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Did the Church Create or Co-Opt Human Rights?

By Austin Dacey

…abor Prime Minister Peter Fraser, New Zealand had made common cause with a number of smaller countries and civil society organizations in pressing for recognition of human rights in the Charter. Oddly, Moyn credits the political theorist Charles Beitz with the “remarkable discovery” of Gildersleeve’s contribution, although Gildersleeve described the events in a memoir published in 1954 (the fact even appears in an otherwise meager Wikipedia entry,…

New Study of Christian Nationalism in Texas Should be a Warning for the Whole Country

By David R. Brockman

…s that a Christian leader “is more likely to enact godly principles than a non-Christian” and that Christian leaders are “more likely to demonstrate the integrity of character that voters generally desire”—an astounding claim, to put it mildly. The Koch brothers of the Christian Right Other Texas-based backers of Christian Americanism tend to fly under the national radar, though their influence on American politics is no less important. Take for e…

Mormons Take Even More Activist Message to DC Pride March

By Joanna Brooks

…a and Colin Powell who have spoken out in support, I’m convinced that when non-traditional allies such as Mormons and Catholics join the chorus it will help us make history in Maryland. It’s a rare opportunity to show not just that we love and tolerate gays and lesbians, but that we truly accept them as equals and are willing to risk persecution from our own camp for what we believe is right. While our parade contingent may be smaller than Mormons…

New Book by Olivier Roy Argues that Aggressive Attempts to Christianize the West Actually Hasten Secularism

By Ivan Strenski

…mean, when he judges that elements of the “new anthropology”―liberalism’s non-theistic beliefs in personal freedom, sex/gender equality and fluidity, care for the planet, reverence for nature, non-violence, veganism/vegetarianism, conviction of the unity of living beings, and such―are secular, one wonders what notion of religion is at work, here? Certainly, it’s not religion as reflected in Abrahamic conceptions of religion as the dualistic, patr…

Masculinity and Mass Violence: When Will We Acknowledge the Smoking Gendered Pronoun Hiding in Plain Sight?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…, and Thomas Caffall—all white, all Christian. But there is no shortage of non-white mass killers, many of them not Christian: Eduardo Sencion, a Mexican American, who killed four and wounded seven people before shooting himself in the head at a Carson City, Nevada restaurant in 2011; Seung-Hui Cho, a Christian, Korean American who killed 30 people and wounded 15 at Virginia Tech in 2007 before turning the gun on himself; Jiverly Wong, a Buddhist,…

Trans Talmud: Could a 1,500-Year-Old Book Have Any Relevance to The Struggle for Trans Equality and Liberation?

By Shane Burley

…the constant question of the gender of the androgyne leaves open a kind of non-binary space within the text where we have to keep asking this question of the gender of the androgyne, and it’s never totally resolved. On the other hand, it also allows the rabbi to extend their authority, and they get to debate the question and talk about the androgyne in relation to all of these laws. The effect of the ambiguity of the androgyne’s gender is paradoxi…

In This Week’s LGBT Recap: Are Gay Priests Overdue for a Stonewall Moment?

By Peter Montgomery

…ting to make private Mormon information public, but needing assurances of anonymity, given the potential to be fired from LDS Church employment. That’s when McKnight, serving as a publisher, not the source of internal LDS documents, began to feel an urgency about providing a means whereby disgruntled or disillusioned members could post their work without fear of discovery. European Union: Report on fundamental rights adopted On Tuesday the Europea…

Islam=Peace: What’s in a Slogan?

By Brie Loskota

…n Muslims who believe their faith compels them to do good in the world and non-Muslim Americans who had little knowledge of Islam before September 11, 2001. The gap is intentionally widened by the concerted efforts of a cluster of intensely anti-Muslim and anti-Islam individuals and groups seeking to depict violence done in the name of the religion as the norm rather than a fringe movement. In doing so, this short phrase is openly mocked on Fox Ne…

The Unbearable Lack of Self-Awareness of the Anti-Muslim Sally Kern

By Sarah Posner

…Kern also has hailed anti-union legislation. While Kern worries about the non-existent threat of shari’ah law being imposed on good Christians like herself, she would like to make sure that your kids are taught creationism in public school. Perhaps Kern’s legislative act most lacking in self-awareness: in 2008, she sponsored a bill (which passed the legislature, but was vetoed by Gov. Brad Henry) that would have proscribed “religious viewpoint di…

Fear Not, The IRS Isn’t Colluding With Angry Atheists

By Sarah Posner

…d that the IRS does not at this time have a policy specific to churches of non-enforcement of its anti-electioneering provisions.” Responding to charges that there was an agreement that the IRS would “monitor” churches, FFRF added that it “did not withdraw its suit pursuant to any agreement to ‘monitor’ sermons and homilies for proscribed speech with which FFRF disagrees. As the court documents state, FFRF withdrew the case because it ‘is satisfie…