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Pricey Tickets, Cranky Citizens, and Priests Behind Bars as Philadelphia Prepares For Papal Visit

By Anthea Butler

…to continue to shrink into the insularity and disorganization that caused the Philadelphia Archdiocese to decline so precipitously? It remains to be seen. Meanwhile, faithful Catholics and others who want to see the Pope may be losing heart. 10,000 tickets for the Pope’s Speech at Independence Mall sold out in two minutes on Tuesday, with 394k people trying their best to get a few. Tickets are already being scalped at $100 and up on craigslist. I…

Gay Men Detained and Killed in Chechnya, and More in the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…he said. “Nature is very clear. There are men and there are women.” As for Santa Muerte, Romero considers it a heretical cult. … Despite the church’s condemnation, many Santa Muerte devotees describe themselves as Catholic. Austria: Some activists prefer modern civil partnerships to marriage Gay Star News reports that members of the Homosexual Initiative Vienna (HOSI) said that same-sex couples are better off remaining in civil partnerships under…

I Always Knew Santa Was Make-Believe: A Retired Pastor on Losing Her Faith

By Anne Grant

…to all who believe in him. They never lied to me about anything, including Santa Claus. A few years ago, I watched a little boy after a funeral. He seemed oblivious to the conversation occurring over his head until one grownup exclaimed: “I still believed in Santa Claus then!” Beneath them, the child’s eyes and mouth popped open. Laughter riffled the air. He searched upward for his parents. But they were laughing and never met his startled gaze. I…

Festivus, Atheist Santa, and the Invention of Blasphemy

By Anita Little

…has extended to other images that don’t even have Christian origins? (i.e. Santa Claus, Christmas trees or even the reindeer on Starbucks cups) Santa comes from a Christian tradition; he comes from an actual saint. But then he becomes increasingly secularized, and he now doesn’t really have a connection with the church. But through time, he becomes kind of sanctified, and becomes an integral part of the modern American Christian tradition. And the…

Mile-High Identity Politics: What We Can Learn From the Same-Sex Seating Controversy

By Eboo Patel

…eing a woman with the political expression of being pro-choice. ‘Keep Your Rosaries Off My Ovaries’ is a particularly visual example. But the General Social Survey demonstrates that women on the whole are actually less likely to favor abortion than men. Why is that? The data show that the ‘rosaries’ part of the bumper sticker turns out to be quite influential. Religiosity matters to people, including women, when it comes to deciding their position…

The Key to Understanding the Federalist Society Isn’t Originalism — It’s This 800-Year Old Tradition

By Peter Schwartz

…notions of “human dignity” and “human flourishing,” Catholic natural law—an 800-year-old tradition dating back to Thomas Aquinas—is a lens that offers utter clarity to conservative Catholic jurists, activists, policymakers, and scholars as they observe, describe, and engage the world. The power and sharpness of this lens allow them to confidently snap every human movement—every human desire and motive and act—into its divinely appointed and proper…

Hail Santa! War-on-Christmas Outrage Over Satanic Tree Reveals the Self-Serving Ambiguity of ‘Religion’

By Joseph Laycock

…ed with red Christmas lights, upside-down crosses, and messages like “Hail Santa.” Bishop David L. Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay released a statement claiming that the “traditional understanding of Christmas” was being “usurped and desecrated by an organization/cult.” Bill Donahue of The Catholic League called Museum CEO Jacqueline Frank a “disingenuous person” involved in an “anti-Christmas scam,” while the Religious Freedom Institute (RFI)…

Atheist Nazis? The Pope’s Cheap Atonement

By Susannah Heschel

Adam Clayton Powell called it “cheap grace,” but we might call it “cheap atonement”: the effort by sinners to select which sins to acknowledge and repent. Pope Benedict XVI ended his heavily protested visit to England with a heartfelt apology for German bombings of England during the Battle of Britain; though he refused to accept Christian responsibility for the Holocaust, blaming it instead on pagans and atheists. Given that Cardinal Walter Kasp…

It’s the Year of the Protester: Would Santa Occupy? How About Mother Teresa?

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…t please many of Occupy’s major constituencies. I do hope his doppelganger Santa Claus visits some Occupy encampments, though. _____________________ Circumcellions My favorite weirdo religious sect. But first, the backstory: In the fourth century, after the intermittent regional persecutions of Christians had died down and Christianity had become a legal religion, a big argument ensued. Put simply, the argument was over how bravely you ought to ha…

Glenn Beck’s Cheap Grace

By Karyn Carlo

…way from the hard work of repentance, who tickle our ears with promises of cheap grace, and offer a vision of the cross of Jesus that has nothing to say to the crosses, and lynching trees, of history. But, if we do, we will be settling for the gospel of Caesar, not the good news of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is time to put down the chalk, stop drawing pyrotechnical conspiracy theories that play into our worst fears and listen, instead, for the diffi…