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Resolved: Obama Can’t Win Even Young Evangelicals

By Sarah Posner

In the latest episode of my Bloggingheads program, I talked with Matt Anderson, author of the book Earthen Vessels (which he describes as a theology of the body for evangelicals) and lead writer for the blog Mere Orthodoxy. Our starting point was Andrew Sullivan’s much-discussed cover story on Christianity, but the conversation took us in some really fascinating directions. In this segment Matt discusses how the Obama administration, and in parti…

Monster God

By Sarah Posner

On the latest installment of my Bloggingheads program, I spoke with RD contributor Sarah Sentilles about her piece on Richard Mourdock’s comments on rape and abortion. We discussed what would happen if politicians were compelled to offer non-religious justifications for their policy positions; how prevalent the view that God controls everything is; and why invoking religion lets politicians off the hook. We also talked about how God’s will is inv…

Which Islamists?: Religion and the Syrian Civil War

By Haroon Moghul

…g cry. Nationalism doesn’t have the same appeal as other parts of the Arab world, because nationalist slogans are a mainstay of the ruling Baath party, and religious rhetoric also gives the revolution a higher purpose. Likewise, secularism is associated with the Assad regime, and is thus tainted by the regime’s authoritarianism. Second, Friday congregational prayers were the only place Syrians could gather en masse at the revolution’s start. The r…

Religion Scholars Convene, Have Nowhere to Sit

By Ivan Strenski

…be wrong! Over a lifetime, serious scholars change their minds. But, with today’s obsession with the latest and greatest theory, little thought is given to how minds and theories change. We fall madly in love with one “Prince Charming of Theories” today, only to dump him tomorrow for the next, never realizing, in our promiscuous frenzy, how flighty our infatuated shifts of affection show us up to be. Creating intergenerational discourse would hel…

National Catholic Reporter Endorses Women’s Ordination

By Megan Sweas

…ckly, we realized that the focus is not Roy,” Coday said. “Roy is just the latest… In the last two year, the number of people who have been silenced is incredible.” With bishops, theologians, priests, and even “liberal” Catholic publications unable to discuss women’s ordination, the editors realized that they—the laity—were the only ones left to keep the conversation going. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops isn’t likely to respond to NCR’s…

Gay Mormons Tie the Knot

By Johnny Townsend

…ved happily ever after? Well, not exactly. While life is not as oppressive today as it was years before for gays, we do carry some baggage. I remember hearing in priesthood meeting from one of the other elders, “I hope they don’t find a cure for AIDS till all the gays are dead.” My partner’s mother, upon learning that Gary was gay, immediately called his bishop and demanded Gary’s excommunication. Both our families are active Mormons. My uncle ser…

No Father, The Gay Sky Isn’t Falling

By Jay Michaelson

…ligious values (which, according to dogma, are absolutely and objectively true) are to dictate civil laws, presumably we should re-institute polygamy, strip married women of all rights against their husbands, and regard women as chattel to be purchased: all of which are part of the biblical definition of marriage. Really, though, what’s most amusing about such reductio ad absurdum arguments is how weirdly dated they already feel. Come on, really?…

Denzel’s Profane Preaching: A Religious Movie for the Rest of Us

By Sean S. O'Neil

…with a scene of a naked woman smoking a joint. But even amid the sex and drugs, this film makes perfect sense as the latest installment of an acting career birthed in Pentecostal spirit. Ever since a woman with the “gift of prophecy” signaled a young Denzel out for future preaching prowess, he has been serious about his spiritual contribution to Hollywood film. In 2007 he explained: When I was about 20 years old, when I first started acting, I wa…

Will Voters Approve Marriage Equality?

By Sarah Posner

…On the latest bloggingheads, The American Prospect’s E.J. Graff and I discuss whether polling showing 52% support for Maryland’s marriage equality ballot question will hold on election day: We also discussed the marriage referenda in Maine and Washington, and why Graff thinks the three-year campaign by marriage equality advocates in Maine will pay off. You can watch the whole thing here….

Can Twitter Be Used to Fight Islamophobia?

By Sarah Posner

…Ayaan Hirsi Ali survived #MuslimRage-and how we can end it bit.ly/PL3zGj —Newsweek (@Newsweek) September 17, 2012 For a sampling of the #MuslimRage hashtags, see some of the tweets below: I’m having such a good hair day. No one even knows. #MuslimRage —Hend (@LibyaLiberty) September 17, 2012 And the winner of the #MuslimRage contest is: RT @lsal92: Lost your kid Jihad at the airport. Can’t yell for him. #MuslimRage —Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) Se…