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Creationism 3.0: Meet Intelligent Design’s Huckster

By Michael Schulson

…every fact, experiment, subtheory, and interpretation that the author gets wrong. I’ll spare you that exercise, partly because it’s been done elsewhere, by scientists, and partly because Stephen Meyer, the author of Darwin’s Doubt, is not your typical creationist hack. Instead, Meyer, who holds a PhD in the philosophy of science from Cambridge, is that odd hybrid: the philosopher-huckster. His arguments are, for the most part, precise, his resear…

A Reluctant Millennial On The State of Church

By Meghan Florian

…im there, it is too easy to point to one simple issue and to ignore deeper problems. We’re not only supposed to be looking for Jesus, but being his presence for one another. People come and go from the church, but perhaps we were never supposed to “go to” church in the first place, because we are actually supposed to be the church. Those are different things. And so, it doesn’t make much sense to leave the church for no community, or for a communi…

Just What Kind of Revolution is Francis Calling For?

By Silvia Alves Fernandes

…s offer not only intimacy and solidarity, but often deal with the concrete problems—whether it be illness, drug addition, domestic strife, or crime—that afflict the faithful. In these Pentecostal churches it is hard to be anonymous; they seek a holistic transformation of the self. Much has been made of Francis’s call to the young people to “stir things up… to make a mess, to disturb complacency.” Francis also stated that “[n]o one can remain inse…

Will Francis’ Statements on Women and Gays ‘Make a Mess’ Inside the Church?

By Mary E. Hunt

…pal Theatre (Rio de Janeiro, 27 July 2013) Pope Francis spoke about social problems. He advised the civic leaders to “dialogue, dialogue, dialogue” as the most effective way to deal with the injustices that set off large-scale demonstrations in Brazilian cities earlier this year. He noted that this is how democracy works, though he declined to mention whether the institution he leads will have a semblance of democracy, and whether dialogue is the…

California Inmates Protest the Abuse of Long-Term Solitary Confinement

By Sarah Sentilles

…olor further calls into question the use of this abusive practice.” As the numbers have grown, so have the numbers of critics, Wired reports, citing a series of “scathing reports and documentaries” released in 2012 by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. That same year, the US Senate held its first-ever hearings on…

Exodus “Ex-Gay” Ministry Closes Up Shop

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ex-gay ministry is right and their desire to live into their sexuality is wrong. But, Rodgers is adamant that, though they readily admit they hold to a “traditional view of the Bible” on homosexuality, the new organization has no hidden agenda of “change.” “We recognize our beliefs are not a trump card,” Rodgers explained. “We realize many, many churches hold a more liberal view on this issue and we believe it’s time for us to come to the table…

A Memoir of Jewish, Transgender Spirituality

By Joy Ladin

…reak-up, the ethical stakes are even higher. I didn’t solve those ethical problems in my memoir — I don’t think they can be solved — but I tried to be as conscious of them as I could, and I asked those who read my drafts to flag anything they thought was disrespectful to or judgmental of my ex or a violation of her or my children’s privacy. I tried to apply the same standards to what I said about them as I applied to what I said about myself: to…

Does End Time Belief Really Cause Climate Change Apathy?

By Robin Globus Veldman

…istians on their views about climate change and the end times, I see major problems with their approach. The study’s main flaw is that it measures attitudes toward climate change using a double-barreled question—one that’s actually comprised of more than a single question. Barker and Bearce asked respondents to state the degree to which they agreed with the following: Global warming is a problem that requires immediate government action, in order…

Vandalism as Conversation-Starter

By Elizabeth Drescher

…and found his way to the video and lyrics of the song.) Grace was among a number of buildings tagged in the area, and the initial response was dismay. Rather than approaching the tagging as a criminal act, however, church leaders decided to take the graffiti seriously as an expression of something spiritually meaningful—a cry for help, perhaps; even a mocking expression of religious skepticism. They approached it relationally, using the church bu…

When Bad Weeks Happen to Good People

By Kate Blanchard

…n again, perhaps it is only a few bad seeds, “monsters,” who cause all the problems. The Dalai Lama’s represents another point of view altogether. In his book, Beyond Religion, he argues that humans’ basic essence is gentle: “We have an underlying human disposition toward love, kindness, and affection” that needs nurturing. He comes to this conclusion via Buddhist tradition, of course, but also by his own observations of human suffering. (Catholic…