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For Douthat, Church Either Uncompromising or a Secular Den of Promiscuity and Irrelevance

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…varsity sports, or the spring musical. But Zach isn’t doing this to up the numbers. Some things are more important than being popular. Zach attends a church that has been very public about being open and affirming of GLBTQ Christians. If that church ever considered muting its commitment in the hopes of appealing to moderates, Zach would be out the door. Too much is at stake to play nicey-nice. Dr. Sally Tinker, the school counselor and student cou…

How Not to Talk to the NAACP

By Joanna Brooks

…he Affordable Healthcare Act as “Obamacare” in your own house, that’s your business. But when you get invited to the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, you don’t say “Obamacare” because you don’t use fighting words when you’re a guest in somebody else’s house. It’s bad manners. No one imagined Mitt Romney was going to win any votes in that NAACP convention hall in Houston. For so many reasons. For…

Ralph Reed’s Divinely Profitable Mission: Defeating Democrats

By Peter Montgomery

…for Law and Justice’s Jay Sekulow, who has, according to investigative news stories, turned his advocacy work into a lucrative business for the whole family….

“How the Mormons Make Money” Speaks Volumes About Romney

By Joanna Brooks

…o charitable relief. LDS Church for-profit holdings are run as competitive businesses. According to the Bloomberg report, religious considerations do not drive day-to-day decision-making. I’ve argued frequently here that those who fear Romney’s religion impacting his day-to-day conduct as president purposefully misunderstand his career. The Bloomberg-Businessweek article shows that Mormon institutional culture fully supports Romney’s profit-orient…

Ex-Gay Groups Go Back to the Future

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…lying to ourselves and others. We were hurting people,” Bussee recalls. Now that “pray away the gay” is quickly headed for the historical dustbin, Gagnon and his “ex-gay” enthusiasts will need a new generation of leaders to keep the snake oil business going. I have a suggestion. Instead of relying on new “science” why not get medieval on homosexuality and hire former Navy Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt? He recently claimed on The David Pack…

LDS Church Brings Religious Pressure to Zoning Fight

By Joanna Brooks

…f unblinking loyalty to the interests of big institutional backers in both business and religious life, as well as by what the Wall Street Journal recently described as the exceptional “insular[ity]” of his campaign and Romney’s own refusal to accept unscripted questions from the press corps. Add to it the ever-louder Obama campaign drumbeat over Romney’s offshore bank accounts, and the net effect is a characterization of Romney (and with him, Mor…

Presbyterians Make Right Choice on Israel Divestment

By Jay Michaelson

…s by the international community. Symbolic acts are fine, and exactly the business of a religious denomination. But this message is so strong, and so disproportionate, that it does, indeed, make many Jews feel like Israel is being unfairly targeted. There’s no secondary boycott of companies selling goods to China, for example, despite its occupation of Tibet. More importantly, however, the strong and unequivocal message of divestment is inappropr…

Nuns on the Bus: 2700 Miles, Nine States, and a Rock Star DC Welcome

By Mary E. Hunt

…bleachers, and eight speakers lined up to address the crowd. The audience numbered about 30. Even Timothy Dolan at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, on the kickoff day of the Fortnight, only gathered 250 people. The nuns got that many in small towns across the country at stop after stop. The bus trip also proved that there is a deep hunger across generations for this kind of faith-based organizing. The crowd in DC was surprisingly younger…

Is Change Possible? Shifting the Ex-Gay Question

By Lynne Gerber

…the nation’s largest ex-gay organization no longer considers itself in the business of changing sexual orientation. Chambers acknowledged that most Exodus members are single and remain so, that those who are married are trying to salvage an existing marriage rather than starting new, straight ones, and that homosexual desire stays homosexual desire. “In the past,” he said, “we’ve been aligned with organizations that believe feelings can completely…

Politics Threaten Utah Compact on Immigration

By Joanna Brooks

…ive sectors of the Anglo Mormon Utah base, a broad coalition of religious, business and law enforcement officials laid the groundwork for reform when they devised the Utah Compact—a statement that acknowledged the contributions of immigrants and expressed support for immigrant families—last November. The Utah Compact signaled the Church’s intent to break publicly and decisively with an all-enforcement anti-immigrant road-to-nowhere approach like A…