Search for "Alaska Airlines 800-299-7264 Customer Service Toll-Free Number"

Election Day: Hope, Heartbreak, Naiveté, and Studs Terkel

By The Editors

…In the idea of “natural law” (equality before the law, right to property, freedom of conscience) applicable to every individual, regardless of religion, they erected a common legality. In the idea of “natural religion,” the belief in God, Providence and immortality of the soul, which were thought to guarantee morality and be inherent in all religions, they proffered a common morality. Both of these ideas were ostensibly secular since they appeare…

Mormon Rejection of Trump Embarrassing for Evangelicals?

By Neil J. Young

…were repelled by his “alien” faith. In a recent article for Religion News Service, the popular Mormon blogger Jana Reiss suggested a few more reasons why Trump has a Mormon problem, including his demeaning treatment of women and his inauthentic claim to faith. The Mormon rejection of Trump also serves to further magnify Trump’s strange success among evangelical voters. While the evangelical magazine Christianity Today recently pointed out that th…

The Book David Barton Doesn’t Want You To Read

By Michael Coulter

…note that the slaves freed by Jefferson were related to Sally Hemings. He freed no other slaves even though he could have done so. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? This is a hard question to address because broadly we address the misuse of history conducted by Barton, while, at the same time, fact-checking specific claims about Jefferson. On Barton, we hear often from evangelicals that Barton must be right in his clai…

Eulogy, Corrected: Father Matthew Came Out as Gay 30 Years Earlier

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ince, although he was a mature monk and priest, he had many years to go in service to his vocation (37, to be precise). What I most appreciate in this correction is that Mike is right that this chronology makes Father Matthew’s story even more moving, and far more brave. What I most admire about Mike Bever is this. He has accomplished what is to my eye the most selfless, which is to say the most un-egoed, celebration of the life that Matthew Kelty…

Why Nobody Should Be Surprised That Pope Francis Made Problematic Comments About Judaism — And That He Remains Unapologetic

By Ilan Benattar

…the rising forces of reactionary nationalism in the late 2010s, Francis’s service as the Bishop of Rome has seen a marked shift away from the fiercely anti-communist rhetoric of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II. Perhaps, then, this is why it came as a surprise to many, including the Israeli Rabbinate, that in an August 11th homily Pope Francis would express full-throated endorsement of a belief which, in contemporary parlance, could be glo…

Marriage is for Everybody, Says Former Anti-Gay Evangelical

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…charge for gay and lesbian ordination. He even preached at the ordination service of Scott Anderson, “the first gay minister” ordained by the PCUSA. In this interview, Achtemeier talks about how his encounters with LGBT people changed his heart and mind over the years. His new book is: The Bible’s Yes to Same-Sex Marriage: An Evangelical’s Change of Heart. Candace Chellew-Hodge : You don’t spend a lot of time in the book dwelling on the so-called…

Niqab and Short Shorts

By Hussein Rashid

…run amok. These ladies, who call themselves Niqabitches, have done a great service in showing the inherent contradictions of the law, rather than just stating them. Perhaps one of my favorite parts of the video is when the female police officer, who will be required to ticket them in the near future, asks to take a picture of them. Sarkozy’s ban may have inadvertently created the sense of “Frenchness” in a way he didn’t anticipate. These women hav…

Will Sisters Save the Catholic Church?

By Mary E. Hunt

…hospitals, of course. It was a social justice no-brainer. Sister of Social Service Simone Campbell, Executive Director of NETWORK: A Catholic Social Justice Lobby, organized a sign-on letter to members of Congress supporting the bill that was affirmed by dozens of leaders of women’s congregations representing tens of thousands of nuns. President Obama acknowledged the singular importance of the sisters’ actions in helping to secure passage of the…

Gingrich Claims Obama Violates Catholics’ Right to Worship

By Sarah Posner

…on, he expanded the definition of what “worship” is. Because of course the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment prohibits government interference with freedom of worship. But the Obama administration’s rule does not impede anyone’s right to worship. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently launched an Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty because “never before have we faced this kind of challenge to our ability to engage in the publ…

GOP isn’t Pro-Life After All

By Patricia Miller

…re Act to allow insurers to opt-out of providing maternity care as a basic service, as many conservatives have requested, with the goal of reducing premiums. “We have what’s called an X chromosome, which means we can’t have a baby,” he said on a Houston radio show to justify the oft-repeated claim that requiring plans to cover the health care costs associated with a pregnancy is unfair to men. Setting aside whatever meaning we might make of the fa…