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Why Liberal Religious Arguments Fail

…r their viewpoint based on, for example, the trifling fact that the Bush tax cuts for the rich and corporate tax cuts cannot be correlated to any expanded economic activity or job creation. Conservatives who benefit very directly from the economic status quo have a vested interest (literally) in sticking to their story. When people believe additionally that God has ordained or sanctified the economic status quo, we can totally forget about shaking…

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Can a Pig Heart be Kosher?

…ogy to come to a reasonable conclusion on issues not found in the sacred texts.  A.R. Chao, a former Imam in Texas and graduate of Vanderbilt Divinity School, suggests that “xenotransplantation is acceptable if the patient’s life is in danger and all other medical options have been exhausted. [However, given the novelty of the technology, there has not been a clear ruling issued on it from Muslim jurists.]” But jurisprudential issues are not so si…

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The Perry v. Bachmann Primary at Liberty Unversity

…Pages about whether his clinic used the discredited practice. If I were a betting person, I’d bet this doesn’t have much impact on his wife’s campaign. While LGBT rights advocates and allies are right to be outraged, I doubt it would bring any new opposition to Bachmann, who is already well-known for her anti-gay views and voting record. And her supporters would likely not only support the use of ex-gay therapy, but view her husband as beleaguere…

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The Garden of Eden: A Dull Place? Paradise Lust Author Explains…

…. William Warren wanted to dazzle his readers into supporting North Polar exploration with his 500-page book explaining why the Garden of Eden had once been there. Doubtful, I know. But I feel less impressed than entertained, bemused, and sometimes amazed by the scale of the reasoning that these characters put into these claims—and a little protective too. They had no idea their theories would be made to stand up generations later and testify. Amo…

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Can a Submissive Wife be President? Michele Bachmann says Yes

…e conservative Christian world there is a spectrum of views on how these texts are to be read. Evangelical feminists argue that the Bible actually teaches mutual submission between men and women. But Reconstructionists, some of whom have influenced Bachmann, have suggested that, given the biblical order for families, women probably shouldn’t be voting. I wrote about Reconstructionist biblical patriarchy here. While Christians traditionally hold th…

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Church and State in Mexico: A Political Party Wavers on Women’s Rights

…ring the PAN’s Reign A fire to win defines the PRI ethos. The party held Mexico’s executive office for 71 years until losing the presidency in 2000. Many past PRI presidents viewed the Catholic Church as a political threat and pushed to marginalize it, whereas PAN presidents have openly embraced their Catholic identity—and of course, utilized it politically. When Church leaders wanted to crack down on abortion, they knew they could count on the PA…

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Does Conservative Watchdog Actually “Get Religion”?

…ing positions in LDS institutional life. They don’t make doctrine or policy. Very, very few women in Mormonism actually do. But they speak for an increasing number of everyday Mormons who know that gay people are our relatives. Family. Saints. Us. Are views on homosexuality evolving in Mormonism? You bet, and like so many changes in the history of religion, that change may be coming from the people in the back pew or at the bottom of the hierarchy…

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Retribution v. Reform in American Justice

…e world, the answer is [David Foster Wallace’s novel] Infinite Jest. But I bet you’re asking about books in my field. Among those, I wish I had written The Madonna of 115th Street (by Robert Orsi) or Rebecca’s Revival (by Jon Sensbach). Orsi’s book is classic because it focused on everyday religious experiences of Italian immigrants, a cluster of activities that many outsider observers considered to be “bad religion.” Orsi did, and still does, fin…

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#OccupyWallStreet and the Antichrist

…ion of evangelicals was more moderate than its forebears, less likely to fixate on gay marriage as a wedge issue, and more interested in reaching “common ground” with liberals than wage battle in the culture wars. One of the prime examples of this “new” kind of evangelical was the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, who has since gone on to compare health care reform to King Herod, give the benediction a…

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Talking About Religion Will Not Help Romney

…ormonism again? Romney tried, gamely, over the weekend, using his mission experience in working-class neighborhoods of Paris as a point of experiential empathy with Americans on the down and out. Not the greatest of comparisons, perhaps, but a step in the right direction, say some. Still, just raising the question of religion means that  someone (this time, political consultant Garry South over at the Politico Arena) is going to start bloviating a…

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