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Reporting from Paris During COP21: A Haunted Sabbath

By Donna Schaper

This past Sunday—day four of COP21—was a day off for the summit although no one believed that any of the principals were really resting. What we hoped is that they were conferring, negotiating, reading, thinking, acting outside of the spotlight, which is now on them. The best reporting concurred. Amy Goodman on Democracy Now reported on the Nicaraguan minister explaining why they weren’t publicizing or offering their national carbon reduction goa…

Christians Must Confront the Lies at the Heart of Whiteness

By Rachel C. Schneider

On Wednesday, January 6, a day now infamous for many Americans, I was pulled from my daily work tasks by a colleague’s text urging me to turn on the television and stop all work. We all know what happened that day. But as I watched the storming of the capital—replete with white supremacy symbols, Christian symbols, Trump iconography, and images of weapons—I had an overwhelming sense, not of shock, but of inevitability. Nothing I was seeing reflec…

No More Pencils, No More Books: The Ultimate Goal of All Those Anti-Education Bills That Nobody’s Talking About

By Andrew L. Seidel

…about this fact so that, whatever the Supreme Court might decide (and nowadays there’s little guarantee the court would do the right thing), teachers simply avoided the subject to make their lives easier. It worked. This is also one of the Republican goals for imposing burdensome new requirements on voters—think voter IDs and barring same day registration—people will throw up their hands at the opaque, constantly-shifting bureaucracy and simply s…

“Soul Freedom” versus “Christian Nation”: Exploring the Legacy of Roger Williams

By Becky Garrison

…, pagans wild, your land’s the wilderness.” How did he see what few in his day saw as to the nature of exploitation and pillage that was occurring with Native lands and peoples? His sense of social justice was a major factor in his response to those specific and immediate issues. How did he implement his faith into action without crossing over the church-state divide? He was a strong separationist, even in the 17th century. He spoke unashamedly of…

Honey, I Shrunk the Church: The Vatican Manages Sexual Abuse, Canonization and the Nuns

By Mary E. Hunt

…tured the kyriarchal church doing as it pleased—clergy dolling up in their best duds, bureaucrats putting the current pope through his paces to be sure that he’s really what the cardinals elected him to be—namely, a “company” man in every sense of the term (The Society of Jesus, of which he is a member, was called “The Company of Jesus” by its founder Ignatius). It was a time to fill hotels and buses with pilgrims, many from Poland, who favor a mo…

Hicksters, Stickers, and Affection: Why I Left D.C. for the Family Farm

By Timothy King

…ound idyllic to the young, well-educated, and the restless masses of yesterday and today. But not many of us are seek employment alongside migrant laborers because of the near constant physical pain and discomfort, regular exposure to toxic chemicals, unsafe working conditions, and economic exploitation that almost certainly ensures that independence remains a dream. Working the land not necessarily the solution to breaking free from a life of “qu…

Virgins and Vampire Worship: The Religion of Twilight

By Linda Kay Klein

…s been rising about one percentage point a year for the past five years. Today, one out of five adults, and more than one in three 18- to 22-year-olds, are religiously unaffiliated. But “unaffiliated” doesn’t mean unbelieving. Many of these same adults are spiritual. Most believe in God. One-fifth say they pray every day. And a version of religious fervor can be found among both secular and religious fans of just about everything. Religion scholar…

The Creepy Surveillance of Elf on a Shelf

By Kelly J. Baker

…t for any reason. Second, the elf cannot interact with children during the day because its role is to observe and listen. The creators, however, encourage children to talk to their elves—especially to share secrets. The elf can learn more about the children, the more they share. Telling the elf secrets seems to secure a space on the nice list. These elves are ubiquitous. They can be purchased from bookstores, Target, and online retailers. Tutus ca…

Trump’s Lawsuit Amounts to ‘a Tweet With a Filing Fee,’ But That’s Not the Whole Strategy

By Andrew L. Seidel

…sident subverting the will of the people. Once the polls close on Election Day, nothing can change the outcome. Except litigation. It’s tempting to think that Trump only wants to freeze the numbers at a time when it might be favorable to him. That’s part of his rationale, but he’s also trying to gum up the system. The plan is to start litigating these cases now, but figure out the best arguments as the cases progress in the precincts where they mi…

Forty Years Ago, the Worst Mass Murder of LGBT People in the U.S.

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ed by a disgruntled patron who had been tossed from the bar earlier in the day, left 32 people dead—including a pastor for the Metropolitan Community Church that had been meeting in the bar Sunday mornings. As Diane Anderson-Mishnall explains, in a great article for the Advocate, the MCC was only at the bar because their former building had been set on fire three times. The article includes a heartbreaking picture of pastor Bill Larson—his charred…