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Claiming That ‘We Birthed a Nation From Nothing’ CNN’s Rick Santorum Gives a Master Class in Christian Nationalism: An Open Letter to CNN

By Andrew L. Seidel

…as Nancy Isenberg observed in White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America. But other colonies are more representative of the principles on which America was founded, especially New Amsterdam, which would become New York City. And when our founders looked back at the Pilgrims and Puritans, they saw theocracies and persecution. The popular myth regurgitated by Santorum, your senior political commentator, claims those theocracies as…

Why “Family Values” Defined Conservative Christianity (and Why “Religious Liberty” Has Replaced it)

By Eric C. Miller

…ulture. If gender played an overt role in the rise of the Christian Right, class and race were implicit as well. The single breadwinner model of the family presumed middle-class stability, and the movement as a whole was almost entirely white. So is it fair to say that “family values” merged a diversity of issues that mattered specifically to conservative, middle-class, white, evangelical Christians? That’s exactly right. While I talk mostly about…

“Burka Avenger”: Pakistan’s Middle Class Gets a Feminist Cartoon

By M. Sophia Newman

…t between 2005 and 2011. The show could have the same effect in Pakistan, particularly if public interest stays strong. (The creators, Unicorn Black Productions, have said on Facebook, “We are blown away by the overwhelming response.”) By promoting middle-class values to the Pakistanis who do see the show, “Burka Avenger” might make the show’s tagline a real promise to Pakistan’s Islamist minority: “Don’t mess with the lady in black.” In any case,…

Still Trying to Get Creationism into Science Classes

By Lauri Lebo

…ingston Parish decided to hold off on introducing creationism into biology class for the current school year. But it has appointed a staff committee to look at ways to introduce it for the 2011-12 school year. So it’s a bit early at this point to speculate whether Louisiana and the Livingston Parish School District will be the site of the next constitutional test case of the Discovery Institute’s latest brand of creationism. But the echoes of Dove…

Watching Preachers’ Daughters Right After the Boston Bombings While Teaching a Class on Augustine’s Confessions

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…, and specifically, reading Augustine’s Confessions with my Intro Theology class this week. Internet, I love Augustine Confessions. I love, love, love, love Augustine’s Confessions. I love it even when I want to throw it across the room and curse. It’s a complicated love, and I’m not entirely sure where it comes from. But one reason I love Augustine is because he’s thoroughly haunted by the stupidity, callousness, and intractability of human cruel…

“Tell Me What You Believe About Ferguson, and I’ll Tell You What You Believe About God”: A Missouri Pilgrimage

By Anita Little

…its construction displaced. Through eminent domain, 37 blocks of homes and businesses in the thriving black St. Louis community were razed to make room for a monument to the United States’ western expansion. To add insult to injury, discriminatory hiring policies made many of the promised construction jobs unavailable to non-white residents. Upon its completion in 1965, it would be dedicated “to the American people.” More than five decades after i…

Of God, But Not God: A Methodist Minister Speaks About Church’s Refusal to Open Its Doors to LGBT

By Joel Pitney

…s and maybe even the denomination. Maybe the United Methodist Church won’t be here anymore. But I don’t believe that means God has given up on us. Remember what Elaine Stanovsky said this morning: the church is of God, but the church isn’t God. *While John and Debbie were the first United Methodist clergy couple with membership in the Oregon-Idaho Conference, Rev. Alice Knotts, a United Methodist and her then husband, Rev. Robert Morrison, a Pre…

Mexican Marriage Marches Show Struggle Between Church and Secular State; Pro-LGBT Mormon Group Grows After ‘Apostate’ Declaration; Botswana Gives Anti-Gay US Pastor the Boot; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ned in the Bible,” Alliance of Romanian Families spokesman David Tut said. United Nations: UN LGBT Core Group holds high-level event; Chilean president promises marriage The UN LGBT Core Group, a network of equality-supporting countries, held a high-level meeting at the UN, which was addressed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Norwegian Prime Minister Ema Solberg, and U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, reports Ashe…

Invited by Allah

By Amina Wadud

…our life with your passport and visa requests. I know when I come into the United States from travel abroad, no matter where I have been, as “allied” as Europe or as “non-allied” as Muslim majority countries, I am stopped at the US border. Every time. And this has been for two or three years. It’s like there is some kind of mark next to my name, in the system. I never know what that mark is and the extent of my detainment varies but I am always se…

Is Joel Osteen, Success Mag Cover Boy, Really “God’s Best”?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…s that taught pastors not to get “sidetracked in controversy.” Instead, my classes taught me that it was theologian Karl Barth that counseled pastors to use both the Bible and the newspaper in their preaching, but Osteen will have none of that. Anything that might get in the way of a happy story, or a story about how God wants you to be happy and be the best “you” you can be, won’t make the cut in an Osteen sermon. Outside of the walls of Lakewood…