The Secret. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation consulted Dianne Casoni, a criminologist from the University of Montreal who studies “cultic groups,” including self-help groups. Casoni expressed concern both about the influence holistic health providers gain over their clients and the lack of oversight over such seminars….

Sacred&Profane: The “Cult” of Oprah Inflames Religious Right

By Gary Laderman

…, but that does not detract from the spiritual authority that helps her to help others live a more fulfilling, meaningful life—a point made starkly clear in her presence at the memorial service. Indeed, her celebrity status and enormous wealth only reinforces her sacred standing in contemporary culture and her trustworthy voice in intimate matters of love and romance, forgiveness and generosity, empathy and self-understanding, truth and transcende…

LDS Apostle Says Same-Sex Attraction Can be Overcome

By Joanna Brooks

…love their children and sacrifice for them, friends who care about us and help us, teachers who teach,” he said. “Our lives are blessed in countless ways. We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude.” But the Conference story that’s grabbing the headlines and attention and commentary is a Sunday morning address by Elder Boyd K. Packer…

Fusion Politics: A Way Forward for Bernie Sanders?

By Daniel Schultz

…l imagination in any real sense. Despite any reservations, though, I can’t help thinking that trying to find (forgive me) synergy between Barber’s followers and Sanders’ might help both. Sanders already has a very strong base among the non-religious, for example. Drawing in faith-based voters around populist themes would extend the strength. Likewise, Sanders has done very well among white voters, but had a tough time attracting blacks and Hispani…

‘Culting’: From Waco to Fundamentalist Mormons

By Catherine Wessinger

…ng.” Such stereotypes increase public outrage against religious groups and help to make the believers seem like outsiders. After the deaths of a total of 74 Branch Davidians in the fire at Mount Carmel on April 19, 1993, self-examination by reporters in the print media revealed that the application of the term “cult” to the Branch Davidians helped created a social context in which FBI agents could wage psychological warfare against the community a…

Will the Religious Side with Workers?

By Peter Laarman

…s gospel of gaining a fair share of the economic productivity that workers help create is so very different from religion’s stated interest in shared prosperity. And it’s not that no religious figures ever took the side of unions in earlier U.S. history. The Knights of Labor, the early American Federation of Labor, and even the IWW attracted significant religious allies. Large numbers of clergy and religiously-based lay activists rallied behind th…

Religion Comes to its Senses

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…emic study of religion, but I also thought about the spirituality and self-help section at Barnes & Noble, the interfaith world, and poets. And that’s one of the aspects of the book I really enjoyed, the different disciplines that you draw from, that we’re not used to reading about in the study of religion. Plato is there, there’s some Augustine floating around, but you focus mostly on the practices of people. I don’t want to say thinkers like tha…

In Time of Crisis Christians Must Reject Charlatans and Magical Thinking

By Brian Rainey

…singly, some lobbyists and politicians even schemed to pass legislation to help their friends make a buck off of this tragedy—while doing as little as possible to help the hurting workers of this country. Of course, the collection plates of these charlatans depend on the ideological and economic status-quo. So rather than call this out, some Christians would rather scream Look over there! Look at the gays, the abortionists, the ungodly, China, the…

Don’t Believe the Hype (About Believing): You Don’t Need Religion to be Happy

By Chrissy Stroop

…e who’ve been harmed by religion at the hands of those who are supposed to help them. “In a society such as the U.S. that many believe to be a ‘Christian nation,’ critique of religion, including the lived experiences of those harmed by religion, is typically dismissed,” Anderson explains. Noting that this failure to engage critically with religion places de facto limitations on both research and training, Anderson sees the downstream effects on “i…