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A Journalist in Church, Hiding in Plain Sight

…ness—common refrains offered up with few palliatives. Back then, God as I knew Him was remote and mediated by the Church—a somber relative of this pastor’s appealingly user-friendly and solution-oriented God. As for the Catholic Mass’s plodding readings and Communion queues, they were an occasion for daydreaming and sinful thoughts—thoughts I agonized in vain to squelch. Which is why I decided, at the age of 16, that I no longer believed unreserve…

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The Same Toxic Christian Right Theology Supports Both the Online Bullying I Experienced and the Cruel Anti-Trans Policy in TX — And it’s Not Remotely Fringe

…ion of Jesus and John Wayne, followed by, “I honestly thought most people knew about this Chris[sic.] was the dude who was running the Empty the Pews apostate movement and was very radical in promoting the idea that spreading the gospel was like a hate crime. Big, big fan of J&JW.”* Posting blown up pictures perceived as unflattering, zoomed in on the face, is a common tactic among alt-right trolls, who use it to target both Jews (and those percei…

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Why We Should Ban Oppressive Speech Acts

…roducing white supremacist ideology by extolling it publicly; these aren’t new ideas! They undergird the history of Europe and the United States. So since the bell has been rung, and rung and rung, we can’t pretend to not have ever heard it.” This rebuttal, however, misses the difference between citationality—the ability to cite and discuss a given discourse without restating or reasserting its claims—and each new (oppressive) speech act. I’m not…

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Catholic Bishops Fund Anti-Choice ‘Clinics’ Set to Receive Trump Title X Funding

…million was diverted from the U.S. Agency for International Development to promote the NFP agenda of the Family of the America Foundation. More recently, Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley, chair of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities, voiced support for federal measures that would divert funding from Planned Parenthood to organizations like Obria, “so women can obtain their health care from providers that do not promote abortion.” Of course…

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Putin’s Violent Holy War Rhetoric Made it to the Christian Right Fringe — And There’s Reason to Believe it’ll Go Mainstream

…sident of Russia, launcher of invasions of Ukraine, Georgia, and Chechnya, user of assassination to deal with defectors, murderer of opponents, likely orchestrator of domestic terrorist attacks in Russia to justify warfare, champion of the Russian Empire directly in opposition to America: it seems strange that he would find American champions on the Christian Right. But they love him because he loves violence. He loves the same violence they crave…

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Don’t Tread on our Gas Stoves: The Latest Right-Wing Cause May Be Silly But the Strategy is the Point

…tove from my cold dead hands.” Others, like influential right-wing Twitter-user “Catturd,” are willing to endanger themselves explicitly: “Dear Liberals…I turned on all my gas stove eyes today and let them burn for no reason—and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it but cry.” Ron DeSantis is willing to imply defending gas stoves with weapons by lifting a sign of a modified Gadsen “Don’t tread on me” flag featuring a gas stove rather than…

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Via Jokes, ChatGPT Chooses Which Religious Traditions and Figures Deserve Respect — And Therefore What Counts as ‘Religion’

…ah, or Muhammad. With regard to these latter examples, ChatGPT informs the user that it could hurt someone’s religious sensibilities by telling such a joke. But it does not say this with regard to Krishna. At first it seemed to me that there is an ontological difference between Krishna, Muhammad, and Jesus in that the latter two are—or are at least widely understood to be—historical individuals. So to test this hypothesis, I went to ChatGPT and I…

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Syria Receives Sudanese Weapons on Ukrainian Aircraft via Qatar and Turkey

…missile’s performance. “The kills are proof that the FN-6 is reliable and user-friendly, because rebel fighters are generally not well trained in operating missile systems,” the newspaper, Global Times, quoted a Chinese aviation analyst as saying. The successful attacks on Syria’s helicopters by Chinese missiles brought “publicity” that “will raise the image of Chinese defense products on the international arms trade market,” the newspaper wrote….

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A Tale of Religious Tolerance… On Reddit

Last week, the aptly-titled Reddit user “european_douchebag” posted a candid photo on the online community site. The image, of a young Sikh woman playing with her phone while waiting in line, included the caption “i’m not sure what to conclude from this.” No, “european_douchebag” wasn’t questioning which game the woman was playing on her phone, he was referencing the abundance of facial hair on the young woman’s face—a nod towards her Sikh belief…

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What Robot Theology Can Tell Us About Ourselves

…nts. Download a certain program, and the robot will begin to play soothing New Age music as it stretches toward the ceiling and then lowers itself, gradually but with surprising grace, into a perfect downward dog. D.A.V.I.D. may be cute, and robotic yoga may be goofy, but the intentions of SES and Dr. Kevin Staley, an associate professor of theology and the robot’s handler, could not be more serious. Through those 23 inches of silicon and plastic,…

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