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Don’t Blame Black Voters: The Obama Non-Effect

By Jonathan L. Walton

…t how a “No” vote would not force preachers to perform a gay wedding ceremony any more than it would force them to marry a recently divorced deacon and his former mistress. And this could have possibly been the perfect opportunity for white GLBT persons to extend a welcome hand to African American GLBT persons who often feel ostracized rather than welcomed in the “friendly” parts of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. What’s more, gay activ…

Why Bill Maher Gets a “C” in My Introduction to Religion Class…

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…e drinking the blood of a man who lived 2000 years ago. But he never asks anyone if they believe that. It’s a straw man argument. Even if this theological idea of “transubstantiation” has been written into Catholic dogma for centuries, I’ve yet to meet a Catholic who believes what Maher claims they believe (though I’m sure he could find a couple if he just kept throwing money at the film). Funny thing is, had he watched Tim Burton’s Big Fish, he c…

Should NASA Have Given $1.1 Million to a Theology Institute?

By Michael Schulson

…e walls tumbling down? When the Freedom From Religion Foundation puts your phone call on hold, you don’t hear muzak. Instead, the phone system plays a homegrown jingle featuring lines like “Everyone is tired of your piety / get off your knees and get to work” and “We’ve got to fight the battle of church and state / or the walls come tumbling down.” The receptionist told me that FFRF co-president Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher and occasi…

Religious Hostility to Gay Nigerians; The Pope’s Visit To Africa; Ireland’s Religious Schools Can’t Discriminate Against Gays; Orthodox Church in Georgia Leads Anti-Gay Forces; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…, Irakli Basilaia, is a prominent Church abbot. If the incident and accompanying violence has prompted any remorse or soul-searching from the Georgian Orthodox Church, it is not yet evident. Far from shying away from the issue, the Church has openly accepted its role in the violence. The priests who organized the counter-demonstration were acting on calls from the Church’s Patriarch that the event be banned by authorities. Footage taken on the day…

Gay Marriage Opponents Running on Empty

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…. At the first, about a dozen volunteers spent the night making almost 300 phone calls and collecting pledges of volunteer support and contributions from 50 new supporters. Add that to the five other locations holding similar phone banks or collecting post cards of support, and I’m sure we easily got our 300 today. In addition, Equality Maryland hosted an interfaith meeting to mobilize supportive faith leaders. It was so great to see such a wonder…

Cloverfield: Sin & Redemption, with Monsters

By Gabriel Mckee

…onds, people have lined up in front of it to take pictures with their cell phones. They’re distanced from what’s happening around them, oblivious to what it really means. Many reviewers have made the obvious connection to 9/11, and it’s certainly true that the monster’s initial rampage eerily evokes that day’s images. But there’s a deeper level to it. At one point, the characters are caught in the middle of a firefight between the monster and a Na…

Mormons Prepare to March in LGBT Pride Parades Nationwide

By Joanna Brooks

…at this parade, and I don’t want to steal other peoples’ thunder. For so many years, the Salt Lake City Pride folks have built this into an institution in the fabric of Utah. I just want to be very thankful for everything that they’re doing. You’ve also had a supportive response from the LDS side. I receive so many comments from fellow Mormons that “we have to show love.” This includes old Facebook friends from old wards I’ve lived in—people who I…

A Tale of Religious Tolerance… On Reddit

By Joanna Piacenza

…kids will forget my voice, and slowly, all physical memory will fade away. However, my impact and legacy will remain: and, by not focusing on the physical beauty, I have time to cultivate those inner virtues and hopefully, focus my life on creating change and progress for this world in any way I can. After watching his mobile upload turn against him, “european_douchebag” finally apologized to the online community, Kaur, Sikhs in general and anyone…

The Lady Vanishes: Trump’s Communications Team Tries to Topple a Monument

By Spencer Dew

…deals are not the same as policy proposals, and they are certainly not synonymous with history. This was Miller’s first mistake, turning condescendingly pedantic (not a much-loved trait in America) and lecturing Acosta on what Acosta—and, according to Acosta, a great many Americans—believe. History was rallied to counter faith. “I don’t want to get off unto a whole thing about history here,” Miller said, followed by an originalist theory that sepa…

Lying About Our Religion, And Other Problems With Polling

By Michael Schulson

…category seems to be. Follow up with self-reported nones in a year, and many of them (as many as 30%) will say they’re now religiously affiliated. But when defined as a single entity, a new, largely fictional public emerges, ready to be taken as the harbinger of some secular age. This process of lumping-and-fretting applies to all sorts of categories, not just religious ones. Generations offer a particularly egregious example. Who decided that al…