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The New Age Fantasy of a Celtic Church that Revered Nature and the Divine Feminine Never Existed — So What?

By Ed Simon

…rom “Kiss Me I’m Irish” t-shirts to full-grown adults cosplaying as leprechauns. Clergy have expressed concern about secular revelry obscuring the religious significance of what, after all, is a saint’s day. Fr. Ryan Jones, an Episcopal priest at the Eucharist Church in San Francisco, wrote last year that while he’d long dismissed the holiday as “an excuse for people to get sloshed on green beer or talk about leprechauns and four leafed clovers,”…

Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy: Choosing Religion Over Sex

By Lynne Gerber

…t helped me see the value of ex-gay ministries in the lives of some homosexually-oriented Christians. We met in a library in a small midwestern town when I was researching my forthcoming book on ex-gay ministries and Christian weight loss programs. Thoughtful and honest, he told me about his 20-year experience in a fundamentalist church and the affair he had with another man the whole time. Frustrated with the church’s theological narrow-mindednes…

How the Politics of the 1890s Explain the GOP’s Health Care Woes

By Patricia Miller

…emingly dry public policy issues take on a morality that transcends the actual issues in question. The country faced a similar dilemma in the 1890s over vexing questions of economic policy. At the time, like a political version of “Freaky Friday,” the personalities of the two major political parties were reversed, Under the leadership of Grover Cleveland, the “Bourbon” Democrats were the party of big business, small government and states’ rights….

Can the Catholic Church Survive Trump?

By Patricia Miller

…ps did manage to maintain some semblance of a cross-party policy agenda because of the church’s progressive positions on the death penalty, refugees and immigrants, social welfare programs, and its preference for peace over war. Over time, however, as the Reagan-era GOP coalition frayed and mainstream Republicans were eclipsed, the bishops found themselves aligned with an increasingly fractured, dysfunctional party. This inevitable process of part…

The Brutality of Life for Syrian LGBTs; Saving the Anglican Church by Dissolving It; Backlash to Hindu Gay Wedding Ceremony in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…all’s feature story in the Sunday Times of London Magazine examines the situation in Syria, “where gay people are being persecuted and murdered – and not just by Isis.” Writes McDougall: In recent months, the photojournalist Robin Hammond and I have interviewed gay citizens in Africa and the Middle East. Theirs is a narrative of great pain and desperate suffering. Here in the Middle East, it is clear that the taboo against same-sex activity is get…

Sovereign Grace Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Just Got More Complicated

By T.F. Charlton

A number of developments in the lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) have taken place since I first covered it for RD back in early March. On May 14, a second amendment was filed to the suit: [The suit] adds three new plaintiffs, making a total of 11. Five plaintiffs are now using their real names, and the rest are pseudonyms. It accuses church leaders of conspiracy, negligence, misrepresentation and intentional infliction of emotiona…

Yet Another Survey Shows ‘Nones’ Growth at Record Levels

By Elizabeth Drescher

…f Duke and UC-Berkeley researchers highlights the continuing growth in the number of Americans who indicate no religious affiliation, with a full 20% now answering “none” when asked “What is your religious preference?” Michael Hout and Claude S. Fisher of UCB and Mark A. Chaves of Duke drew on data from the most recent General Social Survey (GSS), which has tracked religious preference since 1972, when a mere 5% of Americans self-identified as rel…

‘Pro-Life’ Theater, Open White Nationalism, and Virility Fear — Day 3 of NatCon

By Annika Brockschmidt and Ben Lorber

…d with a benediction by Reverend Uriesou Brito: a Christian nationalist, staunch defender of Doug Wilson, and Senior Pastor of Providence Church in Pensacola, Florida. Humanity versus unhuman and the Hot Gulag Summer Afterwards, Jack Posobiec, whose ties to White nationalists have long been documented, announced what NatCon’s enemies should expect come January 2025: President Donald J. Trump is waiting in the wings. And when he assumes office agai…

Not a ‘Weenie-A** Lodge’: James Ray Trial Begins

By Johnny P. Flynn

In opening statements of the trial of self-help guru and author James Ray, prosecutor Sheila Polk played tapes of Ray discussing with participants the sweat lodge they were about to encounter—some for the first time. This is not a “weenie-ass lodge,” Ray was heard to say on the tapes, a statement he apparently held fast to as one participant passed out and fell and burned his arm on the red-hot stones. Ray asked him to come back into the lodge to…

Death With Dignity: Combatting Religious Opposition to Physician-Assisted Suicide

By Krista Kapralos

…as angry,” Nancy Niedzielski said. “Before he died in 2006, he asked me to make sure the same law passed in Washington.” By Living Longer, You Suffer Longer In 2008, Randy Niedzielski’s wish came true. Washington State voters approved the Death with Dignity law, and it became effective early in March. For him, Nancy Niedzielski said, it was two years too late. She blames religious leaders for her husband’s painful death. Theological traditionalist…