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World Congress of Families Blessed By Georgian Orthodox Patriarch and George W. Bush; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…onference got under way, an act of defiance given that the denomination’s Book of Discpline states that the “practice of homosexuality” is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” From CNN’s report: In a public letter posted online, 111 pastors, deacons, elders and candidates for ministry said church rules require “that we not bring our full selves to ministry, that we hide from view our sexual orientations and gender identities.” “While some of us…

What To Do When Fred Phelps Arrives in Your Neighborhood

By Susan Henking

…ow and then—perhaps especially when once distant issues arrive at our own doorsteps. This month, mine is Fred Phelps. I am not ambivalent about Fred Phelps. His views are (to use his favorite language) an abomination, and his actions abhorrent. This time, though, his circus may be coming to my own region. A local soldier, from Cohocton, New York, Army Sergeant Devin Snyder, was killed in Afghanistan on June 4, 2011. Her body arrived at Rochester N…

Violent, Genocidal Anti-Palestinian Rhetoric Moving to US?

By David Sheen

…ister Netanyahu’s governing coalition – were especially heinous. In a Facebook post published a month ago, Ayelet Shaked advocated for the killing of “the entire Palestinian people… including its elderly and its women… otherwise, more little snakes will be raised.” This week Israel’s most popular online news source, Ynetnews, published an op-ed by a rabbi citing Biblical passages as a rationale for extending the bloodshed in Gaza. The statements o…

Lifestyles of the Rich and Pious

By Patricia Miller

…ps who haven’t gotten the memo from Pope Francis about a “church which is poor and for the poor.” CNN reports that “10 of the 34 active archbishops in the United States live in buildings worth more than $1 million.” The median home value in the U.S. is $174,200. Not surprisingly, that list includes some of the nation’s most outspoken conservative bishops—and allies of the Republican Party—who seem to take the whole “prince of the church” thing mor…

Racist Remarks by popular BYU Religion Professor Spark Controversy

By Joanna Brooks

…d the Washington Post that the LDS Church’s historic prohibition on priesthood ordination for men of African descent was a “blessing” to blacks because they were not “ready” for priesthood authority. “God has always been discriminatory” when it comes to whom he grants the authority of the priesthood, says Bott… Bott compares blacks with a young child prematurely asking for the keys to her father’s car, and explains that similarly until 1978, the L…

Gambian Leaders Portray Anti-Gay Law as Defense of Islam, Ugandan Politicians as ‘Christmas Gift’; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ion and fled to the United States, noted that the current wave of arrests took place just before Jammeh made a state visit to the Persian Gulf state of Qatar. While there, he signed a cooperation agreement with Qatar’s leader, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. Camara said that she spoke with sources who accompanied Jammeh on the visit, and that they told her he was using this issue to make the case for Qatari support. “This is one point he use…

Why Faith Needs Redemptive Struggle to Be Meaningful

By Liz Theoharis

…mber 2013. It has been a fruitful partnership in all respects. In his new book, Rev. Barber reminds us of the importance of education and history in the long struggle for justice and righteousness. Referring to how those in power kept the poor divided in history, he speaks about how both enslaved persons and poor whites were denied literacy before the Civil War. He implores all of us to see the connections among our struggles and to come together…

Where Polls and Surveys Fall Short: A Conversation with Robert Wuthnow on “Inventing American Religion”

By Andrew Aghapour

…Iowa Republicans thinks should be illegal. (Perhaps because those Iowans took notice of this poll, the results of which seem to indicate that half of American Muslims support the imposition of sharia law, and nearly one-fifth justify violence as a means to this end.) Inventing American Religion: Polls, Surveys, and the Tenuous Quest for a Nation’s Faith Robert Wuthnow Oxford University Press (October 1, 2015) Polls can produce inconsistent, and s…

Why Bill Maher Gets a “C” in My Introduction to Religion Class…

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…r sort-of-atheists. (I’m talking the nerdy academic’s version of “fantasy football” here.) And I give them the assignment I always give to my eighteen-year-old students: come up with your own definition of religion, see if you can put it in a sentence, and then give some paragraphs of support to back it up. The assignment has no singular answer, of course; I’m looking for their ability to think coherently and offer support for their ideas. This is…

Hajj Journal: Door Number 89: The Door with No Name

By Amina Wadud

…e here early enough to make what is known as hajj tamattu’. That means as soon as we can, we follow through in irham to the Kaaba and make umrah. There’s the ihram, then we do tawaf around the Kaaba, sa’iy between Safa and Marwa, clip the hair, and we are done. We get to leave ihram until we take it up again for hajj proper, which will be about a week from now. Mr. Mansour then gave us some logistics about finding our way back to the hotel. Find a…