Search for "VIPREG2024 how to use 1xbet free bet promo code Costa Rica"

Supreme Court to Hear Hobby Lobby, Conestoga Cases

By Sarah Posner

…s, the plaintiffs have argued that the separation of the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses by a semicolon requires that the two clauses be interpreted, for these purposes, identically. (Filmmaker Drew Emery calls the upcoming Supreme Court case “the world’s most closely watched semicolonoscopy.”) In Conestoga, though, the Third Circuit rejected those arguments. “We are not persuaded that the use of a semi-colon means that each clause of the Fi…

The Forgotten Struggle Over Gender and Bigotry in Christianity

By Stephen J. Patterson

…s era. Then, in the 1960s, white churches began to “open their doors” to African Americans and—surprise—most blacks said “thanks, but no thanks.” This wasn’t major league baseball, after all. Most African Americans preferred to worship in the churches their ancestors had built of necessity—theirs, now, by choice—rather than join churches that had shunned them for more than a century. The story of race and religion in America is pocked with indigni…

Restoring Dignity: The Employee Free Choice Act

By Peter Laarman

…t played the same role in maintaining nearly 30 years of Republican hegemony that the labor movement once played in maintaining Democratic hegemony. The religious right is now in some considerable disarray, though by no means disabled. What better time, and what better way, for religious progressives to help spur a big turn in our politics than to lend some help right now in restoring the central role of a progressive labor movement in advancing s…

‘Atheizing’ the Dead, Religious Doughnuts, & Tax-Free Witching

By Michael J. Altman

…s. Calvin College canceled a show by music group The New Pornographers because some people didn’t get the irony. The UK has banned an ice cream ad because some people might find its representation of a pregnant nun offensive. And a discotheque in Spain named “Mecca” has decided to change its name because the owners realized it was a bad idea to name a nightclub after the holy city. Hordes of dirty tourists may be ruining the the Sistine Chapel’s p…

“Freedom” vs. “Liberty”: Why Religious Conservatives Have Begun to Favor One Over the Other

By Stephanie Russell-Kraft

…cy at Liberty University in 2015. But unlike the Gipper, who spoke only of freedom, Cruz used the word liberty thirteen times. The shift back to liberty has also been championed by the Tea Party and popular libertarians like Ron Paul, who launched his Campaign for Liberty and affiliated student group Young Americans for Liberty during the 2008 presidential campaign. BuzzFeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith picked up on this shift 2014 when he made the c…

New Mormon Anti-Gay Policy Sparks Mass Exodus From Church; Christian AID Workers in Africa Refuse to Help Gay Refugees; Ukraine Rejects, Then Accepts EU-Required Gay Rights Law; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ical Fellowship of Honduras asked the Congress to reject any initiative to promote marriage between same-sex couples… The Evangelical Fellowship rejects the proposal that emerges from the Lesbian and Gay Community… Pastors declared that they were not acting according to a whim or with fundamentalist mentality, but based on the Scriptures. The Bible lays down the principles of how to manage sexuality, which is a responsibility that human beings hav…

Rebuilding the Wall of Separation: A Progressive Discussion on Church & State

By Bruce Ledewitz

…imited scope, consider the ‘no economics’ test that we have informally because of free speech. That is, the government may not bar socialists from running for office. Yet, the government endorses capitalism and the voters may, and do, take economic views of candidates into account in voting. So it is with religion. In terms of policy, the question is why do I personally favor prayer at presidential Inaugurations? The answer is that I would like to…

Godly Game or Godless Satire? Countering Biblical Ignorance with Heretical Humor

By Betsy Shirley

…ing to us. Or when someone skips the middle books of the Old Testament because they’re long and boring…” Here pauses. “Granted, Numbers is like…” “I like Numbers, but anyway…” mumbles Caleb. “The real impetus for the game,” Thomas resumes, “is to get people to engage in Scripture and read stories they’ve never read before. When a concubine is cut up into twelve pieces, that imagery is really offensive. But a lot of people didn’t even know that sto…

Patriotism and Piety—Not For Conservatives Only

By Ira Chernus

…t conservatives love, but they’ve redefined the in-group to include all Americans. Though they use the language of religion to help make this point, Democratic strategists don’t insist (as Haidt does) that religion is nothing but group bonding. Rather, they link group loyalty with patriotism. That word has made many on the left shudder ever since the 1960s, when they saw the horrors to which it can lead. But Gandhi and MLK were as intensely patri…

Of Personhood and the Pill: What’s at Stake?

By Atlee Parks Breland

…n has more embryos than can be transferred, doctors pick the two best, and freeze the remaining embryos for later use. However, the sad fact is that about half of the embryos which are cryopreserved won’t even survive the freezing and thawing process. We take healthy embryos and subject them to a process which offers no direct medical benefit to them, knowing that 50% of them will die in the process. Just imagine the parallel to healthy newborns:…