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

By Lauri Lebo

…rogram. 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 from Soddy-Daisy High School, Scales sent an e-mail to all local principals on Tuesday, saying the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled prayer before football games and graduation ceremonies to be unconstitutional and that the practices should be stopped. “But th…

Conservative Christians Oppose New ‘Inter-Religious’ University

By Philip Clayton

…t wing seeks to take back “their” religious schools, nuanced positions are replaced with “hard-edged, binary categories.… A person is on either one side or the other, in sympathy with one leader or another, committed to one position or the other. Middle ground collapses.” Admittedly, the inter-religious university at Claremont will face challenges. Can the school maintain high standards for rigorous religious education? Will graduates continue to…

Why #FreeBritney is an #Exvangelical Cause

By R.L. Stollar

…rom Spears’s story, you end up with a story about a fight between Jamie, a domineering, evangelical father, and Britney, his independent, bipolar daughter. Control of one’s family is highly valued by evangelical fathers; this goes hand in hand with the patriarchy that’s so prevalent in evangelicalism. Yet so few journalists have addressed these religious layers to Spears’s story. Evangelicalism breaks into Spears’s life from more than one angle. W…

US Archbishop and Vatican-Appointed “Overseer” Attends Annual Meeting of Women Religious

By Emily Baxter

…how their situation will proceed. It seems unsurprising that some sisters reportedly “raised their eyebrows” at Sartain’s statement that he was coming to the LCWR as their “brother.” His humility makes it a commendable sentiment, but they are certainly not coming to the table as equals in the eyes of the Church. The outgoing LCWR President, Sr. Frances Deacon, offered a closing speech that did not let that reality go by: she spoke on the histor…

What Coverage of a Fatal Orthodox Baptism Reveals About Western Media

By Katherine Kelaidis

…, of a mass infant baptism in Georgia, which also elicited controversy, predominately in Western Europe and North America. The Snopes article concludes, “…it’s clear that the baptismal practice depicted isn’t all that uncommon.” And that’s true. Millions of infants have been baptised this way over centuries (including me, by the way). What’s uncommon is for an infant to die, as was the case last week. So what happened? Well, the Romanian, Greek, a…

Did the Pope Embrace the Prosperity Gospel?

By Sarah Posner

…es he would “stand with” him. Copeland had long enjoyed relationships with Republican candidates, including former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. The latter was told by a religious outreach advisor during his first presidential campaign that Copeland was “arguably one of the most important religious leaders in the nation.” The Committee, in the end, opted for “self-reform” by these ministries, rather than greater government oversi…

Thoreau’s Ferocious Critique of Philanthropy Does Not Make Him “Selfish”

By Alda Balthrop-Lewis

…abwe, just as overlooked and beleaguered… Big companies have always sought cheaper labor, moving from North to South in the United States, looking for the hungriest, the most desperate, the least organized, the most exploitable. Press coverage of conditions in Apple’s factories in China has been anything but glowing. Yet when Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, says he’ll give his personal wealth to charities of his choice (many of them in Silicon Valley), he…

Why Faith Needs Redemptive Struggle to Be Meaningful

By Liz Theoharis

I have had the honor of working extensively with the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, beginning when he keynoted the launch of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice in November 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 histor…

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

By Peter Montgomery

…nate levels of unemployment and poverty for LGBT people. Turkey and Syria: Report on Mr. Gay Syria Competition The Daily Mail’s Isabel Hunter reports on a Mr. Gay Syria competition held in Istanbul, Turkey, as a show of defiance against Islamic State militants who have waged an execution campaign against gay men in Syria. The competition’s winner says his boyfriend was beheaded by ISIS. The article is accompanied by photos by Bradley Secker. Japan…

The Fire This Time

By Anthea Butler

…holarship done this summer. Meanwhile, I try to hold it together to write a 800-word piece without crying and wanting to tear my hair out about the pain of my people. I’m not writing prophetic words to you anymore. You fix this shit. I’m done carrying the cross of America, its false promises of democracy and inclusion, the documents that excluded me and called my ancestors three-fifths of a person. You figure it out. I’m about comforting Black peo…