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The Queerness of Christian Ethics: A Conversation with Rev. Elizabeth Edman

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…at on barstools drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and praising God. They knew all the words, and they smiled and danced while they sang. They were enraptured, taken over by their joy. They were worshiping. That bar was church. I can’t help but think that it’s like this even in our “secular” spaces. When queer people come together, they create a community that is alive. It’s made up of individual people, but it’s one body that moves. When you are…

UNESCO on Religion, Culture and SOGI in Asia; Orthodox Family Sues to Stop Cremation of Israeli Trans Woman; Struggles of Iraqi Queer Activists; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…law postponed Lithuanian lawmakers postponed a planned vote last week on a new law modeled after Russia’s ban on anti-gay “propaganda.” The legislation would essentially ban any public visibility for LGBT people, including a march or protest. Shawn Gaylord of US-based lobbying group Human Right First said: “While the tabling of this amendment is a welcomed respite for LGBT Lithuanians, the proposed amendment will remain a threat to the protection…

Pope Calls Out “Bad Shepherds” as Conservatives Prepare to Fight Change

By Patricia Miller

…and suggesting that anyone who would do so is literally going against the word of God. But now Francis’ popularity, as well as the expectations of change that have been set by the synod, suggest a new calculus that shines a harsh light on this overt political maneuvering. This may give moderates the opening to make some modest changes that, while perhaps small in the lives of ordinary Catholics, will set the dangerous precedent that the church ca…

After More Mass Shootings It’s Time to Call Out White Supremacy in the Pews

By Peter Laarman

…ervices over the next days and weeks. Of course as a pastor I’m aware that words of consolation are appropriate and necessary at a time like this. But if actual truth-telling isn’t also appropriate now, I don’t know when it will be. American violence doesn’t emerge from thin air. It has a very specific pedigree in the failed project known as whiteness, with a strong assist from toxic masculinity. We won’t heal unless we can name what’s ailing us….

Undercover-ed Religion: 13 Stories That Went Missing in 2012

By Peter Laarman

…en I talk to gay friends about this, they all say the connection is about cruelty and brutality toward animals that are “harvested” or otherwise abused in the industrial food system. Maybe it’s a stretch to say that this extra sensitivity to interspecies cruelty derives from gays’ own exposure to cruelty—but it’s at least an idea worth pondering. 11. Interfaith Bullying Reaches Its Limit Ye Olde Mainline Protestants might be evaporating numerical…

Sikh Temple Shooting: Of Martian Rovers and Terror in Holy Spaces

By Jodi Eichler-Levine

…dom and the United States. Aliens, vampires, and other monsters—these otherworldly beings are often metaphors for our this-worldly ways of organizing difference. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen calls the monster “difference made flesh, come to dwell among us” and the “harbinger of category crisis.” Timothy Beal notes how monstrosity has been central to our Orientalized imaginings of “other” religions, but can also hold us in tension with ourselves: horror, h…

The Theological Roots of Akin’s ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comment

By Sarah Posner

…er help. In spite of her suffering, she should be helped to see from God’s Word what a privilege it is to bring a child into the world, and how the child, even from such an origin, may be one of God’s elect—a blessing to God’s church and to the world.” This is not a situation where Akin sat in the pews of the church of a controversial pastor, or once attended a conference or seminar where controversial views were discussed. Akin has a Masters in D…

The Bible Is Not a Diet Plan

By Rob Goodman

…, Bruce Wilkinson, urged readers to “enlarge their territory” by repeating word-for-word the prayer for success attributed to Jabez in the Book of Chronicles. Here’s how Wilkinson dispenses with all of the context around those magic words of prosperity: “You’ll find [Jabez] hiding in the least read section of one of the least-read books of the Bible. The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles are taken up with the official family tree of the Hebrew t…

Where are the Blessed Peacemakers?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…ers have tracked, are poorly understood by Christians themselves. A recent New York Times commentary by Colleen Oakley on the religious mullings of disidentified Christian agnostics makes clear that many Christians are hard-pressed to explain what it means to say “Jesus was the son of God,” or “Jesus died for our sins.” Even people who wouldn’t for a minute think of themselves as uninformed biblical literalists interpret these statements with an u…

In Case You Missed Them, the Top Pope Francis Quotes of 2016

By Patricia Miller

…hristian. –Pope Francis made a pointed swipe at then-GOP contender Donald Trump in February on his return from a six-day trip to Mexico, where he visited the U.S.-Mexico border. In response, Trump called Francis “disgraceful.” Avoiding pregnancy is not an absolute evil. In certain cases, as in this one, as in the one that I mentioned of Blessed Paul VI, it was clear. –On the same trip, Francis suggested that women could use contraception to avoid…