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Renovating Marriage, One Gay Couple at a Time

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…he husband a better cook. But, research by scholars, especially gay ones, carries little weight with those who oppose marriage equality on religious grounds. For them, I point to a growing number of religious leaders who also understand that gays and lesbians can do a lot to “redefine” marriage in beneficial ways. Rev. Ed Bacon, who leads the 4,000 member All Saints Church in Pasadena, Calif., told Oprah Winfrey this past weekend that marriage wou…

Sacred&Profane: The Living Dead

By Gary Laderman

…red and lugubrious reflections, but the Halloween season this year has me particularly spooked. There are ghosts and graves in the yards of my neighborhood, and the number of skeletons—reclining on lawn chairs, sprouting up from the ground, beckoning from the shadows—has transformed the suburban landscape into a set for a George Romero film. In addition, and beyond bland suburbia, monsters, ghosts, skeletons, vampires, and other playful dead inhab…

Pop Culture Yogi B. K. S. Iyengar Dead at 95

By Andrea R. Jain

…h pranayama or “breath control.” Iyengar was born Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar on December 14, 1918, in the Indian state of Karnataka. He suffered through an agonizing childhood in which he lost his father and siblings to various illnesses, and was afflicted himself with tuberculosis, typhoid, and malaria. Already decrepit at the age of sixteen, Iyengar went to the Karnataka city of Mysore to study yoga with his brother-in-law, Tirumal…

Will Iowa’s Abortion Ban Respect Religious Freedom?

By Christine Ryan

…offer, however, is a reminder that religious peoples’ accounts of abortion are largely absent from political and legal discourse. My organization, the Law, Rights and Religion Project at Columbia Law School, recently filed an amicus brief in the Indiana case mentioned by Judge Christensen to correct this record. Drawing on data collected by the Abortion & Religion Project and first-hand testimony, we demonstrated the many ways that religious belie…

Mormon Rejection of Trump Embarrassing for Evangelicals?

By Neil J. Young

…ity and style of Trump. Conservative, family-oriented, and devout, Mormons are a sharp contrast to the brash and profane Trump, and they have expressed disapproval for the thrice-married billionaire’s lifestyle and temperament. Mormons have understandably bristled at Trump’s comments from a 2014 interview that have recently come to light where he argued that Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election because many Christian voters were repelled by his “ali…

An Unholy Holy Week: Is the All-Male Rule of the Roman Catholic Church Self-Destructing?

By Anne Eggebroten

…r convoluted reasons for why only men can represent Jesus Christ at the altar are starting to ring hollow. “Call no man father,” warned Jesus in a passionate diatribe against “those who love the place of honor” and like to be called rabbi or teacher (Matthew 23). “Woe to you!” he repeated, describing the leaders of his day as whitewashed on the outside but inside full of “all kinds of filth.” In fact, deference to “Father” is at the heart of this…

Americans Say Religion is “Losing Influence”

By Diane Winston

…ans live on? Here in the U.S., religious fervor is at the center of a 30-year culture war that has debased civic discourse and rendered our nation ungovernable. Worldwide, religious sentiments have been mobilized to torture and murder. I understand that religion itself is not to blame; followers can distort religious teachings and politicians can cloak ethnic hostilities and turf wars in religious language. Yet even so—people believe that they are…

In a Powerful Statement Black Presidents and Deans Say: No More Stolen Black Lives!

By Pamela R. Lightsey

…Professor of Theology, Ethics and the Arts, Chicago Theological Seminary Barbara A. Fears, PhD, Assistant Professor of Religious Education, Howard University School of Divinity Terri Laws, PhD, Assistant Professor, African and African American Studies, University of Michigan-Dearborn Randall C. Bailey, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, Interdenominational Theological Center Lee H. Butler, Jr., PhD, Distinguished Service Professor of Theolog…

Commies, Blacks, Jews, the UCC and Other Threats to America

By Daniel Schultz

…lly, you’ll find this paragraph: On Thursday [Glenn] Beck warned that the march included Marxist, Communist and revolutionary groups. Among the organizations endorsing the march were the Communist Party USA, the United Church of Christ, Jewish Funds for Justice, the National Urban League, the National Baptist Convention, People for the American Way and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. My first reaction to this was to wonder why the Times i…

Fusion Politics: A Way Forward for Bernie Sanders?

By Daniel Schultz

…anders (or more realistically, whoever succeeds him as the movement’s standard bearer) to make some significant adjustments, to be sure. Bernie’s laser-like focus on economic inequality has inspired many people, but it’s also turned off many who see sexism, homophobia, and racism holding their lives back. Barber’s vision of “fusion” specifically includes these issues in the movement’s portfolio, and the people he represents won’t have much patienc…