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More Thoughts on Media Coverage of Liberal Religion

By Sarah Posner

…rientation, gender identity, disability or geography. We support religious freedom. Religious freedom means that each individual has the right to exercise their own beliefs and the right not to have others’ beliefs forced upon them. We believe no employer has the right to deny the women who work for them basic health care. Individuals must have the right to accept or reject the principles of their own faith without legal restrictions. No single…

A Debate Rages in India Over Conversion, Secularism, and “Spiritual Violence”

By Murali Balaji

…it is having on the Indian social fabric. It’s a conversation Uganda and a number of African nations have not had—which is having devastating consequences for the their LGBT communities. As scholar and social activist Jim Perkinson has reminded us, countries such as India are only a microcosm of the worldwide impact of missionary activity. “The effect on native people of predatory proselytization is typically cultural alienation, a growing sense o…

Are Conservative Churches Really Winning by Being More Orthodox?

By Daniel Schultz

…ed less-than-orthodox. And even relatively conservative Catholics like the newly-minted Pope Francis would agree that the “Christian moral code” involves a commitment to peace and social justice, which Eberstadt seems to ignore in favor of questions of sexual morality. (To be fair, Simon didn’t ask her about such issues.) But the heart of Eberstadt’s argument is demographics, and just about every piece of social research released in the few years…

Life Imitates Satire Imitates Life: Rep. King Revives Manchurian Candidate

By The Editors

This week Rep. Peter King of New York alleged that “over 80 percent of the mosques in this country are controlled by radical Imams,” based on a remark made 12 years ago by neoconservative-friendly American Muslim leader, Shaykh Hisham Kabbani. In honor of this magic number and the hearings King will hold next month in order to address the “creeping threat of Sharia law,” RD presents the first edition of Life Imitates Satire Imitates Life. In th…

Sovereign Grace Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Just Got More Complicated

By T.F. Charlton

…On May 14, a second amendment was filed to the suit: [The suit] adds three new plaintiffs, making a total of 11. Five plaintiffs are now using their real names, and the rest are pseudonyms. It accuses church leaders of conspiracy, negligence, misrepresentation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. On May 17, however, Maryland Circuit Court Judge Sharon V. Burrell dismissed most of the suit on the grounds of statute of limitations: unde…

Yet Another Survey Shows ‘Nones’ Growth at Record Levels

By Elizabeth Drescher

…spirituality, meaning-making, and self-realization in my Nones Beyond the Numbers narrative survey.* *The survey results will contribute to three intertwined research projects I am currently conducting on the meaning-making practices of Nones. The first, sponsored in part through the Social Science Research Council’s “New Directions in the Study of Prayer” initiative, will explore the plurality of Nones who say they regularly engage in prayer….

Welcome to the Shari’ah Conspiracy Theory Industry

By Sarah Posner

…radical Islam, also runs Campus Watch, which, along with David Horowitz’s “Freedom Center” and related groups, claim to monitor the supposedly anti-American sympathies of academics who don’t share their views. (Horowitz was also the organizer of “Islamofascism Awareness Week” events on college campuses, which were not about “freedom” but rather portraying those who don’t share Horowitz’s worldview as un-American.) Other players in this orbit inclu…

Not a ‘Weenie-A** Lodge’: James Ray Trial Begins

By Johnny P. Flynn

…n his opening statements that all the participants signed waivers and were free to leave at any time. He then suggested that toxic chemicals in the wood used to heat the rocks, or rat poison which was stored in the same location as the tarps used to cover the lodge, might be responsible for the deaths and illness of the people inside. Prosecutor Polk noted that the three who died suffered from heat related illnesses and organ failure due both to t…

Are You There God? It’s Us, Googling

By Michael Schulson

…en, economist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz crunches Google search data for the New York Times and comes up with some fun statistics about, say, the anxieties of pregnant women (“can pregnant women eat shrimp?” is a popular search query in the US) or the ratio of heart-related to penis-related searches (67:100 for those keeping score). This Sunday, Stephens-Davidowitz turned his attention to God. Some of the patterns he documents are predictable, such…

Can the Catholic Church Survive Trump?

By Patricia Miller

…zations like the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Family Defense Council. Working in tandem with the highest profile culture warriors like Baltimore’s Archbishop Lori and New York’s Cardinal Dolan, they helped steer the more confrontational posture of the U.S. bishops’ conference. Byrnes argues that it’s foolish for any religious institution to tie itself too clearly to any political party for the simple r…