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“Ex-Gay” Crusader John Smid “Apologizes” to Gays and Lesbians

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…even though Smid claims to be out of the “ex-gay” making business. The new ministry also comes with an apology from Smid for his past actions: I really wanted to help the young men in our program but in some cases the design of our program caused more harm for some of these kids that it did good. I am very sorry for the ways that Refuge further wounded teens that were already in a very delicate place in life. I am grateful for the way that God lov…

Church Uses Facebook for Sacramental Scrutiny at its Peril

By Elizabeth Drescher

…last few years, the Roman Catholic Church continues to struggle with digital ministry practice, particularly where new media intersects the Church’s medieval sacramental structure. In 2011, a new smartphone app aimed to support preparation for and the practice of confession ended up generating more confusion than contrition when a not particularly social design invited people to conclude that absolution was granted by way of the Confession app i…

I’m Dreaming of a White Christ(mas)

By Evan Derkacz

…reverends, became populated with the hashtag #megynkellyxmascarols, reclaiming classics for the talk show host: “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” @FrozenSparrows “Joy to the First World” @scottagunn “O Holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray; cast out dark skin & enter in, be born in us today.” @FatherTim Late night comedians jumped in and amplified the Internet uproar. Megyn Kelly subsequently explained that she was just joking and tha…

Updated with Response: The Black Church is Dead—Long Live the Black Church

By Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

…f black America can be seen in the eye opening and mind boggling cross-racial alliances that have been forged over the last decade or so, between theologically conservative black and white Christians. One only has to follow the trails of highly popular and conservative clergy such as T.D. Jakes, Creflo A. Dollar, Eddie L. Long, and a whole host of other men and women, and they will lead to the churches, offices, and homes of the most theologically…

Is It OK To Use a Cellphone in Church? Pew Surveys the New Etiquette

By Michael Schulson

…experiences in church—which are myriad, because while I may be a Jew, I am also a religion reporter. If you haven’t seen it yourself, trust me: people in the pews are constantly whipping out their phones in order to look up Bible passages, take notes during sermons, and, perhaps, do other things. Bible apps like YouVersion, which claims close to 200 million downloads, are now a common way to find, say, Matthew 7:5 quickly, instead of having to rif…

Eat, Pray, Trash: What the Critics Don’t See

By Ben Brazil

…rms, as a post-divorce quest for self-recovery, inner healing and existential balance; her 108 chapters correspond to 108 beads on an Indian prayer necklace. Travel is a sort of prayer, she more than hints, but it’s prayer of a particular sort—with rich experience replacing an outward focus on a transcendent God. Gilbert thematizes these experiences by country. She luxuriates in the rich food of Italy; tries to still the “monkey-mind” at an Indian…

Is ISIS Islamic? Is it a State?

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…disenfranchised by the Shi’a regimes of Bashir Assad in Damascus and Nouri al Maliki in Baghdad. On the other hand, the psychopaths and believers are often foreigners, including Muslim youth from Britain, the US, and other Western countries, like the cruel executioner who appears in the YouTube videos of the beheadings of foreign journalists and aid workers who, according to some authorities is believed to be a 23-year old former rapper from West…

Sure, There’s No ‘Religious Left’… If You Ignore Non-White Christians and Non-Christians

By Daniel Schultz

…out with varying degrees of sarcasm, Bruenig’s tweet ignored the substantial portion of the religious left that’s non-white, and/or not Christian. https://twitter.com/DanaHoule/status/1258950502089449472 I do have some small sympathy for Bruenig’s argument. After all, I too have said there’s not much of a religious left in the U.S. There really isn’t, if you mean a cohesive national movement advancing a unified policy agenda analogous to the Reli…

“My Scientology Movie” Pokes the Hornet’s Nest

By Gordon Haber

…nce, and his growing impatience with Theroux’s faux-ingenuousness nicely reflected similar frustrations on this viewer’s part. Some of the strongest moments in My Scientology Movie involve the audition process. As the documentary was shot in Los Angeles, they have no problem finding young actors looking for parts. What’s interesting is that the auditions do indeed provide a glimpse into the cynical overlap between show business and Scientology. “T…

Conservative Christian Book on Obama’s Faith

By Bill Berkowitz

…ion is being stripped from the public square, that there is no constitutional wall of separation, that preachers are now forbidden from speaking out on the issues of the day by godless ‘storm troops’ like the ACLU…” In a piece titled “Stephen Mansfield vs. Mikey Weinstein,” published by The Public Record on June 17, Chris Rodda, a Senior Research Director for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), an expert on historical revisionism and…