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Why Won’t Conservatives Call Gay-Bashing a Hate Crime?

By Eric Reitan

…ave voted to insulate homophobic violence from the “hate crime” label. At least on a subconscious level, I suspect they see a connection between homophobic violence and the beliefs to which they cleave. To call gay-bashing a hate crime would mean they couldn’t merely condemn the gay bashers. They’d also have to condemn themselves, their churches, and the broader cultural forces with which they identify. My challenge to conservative legislators is…

RDPulpit: Obama Missed the Hope in State of the Union Address

By Daniel Schultz

…on faith have been desperate to suppress this insight for decades. God is free, and in that freedom, for the poor. That there is the possibility of change, that the bubble has burst and the financial certainties are on the brink of collapse, that the numbness and despair have been pierced—all of this should be evidence for the faithful that God is “operating under a new plan.” This is not the hope Joe Hill famously derided as “pie in the sky, by…

Top Five (Less Sensational, But More Dangerous) Things to Remember About Pat Robertson (1930-2023)

By Mark Hulsether

…er because anti-Robertsonite conservatives in the Republican Coalition at least have some alibi in relation to Robertson’s 1988 campaign—they beat him back and have engaged in related tugs of war ever since. However, I see no such alibi for looking the other way as Robertson made anti-Semitic smears (plus similar attacks on New Agers, feminists, Muslims, and others) and absurd claims about global politics. More than the 1988 campaign (or the subse…

A Scholar Responds: Scripture as a Weapon

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…as follows: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed. Tempting as it might be to explore the reason why “Militia” and “State” and “Arms” are capitalized but “the people” are not, I want to emphasize what seems critical to the invocation of the Second Amendment by the NRA. They focus on the conclusion, and ignore the reasoning which led to it. The…

Constitutional Attorney Changes into Drag During Talk on Cancelation of West Texas A&M Drag Show

By Chrissy Stroop

…nts are correct about what the law and Constitution require—their right to free expression was violated—and that Wendler and Kacsmaryk are wrong. After providing an overview and history of freedom of religion and the separation of church and state in US constitutional law, Seidel moved on to discuss the Christian Right’s abuse of these key concepts. He noted how the weaponization of “religious freedom” as a bludgeon for Christian supremacy, in tan…

God’s Obituary: A Humanist Response to Mass Murder

By Anthony B. Pinn

…all the answers. Rather, in light of human tragedy, humanists might offer better questions during these challenging times, as well as a space for wrestling with these questions free of cosmic justifications—and a God clearly missing in action. I write this not to deny comfort for those who have been directly and indirectly touched by this unspeakable act of violence. Mine is an effort to acknowledge and respect grief without so quickly pushing t…

Mumbai, Five Months After: Searching for a Coherent Stance on Religious Violence

By Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad

…c power of the nation-state, and is comfortable with the way privilege and freedoms are dispensed within the national society. This perspective came naturally and instinctively to both the Indian middle classes and the political establishment. Of course, it should be remembered, the Right encompasses a sweeping range of attitudes: from conservative middle-class supporters of the free market content to work hard on building their social capital and…

Why So Many American Christians Don’t Understand Protest

By Leah Pannell

…g to bow to them, instead creating a new holy space where the oppressed go free. What better moment to consider our place as faithful Christians than during this season of Advent? In a time when American Christianity has perhaps sold its soul for 30 pieces of silver, taking refuge in the security of a violent empire, we would do well to remember that our good news first came as an act of divine protest in the body of a poor, brown baby born in a b…

As Funny as the Times Will Allow: Obama on Late Night TV

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…agedy, but it exists in uneasy relation to morality. Comic artists must be free to offend, free to be mean. This doesn’t mean that there should be no restriction on what the comedian can say, by the way; not at all. Comedians, like all artists, need constraints in order to show off their creative virtuosity. It is the audiences that need to restrain themselves; they need to permit themselves a laugh. Or not. The question, then, is not whether it w…

Romney’s Debate Coach and his Religion Answer

By Sarah Posner

…inciple. As I wrote at the time, Romney had a conundrum: needing to defend free exercise of religion (an in particular, his religion), but realizing that the Republican base demands the “Judeo-Christian” answer. Given that many conservative evangelicals don’t even think Romney’s religion is part of Christianity, when he gave the “Judeo-Christian” answer last night I cringed—because he didn’t balance it with a free exercise answer. In other words,…