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Our Lady of Good Hope and Excellent Behavior: Why this Apparition and Why Now?

By Lisa Bitel

The successful promotion of the Shrine to Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wisconsin is not merely evidence of “centuries-old tradition of folk Catholicism driven by local traditions,” as Lewis Wallace suggests in these pages—although he’s right about the endurance of local Christianities. The event has less to do with popular devotions, though, than the global politics of the Catholic leadership. The main question posed by Bishop David Ricken’…

“Equality is Not a Feeling”

By Joanna Brooks

…ys over the age of 12 are eligible for ordination to the Mormon lay priesthood, and the Church’s theological, liturgical, financial, and administrative decisions are made by an exclusively-male chain of command. “I have heard from many women, ‘I see nothing wrong with the status quo. I feel equal,’” said Ordain Women founder Kate Kelly to a pre-demonstration gathering in a downtown Salt Lake City park. “To them I say: you can feel respected, suppo…

Niqab and Short Shorts

By Hussein Rashid

…sexual objects by the men in their lives? Do they not deserve the protection of the state? Or is objectification acceptable as long as it is for the pleasure of the men writing the laws? The next step in this sort of protest is to wear the niqab and nothing else. Then, the women will get tickets, not for being nude, but for being clothed. In my opinion, that would show the absolute absurdity of the state trying to control women’s dress. I have wr…

London Calling: “Our Great War Is a Spiritual War”

By Elizabeth Drescher

This week I learned that Manchester United, the rough and tumble British footballers, have a Facebook page that ranks in the top five for social engagement—alongside Jesus Daily (conservative Christian powerhouse), Justin Bieber (pious teen idol), and The Bible (“by the greatest author of all time, God”). There’s undoubtedly much to say about the conservative Christian spin of Facebook engagement and the attendant challenges to interactive digita…

Is Joel Osteen, Success Mag Cover Boy, Really “God’s Best”?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…for a possible career change. Upon learning of my new endeavor, my boss shook his head and remarked, “From one low paying career to the next.” His words were prophetic. Since leaving the media and entering the ministry, I have yet to again reach the pay level that I was receiving at CNN, despite actually working a second, secular, job to make ends meet. However, ministry is not a low paying career for some pastors. Some, like Rick Warren, Pat Rob…

More Mixed Signals from Pope Francis; Church of England Wrestles with Rifts; Faith Groups Lobby Pro & Con on Irish Referendum; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ideological colonization” by funders he said were tying funding for new schools to the teaching of gender theory, and compared it with the spread of fascist propaganda: “It is not new, this,” he continued. “The same was done by the dictators of the last century. They came with their own doctrine — think of the Balilla [youth groups of Fascist Italy], think of the Hitler Youth.” We mentioned last week that a group of pilgrims from New Ways Ministry…

Orthodox TV Channel Offers Gays One-Way Ticket Out of Russia; And More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…t attitudes toward gays are strongly influenced by traditional stigmas, taboos, and values promoted by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Those studies also show that psychological and physical violence often accompany widespread homophobia that is backed by traditional ideologies and a Soviet legacy of condemnation. Gays in Georgia also often face domestic violence within their own families when they reveal their homosexuality. Georgia and its Orthodo…

What Will Orthodox ‘Republicanity’ Look Like?

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…itics of Republicanity grounded in the necessary absurdity of belief will look like. And it is not always a pretty picture. But it’s important to emphasize just how Christian the culture of argument currently embodied in one portion of the GOP appears to be. Or rather, just how Tertullian a portion of this emerging Republican theology has become. To make one’s argument hinge on absurdity is to escape the need to deal with what the old-school rheto…

New Film Chronicles Unlikely Friendship in Battle Over God and Guns

By Sarah Posner

…pidation and fear. McBath, a Lutheran-turned-Pentecostal whose family has roots in the civil rights movement, had yet to meet a religious leader who saw gun violence as a spiritual and moral issue and was willing commit to speaking out about it. Schenck, whose organization bills itself as “America’s only Christian outreach to top-level government officials in Washington, DC ,” is a white evangelical with close ties to conservative Republicans. In…

From Shofars to Hammers: The Spiritual Warriors of MAGA are ‘ReAwakening’ to Political Violence

By Mark Clatterbuck

…n circles. I was raised in the tradition from infancy, remained a fervent foot soldier into my twenties, and have now been studying the movement as an outsider for the past two decades. As a consequence, I honestly wasn’t expecting any big surprises when I bought my ticket to see some of the NAR’s brightest stars at the ReAwaken rally when it swept through my hometown. I was wrong. While forays into national politics and spiritual warfare rhetoric…