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

Special Hell: Progressive Catholics Reckon With the Rise of Trump

By Patricia Miller

…of the Catholic vote in key swing states. In Wisconsin, it would have taken 18 more Catholics per parish to swing the outcome Clinton’s way, and in Pennsylvania, 34 more Catholics per parish. In the end, maybe it’s helpful (or not) to realize, as Dan Maguire recently wrote, that there’s nothing new in dramatic, disconcerting swings in history: The Exodus story in the Bible (when not misunderstood as history) is a metaphor for human societies. Prop…

Holy Father, You’re Not Helping: The Problem with the Pope’s Plan to Consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

By Katherine Kelaidis

…epherd children in the small village of Fatima, Portugal between the spring 1916 and the autumn of 1917. During the appearance, the children received a series of prophecies and requests, among them that Russia (then in the midst of the Bolshevik Revolution) would be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary so that Russia would be converted. While it’s easy for Western Christians, particularly for Catholics, to see this prophecy and subsequent c…

8: The Mormon Proposition Gets It Right

By Joanna Brooks

…have dismissed the film as blatantly false. But what I’m hearing from a number of Mormons deeply familiar with the Proposition 8 campaign is that the film gets it mostly right. [See also Holly Welker’s review here. – Eds] Some take exception to editing choices that sequence events out of context for dramatic effect; others wish that the filmmakers had not been so cartoonish in their depictions of anti-gay-marriage standpoints, using only notori…

Glenn Beck’s Salvation Army

By Peter Montgomery

…he return of the prayer that was the focus of Engel v. Vitale, the landmark 1962 Supreme Court case on church-state separation: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence on thee and we beg Thy blessings on us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.” Alveda King, a speaker at Renewing Honor, also sounded this theme, saying a return of school prayer would be one indication that the nation had indeed restored its honor. The prayer Lee cited h…

Kirk Cameron Joins the Anti-Mormon Chorus
(Sort Of)

By Julie Ingersoll

…actor who played Buck, the converted journalist warning about the “demonic spirituality of a one world religion” in the Left Behind movies) was stepping up to critique the pluralistic spirituality promoted by Beck. In Howse’s view, the not-so-fictional Left Behind novels are being played out before our eyes. Pastors and evangelical leaders literally locked arms with all faiths, including Imams, in a spiritual endeavor despite the clear biblical wa…

Orthodox Jews Begin to Reckon with Sexual Abuse

By Paul Berger

…ice. The case is certainly odd. 58-year-old Rabbi Kranczer, of Midwood, has 14 children and the abuse, according to the New York City Police Department, has been limited to incidents within the rabbi’s family. But the hunt for Kranczer comes at a time when federal agencies are taking a more proactive approach to prosecuting abuse in the Orthodox community. In Brooklyn last year, about 25 Orthodox men were arrested on sex abuse charges. This year i…

New Reports Reveal Global Persecution of Nonbelievers

By Austin Dacey

…atirizing religious rituals and sanctities and prophets” under articles 98, 160, and 161 of the Egyptian Penal Code. According to Egypt News Daily, the prosecution first sought to charge him in connection with disseminating Innocence of Muslims but when this accusation was proven false, they revised their strategy to target the content of Saber’s video blog. Though sentenced to three years and released on bail he was subsequently locked up due to…

My Business, Myself: Piercing the Corporate Veil

By Howard M. Friedman

…anies—must comply with the minimum requirements for preventive health care services, including contraceptive services. In keeping with emphasis of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) on “wellness,” the law requires most insurance plans to cover preventive health care services without co-pays. Government regulations spell out which services are covered, and among women’s preventive services are all FDA-approved contraceptive methods and sterilization pro…

Dear White Evangelicals: A Black Square Ain’t Gonna Cut It

By Jhas Williams

…doubt that a start would have been not being able to count on one hand the number of Black children in my entire Christian school student-body. Do Black educators only exist in public schools? Of course not. Why then couldn’t we find more Black scholars to employ when it came to teaching children? I can tell you that I’ll recognize change as genuine when white preachers and ministers stop using Bible verses to pacify their white congregants by amp…

Jesus Christ and Super Stars: How The Holy Rolled Mainstream in Pop Music

By Alana Massey

…r prayers. But these ultra-devout performers share a peculiar space with a number of other artists whose personal faiths are inconsequential to their public personae but whose fluency in the holy plays out in, well, mysterious ways. Lana Del Rey’s catalogue runs deep with both religious imagery and sentiment; waves of apostasy crash over moments of divine revelation and then reverse course back into faith again. She may have claimed “God’s dead…[a…