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No Time for Casual Faith: The First Unitarian Woman Elected President on our Urgent Moment

By Peter Laarman

…If I am to answer truthfully, I must say that we have lost ground in the struggle for a true revolution of values during the course of these 50 years. We are still in the struggle, but we have lost ground. We see today the commodification of nearly every aspect of our lives: commodification in health care, in education, and even commodification within democracy itself, with the Supreme Court ruling that money is speech and that corporations are es…

In Just 10 Years ‘The Book of Mormon’ Musical Has Gone From America’s Darling to America’s Latest Problem — The Inverse of the Mormon Story

By Jake Johnson

…s Trey Parker and Matt Stone paints white Mormonism and Black Africa with brushes so broad they blend both the ludicrous and the actual. Broadway audiences have sometimes had a hard time telling these apart. Some sincere tenets of the show’s Mormon missionaries often sound hilariously inflated to an outsider, while the war-torn and corrupt Uganda where they’re proselytizing remains flat, one-note, and unimaginative. To write out the show’s insensi…

Why the Women’s Ordination Question Will Shape the Future of Mormonism

By Joanna Brooks

…ut it is hard to conceive of an organizational culture more allergic to disruption than today’s gender-segregated, regionally- and racially-dominated, hierarchical, and gerontocratic LDS bureaucratic culture. For their part, advocates of LDS women’s ordination are well versed in the dimensions of Mormon history and theology deprioritized by the bureaucratic church, and history may be on their side. Recently released historical records suggest that…

First U.S. Visit of the Virgin Mary Confirmed in Wisconsin

By Lewis Wallace

…, the process of recognizing saints, miracles, and apparitions has its own politics. In the Middle Ages the beatification of a local saint or a recognized miracle could bring attention, money, and political power to those close to the holy people in question—not to mention local businesses who profited from putting up pilgrims and selling food and wares. Then as today, approval by the Vatican involved both strict alignment with doctrine and a spot…

Mormons React to Prop. 8 Ruling

By Joanna Brooks

…rotect this most fundamental institution—marriage. “There is no doubt that today’s ruling will add to the marriage debate in this country, and we urge people on all sides of this issue to act in a spirit of mutual respect and civility toward those with a different opinion.” As we’ve reported here at RD, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, responding to a letter from the Church’s First Presidency read over the pulpits during…

Departure of the Queen

By Amina Wadud

…have memorized myself, and this is more a review than a simple reflective read. Coming to the end of the Qur’an reading is also melancholy, and I forget why I felt I should rush just a few days ago. How will I put my friend down, except for the many occasions I use it in my work, after this? Oh, I know. In my next entry I will tell you the story of meeting this blessed book and how it transformed my life. Although nearly 40 years ago, it still ta…

Cozy Cottage or House on Fire? Thomas Kinkade’s Theo-Aesthetic Legacy

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…seen in his own version of Yosemite Valley (above), the mountains are instruments of God’s creative powers. Kinkade became especially popular by creating scenes that are often marked by an absence of human figures, allowing anyone to project themselves into the space. The Romantics dwarfed the human figure. Kinkade wants the human outside the frame to imagine themselves inside its world. This is coupled with Kinkade’s proclivity, as the “Painter…

Roe v. Wade: What Would MLK Do?

By Tamura Lomax

…sexist and patriarchal. So, that’s not what I mean either. If he was alive today, I am not exactly sure where King would stand on the issue of reproductive rights. King was a dialectical thinker. Thus, he could be both pro-life and pro-choice concomitantly, taking what he needed from one side or the other and rejecting the rest, and thus forcing the rest of us to consider the possible “good” on all sides as well as the inconsistencies of our own p…

The White Nationalist Fringe Just Took a Giant Step Closer to the Center of the GOP

By Annika Brockschmidt

…eam Republicans have responded to the invasion of Ukraine—including deadly Russian attacks on civilians and press—by employing the Tucker Carlson tactic of “anti-anti-Putin” rhetoric, the attendees of AFPAC didn’t even bother to mask their admiration for the Russian dictator. Shouts of “Putin, Putin, Putin!” could be heard from the crowd during Fuentes’ speech, a sentiment he affirmed. It’s important to note that he’s not just any right-wing extre…

New Patriarch, Same Patriarchy: Despite Glowing Praise For New SBC President, There’s Just One Problem

By Caroline Matas

…ern Baptist author and speaker Daniel Darling lauded in his triumphant USA Today opinion piece as an important step to “stop sexual abuse in [SBC] churches.” While a third party investigation into the denomination’s approach to handling sexual abuse is certainly a welcome intervention, there’s no indication that they’re ready to to address problematic theological stances that blur the line between submission and control and that continue to put th…