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Religious Opposition To LGBT Equality Softening

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…percent still opposed marriage equality, while 60 percent of those with a more moderate view of their religion supported it. Despite the Pope’s strong opposition to all things gay, Catholics support gay marriage by 48 percent, compared to 33 percent of Protestants. Overall, in a different Gallup survey, those saying gays and lesbians are “morally acceptable” stands at 52 percent. Barely 34 percent thought so back in 1982. The trend among Christia…

Trump is a Nightmare, Sure, But Can He Actually Do Anything?

By Sunnivie Brydum

…January, stressed that agency guidance—like the DOJ’s religious freedom memos issued earlier this month—cannot unilaterally change existing law, only clarify it. “The guidances don’t articulate new law,” Gupta explained. But such guidance is intended to inform policy-making, and does generally reflect the legal judgment of the DOJ—which is why the latest religious freedom memos give Gupta pause. Calling that guidance “fairly dangerous,” Gupta poi…

The War On Terror Is Over

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…One proof of the effectiveness of a non-military response is the Awakening movement in al Anbar province of Iraq, a movement that arose in 2005 and then became associated with the so-called “surge” strategy of General David Petraeus. As Obama correctly pointed out in the 2008 campaign debates, the success of Petraeus’ strategy was only partially related to a surge in troop strength. In fact the strategy actually involved a reduction of troops in t…

Census Reveals Gay People are Shockingly… Normal

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…akin to wanting to marry a parent, a dog, or a piece of furniture. But, as more and more lesbians and gay men raising children move into the neighborhoods of suburbia, the more “normal” gay and lesbian relationships will be. The census shows this is already happening and that more and more gay and lesbian people are feeling comfortable enough to come out on a government form and be counted. What it proves is that more and more people are catching…

New Research Links Spiritual-Not-Religious to Mental Disorder

By Elizabeth Drescher

…connections between religion and health. But encouraging the sin of pride among religionists is surely not among them. Rather, one hopes that future studies will highlight both the positive and negative health effects of traditional religion, unaffiliated spirituality, non-religious activities and ideologies, and various in-betweens so that we might better understand the potential for human thriving in all its psychological, political, and cultura…

What Irish Marriage Vote Means for Catholic Church; The Lonely Fight for Equality in Belize; Progress and Backlash in Tunisia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…important values like love and justice from warped attempts to dictate outmoded morality. One interesting feature of the campaign, as we have noted, was the emergence of priests and nuns, as well as Catholic politicians, willing to publicly buck the church. Raw Story cited post-election comments from Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist priest who was stripped of his ministry in 2012 for his outspoken views on contraception and the ordination of women….

Elaine Howard Ecklund Wants to Dispel Myths Surrounding Religious Resistance to Science

By Sammy Feldblum

…ur message reach into different communities. There seems to be such an enormous amount of stonewalling against the idea that climate change is real in the United States that it’s hard to imagine, for me, that people are as open as you say. In fact, they seem quite closed. Scientists tend to think that it’s all about knowledge. It’s not actually about teaching people better—there’s good science out there, there’s nearly total consensus that climate…

As Tensions Escalate in the Balkans, the West Could Hand Putin a Valuable Weapon

By Katherine Kelaidis

…x Christian populations and historical Orthodox Christian territory is, in most cases, as recent or more recent than American chattel slavery. And only the ignorant or ideologically motivated (i.e. racist) would argue that American chattel slavery has no effect today. And the failure of the West to understand this recent history and to take it into account in the analysis of current events is the very opening that Russia is looking for when it see…

The Abortion Debate, Texas Style

By Dhawn Martin

…nding between pro-choice and pro-life advocates. As the day wore on, I saw more and more people in orange. “Ah, my people,” I sighed, relieved. Some of the orange-clad even had walkie-talkies, and were strategically directing us to overflow rooms for the hearing. We wanted to make a good show of orange and opposition. I dutifully stood, along with eight others, in front of E2.010 and waited. The committee meeting began. Procedures were briefly out…

A Post-Christian America? Not Quite—Though Devoutly to be Wished

By Peter Laarman

…h and state. And yet I’m not sure the road ahead is completely sunny. This morning I awoke with two thoughts in relation to Meacham’s piece: 1) There’s got to be a connection between the smaller number of people, especially young people, wishing to claim the name “Christian” and the cultural prevalence of toxic forms of Christianity in recent years—and there’s growing anecdotal evidence to support such a connection; 2) If conservative Christians a…