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Conservative Hardliners at Synod Prompt Question: “What Are We Doing Here?”

By Patricia Miller

…. What are the bishops doing there indeed? As Ross Douthat observed in the New York Times, there is only one likely outcome to this synod. It’s unlikely, given his preference for consensus, that Francis will override the bishops and go “full Kasper,” issuing an edict giving divorced and remarried Catholics a path to communion. But it’s equally unlikely that given all the effort put into the two-year-long, two-part synod process, he won’t do anythi…

How Religion Shapes (or Doesn’t) Our Views on Public Issues

By Daniel Schultz

…eation care,” nobody cares about “the least of these” in the desert. Not many, anyway. What does work? Not much, it would seem. At least not when it comes to the subjects Pew chose to poll. But go back and take a look at the list of voter priorities: 90% say the economy is a “very important” topic. 88% jobs, 78% health care. Get the hint? And that’s with a forced-choice list. If you asked respondents to come up with their own list, it might be eve…

Are You Rapture Ready?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…like Detroit, Little Rock, Omaha, and Kansas City announcing the second coming. The cheesy billboards remind me of signs teasing a television series or the opening of a Broadway show. Jesus is about to make his big entrance only his final number will feature the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Tom Evans, spokesman for Family Radio said their math for setting the return date came from a verse in Luke 17: “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall i…

The Religious Case Against Religious Discrimination in Cakeshop Case

By Patrick Hornbeck

…d religious observers” have supported the rights of same-sex couples, affirming that “[a]ny suggestion that ‘religion’ or ‘people of faith’ as a whole reject LGBT equality is false and, frankly, insulting to millions of Americans of faith.” A third brief authored by religious civil rights advocates, including a number of Muslim organizations, expresses concern that a decision in Phillips’s favor might particularly jeopardize the rights of religiou…

Dispatches From the Rhodian Shore: A (Tough) Love Letter to Religious Studies

By Todd LeVasseur

…g to data points like those above. Will the humanities have a place at the new academic table on a planet going through biome shifts? And will religious studies and its methods and theories about religious and non-religious/secular actors and communities the world over—all of whom will be adapting to climate change—have a seat? I think here of the adaptive cycle of resilience and how the academy, similar to fossil-fuel driven civilization as a who…

My Womb for His Purposes: The Perils of Unassisted Childbirth in the Quiverfull Movement

By Kathryn Joyce

…full moms staking out their territory of natural pregnancy in the odd company of feminist doulas and naturopaths, opposed as they are to high rates of hospital C-sections. The Quiverfull Fringe: Caesarean-Sections Deliver Babies unto Caesar—and Through Him, Satan Although unassisted childbirth is not at all limited to Quiverfull believers, the practice has certainly been taken up by the community, where the refrain to surrender oneself to God, to…

Is Obama the Antichrist? Why Armageddon Stands Between the President and the Evangelical Vote

By Matthew Avery Sutton

…d’s judgment for the Clinton years. So what does this mean for the Obama administration? Nothing very promising. Despite the president’s desire to find common ground with evangelicals, he is unlikely to be able to penetrate the apocalyptic fears that have characterized the evangelical movement since the Great Depression. Obama is caught in a classic catch-22. The Antichrist, the Bible explains, is going to masquerade as an angel of light. This mea…

Global Anti-Gay Forces Plot Against ‘Satanic’ Equality Movement

By Peter Montgomery

…ls who were gay. Maldives: President’s Office Threatens Asylum Seekers The Minivan News reports,“ Maldivians seeking asylum abroad on grounds of religion or sexuality can be assured of prosecution should they return, says the President’s Office.” The spokesperson’s comments reportedly were in response to a story from New Zealand about a Maldivian asylum seeker in New Zealand who had become an award-winning drag queen in Wellington. Abraham Naim to…

Hold Your Applause: Potential Changes to Roles of Catholic Women and LGBTQ+ People May Just Be Vatican Breadcrumbing

By Mary E. Hunt

…s are simply closed by bishops, often related to bankruptcy proceedings to minimize payments to settle abuse cases. Moreover, while the SBC discriminates against women pastors, Roman Catholic women priests of various stripes are excommunicated upon ordination, so that’s that. Meanwhile, the Catholics who remain keep mucking their way in what’s called a “synodal process,” a kind of worldwide, general conversation about church topics, including the…

Contrary to Claims of Anti-Trans Muslims, LGBTQ+ Acceptance is Widespread in the History of Islam

By Ali Olomi

…y based on how they presented. Tolerance of gender ambiguity and non-conformity in Islamic cultures went hand-in-hand with broader acceptance of homoeroticism. Texts like Ali ibn Nasir al-Katib’s Jawami al-Ladhdha, Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani’s Kitab al-Aghani, and the Tunisian, Ahmad al-Tifashi’s Nuz’ha al-‘Albab attest to the widespread acceptance of same-sex desire as natural. Homoeroticism is a common element in much of Persian and Arabic poetry…