Search for "Spirit Customer Service 1 800-299-7264 Number For Reservations"

Neuroscience Says Evil is “Over”: Not So Fast…

By Paul Wallace

…t at least he is certain to be believed.” Thus wrote Anthony Standen in his 1950 book Science is a Sacred Cow. What was true in 1950 is still true in 2011. Surely such public trust has no precedent outside of religion. Science Works, and Creationists Know It A possible objection: public trust? Is this not a golden age for creationism and biblical literalism?Are we not up to our necks in anti-science? Perhaps, but what do creationists say they are…

New Study Touts Success of “Praying Away the Gay”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…98 highly-motivated subjects, the authors found that a small, unspecified number can use prayer and counseling to shut down their sexual feelings or become a bit more bi. And possibly none who turned straight.” Even the researchers call their conclusions “overly optimistic.” “These results do not prove that categorical change in sexual orientation is possible for everyone or anyone, but rather that meaningful shifts along a continuum that constit…

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

By Ed Simon

…nd mystery, and a “poetic rather than rational approach to faith.” In that spirit then, perhaps today we’ve no requirement of doxologies and theologies, of creeds and canons, but rather of feeling, sentiment, and perspective. Of poetry. Think of that apocryphal story about Saint Patrick preaching to the chiefs and druids of Ireland, first recounted by Caleb Threlkeld in 1727, wherein it was said that “by this three leafed grass, he emblematically…

Picasso’s Sacred Monster Eats Chicago: A Mystery Solved?

By Jeremy Biles

…tive interpretation. Multiply ambiguous, it is a strange concoction of any number of animal and human forms, as well as a sphinx; itself a hybrid monster. Moreover, the Chicago Picasso intimates both the Egyptian and Greek sphinxes—an amalgam of cultural styles. An ambiguous, almost inscrutable object, it is an enigmatic icon and the icon of an enigma; its very presence confronts the populace with a riddle. The riddle is not simply what the Chicag…

Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy: Choosing Religion Over Sex

By Lynne Gerber

…tices in American life. The debates over this practice emerged in the early 1970s, a time when ineffective and dangerous psychiatric interventions into homosexuality were standard mental health practice and harmed many gay people. Having homosexuality declassified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association and other mental health groups was a major victory for GLBT activists, making it possible for the first time to even imagine t…

Change v. Change at NPR

By Warren Throckmorton

…founder of Journey into Manhood, and Peterson Toscano, a man who went spent 17 years in an unsuccessful effort to change his orientation. Schumacher-Matos correctly points out that much of the negative reaction centered on the presentation of Wyler and Toscano as representative of two sides of a current debate in psychology. In fact, the official pronouncements of the mental health professions are clear that scientific evidence does not warrant ps…

Church=State in Putin’s Orthodox Empire?; Evangelical-Orthodox Anti-Gay Alliance; Malaysian Court Protects Transwomen; Catholicism (Still) Declining in Latin America; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ospel, then it will have to expose and ultimately expel the ‘new and alien spirits’ that have weakened its authentic voice,” argued Arida. “Among these spirits are Biblical fundamentalism and the inability to critique and build upon the writings and vision” of the theologians and “fathers” of early Christianity. Arida’s essay sparked fierce debate. Among the critics was the Brotherhood of the Orthodox Clergy Association of Houston, Texas, which de…

55% of Utah Mormons Believe LGBT People can “Change”

By Joanna Brooks

…ts about LGBT issues. Many are still thinking like we were taught to in the 1970s, that homosexuality is simply a base perversion, an abomination, and can be changed through repentance and prayer. Not so, say a legion of LDS LGBT people who have knees bruised and calloused from so much praying. Most straight LDS people have not grappled with the reality of LGBT experience. And another thing that has not happened yet in most LDS communities is a fr…

The 17th Century Roots of Roy Moore’s Refusal to Concede the Election

By Karen E. Park

…clear violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment and any number of Supreme Court cases. He was removed again last year for refusing to uphold federal law on same sex marriage, on the grounds that it was in violation of God’s law as found in the Old Testament. Like Winthrop, Moore believes that the Old Testament should order American society, whether Exodus or Leviticus. The ancient Israelites in these societies either adhered, or…

The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Humans

By Amina Wadud

…ink I would just go out of my mind for some peace. This hotel is only about 15 floors high and pretty narrow, relative to what I’ve seen. That means, I would expect, a modicum of calm in the lobby, at breakfast and dinner (which are part of the tour package). I will have to make my own arrangements for lunch. I hope my room is on one of the higher floors, less traffic, and the elevators are the same from the 4th and the 14th floors. My room is sha…