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Three Cheers for Mormon Support of Same-Sex Legislation? Not So Fast

By Chrissy Stroop

…r their rights (to very little fanfare and often to dismissal or apathy at best), this provision bothers me deeply. In any case, RFMA is very much not the Equality Act, a bill that would provide sweeping non-discrimination protections for queer Americans that has languished in Congress for years. It’s a defensive piece of legislation, a protection of the status quo rather than a step forward. If America were truly a functional democracy, we could…

The Bible Is Not a Diet Plan

By Rob Goodman

…“boring!” Or consider the words of another megapastor, Joel Osteen, in his bestselling Your Best Life Now: “If you are struggling financially, say something such as, ‘Father, I thank You that You’re causing me to be at the right place at the right time. You are bringing wonderful financial opportunities my way.’ If you will live with an attitude of faith, then, like the saints of old, before long God’s favor is going to show up, and that situation…

Peter Beinart’s Controversial The Crisis of Zionism: Right Diagnosis, Wrong Treatment

By Shaul Magid

…o argue that the settlements are undermining Israeli democracy and eating away at the moral core of Israel’s founding ideology is hardly a radical claim. In Israel, it isn’t even a “leftist” claim. To state that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu isn’t really interested in ending the occupation is not a bombshell. It is obvious. Until the final chapter and the conclusion, The Crisis of Zionism is a well-written, passionately argued exposition of th…

Will Mindfulness Change the World? Daniel Goleman Isn’t Sure

By Jay Michaelson

…s his goal. That alone is good in itself. I don’t look to mindfulness as a way to change the way people think about the planet. You know, I once wrote a book called Ecological Intelligence which argued that if the environmental effects of what we do and buy were easily accessed at decision points, that that would be enough. But I think that’s wrong. I think that’s necessary but not sufficient. I think we need a different motivational system on to…

“Ex-Gay” Common Ground More of a Killing Ground

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…nd once you deny sin’s power, you can live a free life. If you can’t pray away the gay, you can at least pray away the urge to act on your gayness – because being gay is a SIN! Gilgoff, to his credit, asks an actual gay person about all this claptrap – but disappointingly, he asks a secular gay person, Joe Solmonese – the president of the Human Rights Campaign, who says it’s a step in the right direction: “And I’m going to respect people’s religio…

Christian Passover, Yes or No?: A Response to Rabbi Moffic

By David Greenspoon

…under any motive is problematic, even if it is a well-intentioned one. The best way to address the desire of faithful Christians to connect with the Jewish roots of Jesus is not facilitating a Christian seder. Far better would be first to teach the reality of Passover observances in the Land of Israel during the First Century. Then the educational experience is extended by inviting Christians as guests to a Jewish seder, to give witness to the fac…

At This Week’s Meeting, Will SBC Vote For Voddie Baucham, The Homeschooling ‘Star’ Who Embraces the Right Wing Theology at the Heart of the Abuse Scandal?

By R.L. Stollar

…ham’s teachings through their catalog, explains that, “There’s no delicate way to say it. Voddie Baucham directly preaches emotional incest as the correct form of relationship between father and daughter.” Emotional incest, also known as covert incest, occurs when parents seek emotional support from their children that they should be seeking from adult relationships. One sees Baucham’s promotion of emotional incest clearest when he says that adult…

Dinos and Demons and Swedes, Oh My! It May Be Cartoonish, but Evangelical Radicalism Isn’t Just a Sideshow

By Chrissy Stroop

…voters who voted for Trump as a rough approximation—will assent to, or at best excuse, the claims. In authoritarian communities like the white evangelical one I grew up in, certain sacrosanct “Truths” become markers of in-group identity. Members of these communities build up infrastructure—in this case Christian publishing houses, bookstores, alternative cultural products, Christian schools and curricula, etc.—in order to generate pseudo-intellec…

Marriage Equality: No More (Word) Games

By William Myatt

…hat went into Smith’s analysis. Following the example of some of history’s best thinkers, he took an issue that most people considered straightforward, complicated it, and then redirected the discussion. Ultimately, though, I found his deconstruction unconvincing. Let me explain… Dr. Smith’s article begins with the observation that “inequality is ubiquitous.” He points to the fact that we readily make accommodations for some members of society—the…

A Nazi, a Jewish Prisoner, and a “Magic” Bible, Or, Christian Romance Fiction Gone Very, Very Wrong

By Julia Seymour

…culled from the countryside to see who would please the king. She made the best of a bad situation and, in so doing, saved her people. For Such a Time is not the same thing. It is “supersessionism porn,” wherein the ultimate happily-ever-after for a Jew would certainly be to become a Christian. Breslin and her publisher, Bethany House, have received criticism for the book on the grounds that it violates consent at best and allows for a kind of tru…