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Convergence of Far-Right, Anti-Democratic Factions in the Northwest Could Provide a Model for the Rest of the Nation

By Frederick Clarkson and Cloee Cooper

…intense public scrutiny. The erasure included the names of the chairs and members of the prayer caucuses.) Although CPCF is not as well known as Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, it’s led by former eight-term member of Congress, Randy Forbes (R-VA) and boasts, as Congressional Advisors, 22 sitting U.S. Senators and Members of Congress. Shea may be best known for his involvement in planning and helping coordinate the dramatic 20…

Can You Make a Comedy About UFO Cult Mass Suicide?

By Joseph Laycock

…hat anyone without at least five dollars could be defined as a vagrant. So members always carried five dollars and money for a phone call. Benjamin Zeller, author of Heaven’s Gate: America’s UFO Religion, has also noted that Heaven’s Gate members engaged in a lot of self-deprecating humor because they were aware that mainstream society perceived them as crazy. This research led Jones to conclude that a comedy about Heaven’s Gate might not be as in…

Thoroughly Modern Mormons

By Joanna Brooks

…t has costs, very human ones, as Mormons concerned with the status of LGBT members, or women, or with growing rates of disaffiliation among young people will tell you. Recent surveys of Church members have linked rising rates of youth disaffiliation to increased internet access and information about thorny historical issues—like the polygamy of Joseph Smith, or the historical facticity of LDS scripture. Google is ending the informational isolation…

New Film Chronicles Unlikely Friendship in Battle Over God and Guns

By Sarah Posner

…nd demonstrating how it contradicts the Christian life and message.” The Armor of Light opens in theaters in 20 cities on Friday. Tickets are free for NRA members….

6 Overlooked Takeaways From a Reviewer of Controversial Texas Textbooks

By David R. Brockman

…icial review, the real power in the adoption process lies with the elected members of the SBOE. “The real movers and shakers in content,” as Hindu American Foundation spokesperson Murali Balaji notes, are “the real movers and shakers in content,” are the bloc of right-wing members, “who have made remarks questioning climate change, urging publishers to endorse ‘free market’ economics, and pushing for a Christianization of textbooks.” One way they…

Yes, It Can Be Hard to Be an Atheist in America; Now We Have the Data

By Chrissy Stroop

…, “When I came out as an atheist, I experienced discrimination from family members,” adding that he “lost friends—even ones who weren’t particularly religious.” Gill, herself a transgender lesbian, noted in our phone conversation that the Secular Survey’s questions about identity concealment were indeed meant to get at “a coming out experience,” though the survey deliberately did not use that language in order to avoid possible confusion. Asked wh…

Of God, But Not God: A Methodist Minister Speaks About Church’s Refusal to Open Its Doors to LGBT

By Joel Pitney

…ere not companionship-based. They were economic arrangements. Okay, that’s number 1. Number 2, let’s say that your wife didn’t provide you with a male offspring. A man could take another wife and another wife and another wife until one of them did. This is the “sanctity of marriage” that is being protected. Are you kidding me? Wow. Okay, so that’s Old Testament. Then along comes Jesus. Well for those of us who follow Jesus, I always like to point…

Are School Districts Getting the Message on Government-Sponsored Prayer?

By Lauri Lebo

…could be forced to pay $100,000 to $800,000 when it inevitably lost. Board members voted 6-0 last week to immediately end the Bible class, drawing boos from a crowd of students, parents and community members who had shown up to speak in support of the program. In the Chattanooga suburb of Hamilton County, the Times Free Press reports: After receiving a letter of complaint from the Freedom from Religion Foundation this week on behalf of students fr…

Argue-by-Number: A Suggestion for the Church

By Mark D. Jordan

…n our side. Number 1 could be “God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” Number 2: “God doesn’t discriminate.” Number 3: “Sex is only for procreation.” And so on. We could get clever, of course, and assign separate groups of numbers to arguments pro and con or to thematic clusters. I can even imagine some seminary librarian proposing a sort of Dewey Decimal System to organize the arguments. This would allow long series of arguments to be cited b…

The Sacred and the Dead: Operator, Can You Help Me?

By Maren Haynes

…connection, once burning with possibility and joy, began to cool, as cell phone calls dwindled and numbers eventually changed or were disconnected. As our shared realities drifted apart in their likeness, like Pigpen, I also turned to technologies that promised connection to try to tamp down the yearning and temper that sense of loss. Where Pigpen called up the trusty telephone operator, I did my pining alone, with only the camaraderie of a searc…