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In Wake of Murder in Uganda, LGBT Group Protests Prayer Breakfast

By Kay Steiger

…zation. Pastor Scott Lively, president of a group called Defend the Family International, who is not connected to the Family but is considered an instigator of homophobia in Uganda, wrote on the group’s website: Ugandan homosexual activist David Kato was recently beaten to death with a hammer, a horrific crime. These very media have rushed eagerly to judge this a hate crime and to blame those, like me, who have spoken against homosexuality in Ugan…

Conservative-Preacher-Turned-Progressive-Leader Carlton Pearson Finds a New Home, Ministry in Chicago

By Jonathan L. Walton

…ought thinkers such as Rev. Colemon and Rev. Michael Beckwith at the Agape International Spiritual Center in Los Angeles. It is true that some members of Christ Universal have voiced disappointment over Pearson’s selection. The problem seems to be his Pentecostal roots coupled with his lack of New Thought training. Pearson believes his inclusionist perspective to be consistent with New Thought teachings, however. Both affirm the radical, inclusive…

Christian Imperialism in Haiti? Missionaries, Theo-tourism, and the Invasion of the Global South

By Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado

…tholic Church tries to rebuild, it worries about how the Haitian exodus to rural provinces (where, in some cases, Protestant denominations are more entrenched) will affect the future of Catholicism in this nation. International money and support will flood into Haiti on behalf of every Christian denomination that has ever had a foothold there, especially as communities go through the work of rebuilding. This aid is desperately needed, along with t…

The Tebow Effect

By Sarah Posner

…e appearance this week. Yesterday, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Tebow rubbed shoulders with the world’s most powerful people and delivered the closing prayer. I suspect it was no accident that the football star qua evangelist — and now the quasi-official spokesperson for the softer side of the anti-abortion movement — was given this distinct honor. His gridiron prowess fits perfectly with The Family’s fixation with a Jesus-as-strongman myth,…

Right Makes Might: The President as Political Realist

By John D. Carlson

…ash. It is no coincidence, then, that the Civil War put an end to slavery, World War II shut down the concentration camps, or Operation Enduring Freedom abolished the Taliban’s repressive rule. Indeed war’s moral legacies often outlast the political causes. Such ethically grounded realism certainly transcends what Obama called the false choice between realism and idealism. But it also may undercut his more delimited just war embrace. Revitalizing…

Weird Testament: The Bible Gets the R. Crumb Treatment

By Gabriel Mckee

…ad already built an impressive body of biblical illustration years before Crumb began truckin’—and that work was anything but satirical. Basil Wolverton was a major influence on Crumb, who has said that Wolverton’s cover to Mad #11 [image right] “changed forever the way that I looked at the world.” His famously grotesque style can be seen as the starting point for all of the bizarre excesses of the underground comix scene. It’s a bit surprising, t…

American Fever: A Tale of Romance and Pestilence

By Michael A. Elliott

…ombat it. In fact, one of the themes that emerges from his forays into the world of flu scholarship is how little we actually know about the way that viruses work. Outbreak narratives typically have villains and heroes: the carrier who unwittingly infects unsuspecting masses, the scientist who doggedly investigates the disease and presses for an antidote. But Hall’s narrator is different. He has moments of unselfishness, but much of the time he se…

Tea Partiers and Religious Right Court at Values Voter Summit

By Sarah Posner

…ples as they influence others.” McDowell said he had read Christian Reconstructionist founder R.J. Rushdoony, and agreed with some of his teachings. He wrote (relying on Rushdoony) in a 2003 article that, “In light of the Scriptures, we cannot say that slavery, in a broad and general sense, is sin.” Other Rushdoony admirers include conservative movement mastermind Howard Phillips, whom journalist Adele Stan reported is pulling the strings behind m…

That Mercenary Feeling: What the Apparently Unlimited Use of “Contractors” Says About American Empire in Afghanistan and Iraq

By Peter Laarman

…ticularly like. He quotes Frederick Barton of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who tracks our country’s growing reliance on civilian mercenaries. Barton observes that “no one really knows whether having a force made up mainly of contractors whose salaries were often triple or quadruple those of a corresponding soldier or Marine was cheaper or more expensive for the American taxpayer.” Excuse me? “No one really knows”?? I’m not a…

Aung San Suu Kyi: The Verdict is Unfair

By Juliane Schober

…oercion. She articulated her political thoughts in her address to UNESCO’s World Commission on Culture and Development: The true development of human beings involves much more than mere economic growth. At its heart there must be a sense of empowerment and inner fulfillment. This alone will ensure that human and cultural values remain paramount [in a world where] political leadership is often synonymous with tyranny and the rule of a narrow elite….