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The Real Story Behind Rick Perry’s Secret Meetings with Pastors

By Sarah Posner

…ist Convention and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council; Rod Parsley, who, like John Hagee, is apparently making a comeback after being rejected by McCain in 2008; Jerry Boykin, the retired general who was found to have violated Pentagon rules in 2004 for giving a speech in uniform in which he said God placed George W. Bush in office and that a “spiritual army” was being recruited to defeat Islam; and the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez of the Nation…

My Lowest Point

By Amina Wadud

…ace. We’d made plans to meet up in case we got separated and had exchanged phone numbers. In the middle of the tawaf, the call to prayer came. The guards stopped the tawaf. Some people complied and started to form lines. I found a spot between two women, each with their husbands, and sat down on the line. This seemed an ideal spot until a woman in black niqab squeezed in on my left just as we started the prayer. Okay then. Before we had completed…

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

By Michael Schulson

…e scholars are Christian theologians, but there are exceptions. For example, Susan Schneider, a philosopher and cognitive scientist at the University of Connecticut, is working on a project about superintelligence and the human mind. “‘What is life?’ is both a physical and a metaphysical question. So is ‘What is the disribution and future of life?’” said NASA-funded biologist Frank Rosenzweig in an email. Rosenzweig, a professor at Georgia Tech wh…

Cloverfield: Sin & Redemption, with Monsters

By Gabriel Mckee

…destruction, and lurking at the dark heart of that pleasure is a sense that, somehow, we deserve it. The kaiju bring punishment; the human drama explains the sin. Godzilla wouldn’t attack Tokyo if humankind didn’t awaken him with nuclear weapons. Mothra wouldn’t attack California if greedy capitalists didn’t kidnap his miniature priestesses. The monsters symbolically destroy our human world, and we cheer because we think it’s all our fault. We des…

Vatican Considers ‘Disordered’ Language; HBO Doc on LGBT Persecution in Russia; Nigerian Bishop Shifts on Anti-Gay Law; Arson at ‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ithuanian and Estonian nationals. “It [says] to Europe that we are with you,” Kala, the LGBT activist, said. “Russia can see that we want to [stay] in the EU and get more support from EU countries.” Chile: Civil Unions Bill Advanced by Senate A civil unions bill first introduced in 2011 was approved by the Chilean Senate this week. The civil partnerships created in the bill go by the acronym AVP. “The AVP does not weaken families, but it strengthe…

Will Catholic Voters Support LGBT Rights in Washington State?

By Joanna Brooks

…2012 to the churches asking us to work to get the referendum on the ballot, I thought, this isn’t Catholic, this isn’t Christian. I called my legislators and said, “I’m a Catholic, and I’m really in support of this bill.” My friends and I got together and started to organize Washington Catholics for Marriage Equality. We’ve been the ones to respond to bishop’s statements, and we have tried to be present with our banners at rallies. It’s grown muc…

How Does an Atheist Come to Believe in God?: An Interview with Jacob Needleman

By Lisa Webster

…ancisco someone who was part of that was in my class and at first I thought, No, I’ve already tried that and I’m not interested. But he urged me to read a book. I read it. I realized there is something here after all. So that was a parallel. My personal inner work was parallel with my academic work in a way. Although I never made the connection between God and what I had studied with the Gurdjieff teaching. It was not a religion, it was something…

Godly Game or Godless Satire? Countering Biblical Ignorance with Heretical Humor

By Betsy Shirley

…f the Old Testament because they’re long and boring…” Here pauses. “Granted, Numbers is like…” “I like Numbers, but anyway…” mumbles Caleb. “The real impetus for the game,” Thomas resumes, “is to get people to engage in Scripture and read stories they’ve never read before. When a concubine is cut up into twelve pieces, that imagery is really offensive. But a lot of people didn’t even know that story existed in the Bible.” I suspect they’re right;…

What Can a Real Life Haunting Tell Us About American Religion? [Updated]

By Daniel Wise

…tried to speak to this friend on the phone in the house about the haunting, the phone connection would be interrupted. As a busy woman with two kids, Maria doesn’t always have a lot of time to devote to spirituality, but when she does, she often relies on intuition. In the case of the haunting, she reports that her intuition pointed her toward the conclusion that it’s the land on which the house was built that’s haunted, rather than the house its…

Mormons Prepare to March in LGBT Pride Parades Nationwide

By Joanna Brooks

…I’m telling him, “You need to call the bishop.” My son looks at me and says, “Mom, I can’t do this.” We talked over many things he was concerned about. One of them was that he has an openly gay teacher who, he told me, “is one of the most spiritual people” he knows. “What is this Church if there is no place for him?” my son asked me. Another story: I took my daughter to college at UCLA in September 2008. We were living in Connecticut then, so I ha…