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Transgender and Christian: Finding Identity

By Jori Lewis

…reassignment surgery (a process many people call “the transition”), so the number of transgender-identified people is likely much higher. The term “transgender” encompasses anyone with a gender identity that is different from his or her birth sex. A transgender person could be someone who just cross-dresses from time to time in private; someone who identifies as gender-queer (that is, neither male nor female); someone who is just taking hormones b…

The Real Context Of The “Taliban Dan” Ad

By Julie Ingersoll

…Basic Life Principles (IBLP) and its affiliated Advance Training Institute International (ATI). He claims to pray for IBLP founder Bill Gothard “every day,” has traveled with Gothard, has spoken at Gothard’s conferences (2009 and 2010 programs are online), and has contributed to “Wisdom Booklets” training materials that include David Barton and his Christian American history. These include The Light and the Glory, a Christian American history text…

French “Burqa Ban”: It’s Not About Religion

By Amina Wadud

…tes, where the idea of secularism is wedded to the first amendment idea of freedom of religious practice. In France, no such complementary relation between secular and religious freedom exists. Laïcité is the kind of secularism that is anti-religion, anti-religious expression, and anti-religious identity. They are the ones that give secularism such a bad name in most parts of the world that still consider religion a part of identity. A really good…

Did The “Taliban Dan” Ad “Backfire?”

By Sarah Posner

…ng the supposedly (but not really) secular arm of Gothard’s institute, the International Association of Character Cities. As I noted there, even Christianity Today, the flagship magazine of the evangelical world, has expressed dismay over the “alarming” nature of Gothard’s teachings on authority, and allegations of physical and emotional abuse in his programs. (For the most comprehensive treatment of the IACC, see Silja J.A. Talvi’s 2006 piece in…

Barakah: Blessings Without Numbers

By Amina Wadud

…really do it for the good of the thing alone? That is where those larger “numbers” would come in. That is what I would consider good for Allah. Still the basic principle is that the good is more powerful than the not so good, so why not go with the winning formula? In 2004 I participated in the international forum on HIV/AIDS and Islam. Well it was one of the worst experiences of my public life as a Muslim but from it came with lots of good, by w…

Gays to Ex-Gay Movement: “Lift My Luggage”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ther they agree with them or not,” said Alan Chambers, President of Exodus International, the group that sponsored the event this year. Called the Day of Truth, the annual April event has been pushed by influential conservative Christian groups as a way to counter the annual Day of Silence, an event promoted by gay rights advocates to highlight threats against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. Perhaps Exodus is beginning to come to…

Something is Rotten in Denmark

By Hussein Rashid

…cessfully mediating conflict. In the US, several of us wrote in defense of free speech and there’s a statement from Muslim Americans supporting that position. The Dutch Muslim community offered to screen a movie produced by the virulent anti-Muslim bigot Geert Wilders who is busy at the moment, having been “charged with five counts of inciting hatred and discrimination dating back to 2007.” (Wilders refused the screening). If the Danes decided to…

MRI Jesus, Bush’s Reading List, Ahmadinejad & the Pope…

By Michael J. Altman

…t the priest was forbidden from revealing the confession to administrators. Pope Benedict denounced the mafia. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wrote a letter thanking the Pope for denouncing the planned Qur’an burnings in Florida. In the wake of recent teen bullying, Christian group Exodus International has decided to pull its support of the “Day of Truth,” an event that encourages school students to “counter the promotion of homosexual beha…

Howling at the Moon

By Amina Wadud

…om zakah. You can give any amount you want at any time you want and to any number of causes, but to have this purification effect it must be under the prescribed terms. In Muslim majority settings there are elaborate offices and government ministries set up to help believers calculate the amount to be given, to collect the amount, and then to distribute it. They are often called bayt al-mal, even if not in an Arabic speaking context. In the diaspo…

Foreclosure, Fraud and Pharaoh

By Daniel Schultz

…ent, $400 million from Marsh & McLennan and $725 million from the American International Group. Last week, he filed suit against GMAC Mortgage, accusing the loan servicer of filing fraudulent affidavits in hundreds of Ohio foreclosures. His office has returned money to investors, pension funds, schools and cities. And he has directed millions to agencies fighting foreclosure. “We see what Washington doesn’t: the houses lying vacant, the eyesore st…