Search for "breaking newstoday cleantalkorg2.ru bbc news Read Breaking News Today news today Politics Stock Market breaking newstoday"

Vatican Considers ‘Disordered’ Language; HBO Doc on LGBT Persecution in Russia; Nigerian Bishop Shifts on Anti-Gay Law; Arson at ‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…who are gay. But this case is about a young man who is afraid to return to Russia because Russia persecutes people who are gay.” Vatican: Family Synod Considers ‘Disordered’ Language, Nigerian Bishop Sends Mixed Signals The two-week Bishops’ Synod on the Family got started this week. New Ways Ministry’s Frank DeBernardo reports that at a Tuesday press briefing, Father Thomas Rosica “told reporters that bishops had discussed language about sexualit…

Reza Aslan’s Viral Fox News Interview Reveals More Than Just Christian Privilege

By Jeffrey Scholes

…ht. If an overwhelming majority of viewers side with Aslan over Green/Fox News, then what did “we” win? In one sense, both Aslan and Fox News won: Zealot has shot up to the top of the Amazon Best Sellers list, and Aslan is reveling in his good fortune, while many who’d never heard of Lauren Green are likely to tune in (or, more accurately, log on) to cheer the next time she scolds a non-Christian, or to feel smug satisfaction the next time she “e…

The Economy is Sacred, Stupid

By Gary Laderman

…d by voting citizens who idolize financial success and believe that a free market and the pursuit of individual wealth is ordained by a God who favors the rich over the poor, free market over social justice, capital investment over government services. But these religious values are not simply tied to such trite religious notions as “belief” or “worship.” No, the religious cult that is taking over local politics and church pews, state houses and…

6 Overlooked Takeaways From a Reviewer of Controversial Texas Textbooks

By David R. Brockman

…was titled “Texas textbooks tout Christian heritage,” while the Christian News Network‘s read: “Texas Textbooks Under Fire for Suggesting Moses Influenced Founding Fathers.” The media focused on the Culture Wars aspects of the controversy, which isn’t surprising. Back in 2010, in what RD’s Lauri Lebo aptly called the “Texas Textbook Massacre,” a Christian Right bloc on the SBOE pushed through curriculum standards promoting Christian Americanism,…

Glenn Beck’s Fox Show Gets Canned

By Lauri Lebo

…e of the most talented and creative executives in the business. Over the past four years I have consistently valued his input and advice and that will not stop as we work with him in his new role.” “Glenn Beck” is consistently the third highest rated program on cable news. For the 27 months that “Glenn Beck” has aired on Fox News, the program has averaged more than 2.2 million total viewers and 563,000 viewers 25-54 years old, numbers normally ass…

What’s Wrong with the Controversial Businessweek “Mormon Money” Cover?

By Joanna Brooks

…this week and as was hinted at in the Church’s own statement and a Deseret News editorial today—by the need to create an endowment capable of sustaining the global physical infrastructure of Mormonism (temples, churches, universities) even as the bulk of the Church’s population shifts to the global south and tithing revenues flatline or even drop. This is no simple Creflo Dollar morality tale. This is story about history and global patterns of we…

The Next Islamists: The Wide Green Smudge That’s Changing Our World

By Haroon Moghul

…rthodox” Muslim practices. The pietism fed into and was fueled by Islamist politics, but ultimately the politics expanded because it claimed to defend the piety. I believe the convergence of three realities has produced the Next Islamism, which, as Nasr and Simpfendorfer point out, we ignore to our own detriment: First, pietism successfully revived religious practice, until it became everyday habit. Second, political Islam failed to offer function…

Global LGBT Recap: Mandela and Equality; Elton John Defies Russian Ban; Fake-Healing of AIDS

By Peter Montgomery

…because people who quit treatment may become resistant to the drugs.” More News from Russia The rise of anti-gay violence in the wake of the enactment of Russia’s anti-free speech law against “gay propaganda” has been deeply troubling, but that hasn’t prevented American religious conservatives from backing the law. More bad news came on Monday, December 9, with the announcement that President Vladimir Putin was shutting down the state-owned news…

No, the Democratic Party Is (Still) Not the Party of God

By Daniel José Camacho

…ifts under their own feet. Some might call these concerns a case of purity politics. But there are multiple politics of purity just as there are multiple pragmatisms. At some point in U.S. history, the majority of liberal Christians made peace with the militarism and neoliberalism that have come to characterize the Democratic Party. Somewhere along the way, no amount of tortures, incarcerations, and deportations could stop strategic support. With…

“I Had No Intention to Write Atheistically”: Darwin, God, and the 2500-Year History of the Debate

By Edward J. Larson

…such coinage here. Tell me, old man, would you honestly like to learn the truth, the real truth, about the gods? Strepsiades: By Zeus, I sure would, The real truth. […]Sokrates: [Physical entities, like clouds,] are the only gods there are. The rest are but figments. Strepsiades: Holy name of Earth! Olympian Zeus is a figment? Sokrates: Zeus? What Zeus? Nonsense. There is no Zeus. Strepsiades: No Zeus? Then who makes it rain? Answer me that. Sokra…