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Pittsburgh Paradox: A City Haunted by God and Steel

By Ed Simon

Willa Cather is so associated with the Nebraska prairie’s expanse, depicted in novels like O Pioneers! and My Ántonia, that it’s disorienting to imagine her living in hilly industrial Pittsburgh at the turn of the century, and yet for a decade she made her home in Shadyside and the then-fashionable East Liberty neighborhood. Though a Virginian by birth and a Nebraskan by choice, in 1896 Cather moved to the Steel City to write for Home Monthly. An…

Pence Amendment not Just About Abortion, but About Thwarting Contraception

By Sarah Posner

…licy for ultra-right Senator Sam Brownback and Representative Lee Terry of Nebraska, hopes to involve the state in a pro-family welfare system, where tax laws encourage large families, and the government encourages a family-and-faith-centered legal system, which repeals “witch-hunting” child abuse laws that restrict parental discipline as well as no-fault divorce; imposes penalties for unmarried cohabitation; and reconfigures Social Security to pr…

Ignore the Rod: the Parental Rights Amendment Isn’t About Spanking

By Kathryn Joyce

…h 31. Among them are right-wing stalwarts Joe Pitts, Michele Bachmann, and Nebraska’s Lee Terry, who has worked with the conservative “pro-family” movement before, in drafting pro-natalist tax legislation with the World Congress of Families’ Allan Carlson. The representatives were rallied against the threat of the United States finally ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Though the treaty is nearly two decades old, it reappeare…

No to Church, Yes to Jesus?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…ardless of religious identification, affiliation, or practice. There are a number of ways to read this small body of data. The first is, of course, that, growth in the unaffiliated notwithstanding, the majority of Americans still identify with one Christian tradition or another. If you’re outside of that normative religious core, you have to contend on some level with the more dominant religiosity of American culture. Nones—like Buddhists, Hindus,…

Oscar Gets Religion: 7 Categories We’d Like to See

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…one of the most famous ex-Catholic filmmakers. Best Re-Use of Ritual: Nebraska – A pilgrimage story where the journey is as important as the destination. Payne’s film takes its place in a line of familial pilgrimage films: Smoke Signals, Le Grand Voyage, and The Straight Story. Best Iconography: The Wind Rises – May be Miyazaki’s last film, but like all his works, the images stick long after the show is over, bridging the gaps between wor…

Unintended Consequences: Overturning Roe v. Wade May Endanger This Cherished Evangelical Practice

By R.L. Stollar

…Protestants support significant restrictions on abortion, almost twice the number of white mainline Protestants (39%) and substantially higher than even Catholics (45%). As many homeschoolers are evangelical Christians, it makes sense that homeschoolers have been key forced-birth advocates. But that’s also because forced-birth messages are being promoted from the top of the homeschool pyramid. (“The homeschool world is organized as a pyramid,” wri…

In Convention Event Democrats Embrace the ‘Nones’

By Chrissy Stroop

…ht Equality Fund PAC, Secular Democrats of Texas, and Secular Democrats of Nebraska. Then came the first formal panel, which included two members of the small-but-scrappy United States Congressional Freethought Caucus, Rep. Jared Huffman of California, and Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, as well as State Representative Athena Salman of Arizona and State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith of Florida, who, focusing in particular on the u…

Stupak Is Back, But Moderate Catholic Group Says His Amendment “Goes Too Far”

By Sarah Posner

…ded in the Senate version of the bill passed in December, insisted upon by Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson. Although widely thought to be less restrictive than the Stupak amendment, it could, over time, cause insurance companies to not cover abortion services, according to Sara Rosenbaum, Chair of the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University. In a statement released yesterday, Planned Parenthood Federation of American president Cec…

Will Infamous ‘Candy Cane Memo’ Resurrect Flailing ‘War on Christmas’?

By Joseph Laycock

…assumed wrong. A well-meaning principal at Manchester Elementary School in Nebraska had tried to help her staff by sending a list clarifying what items could and could not be displayed in classrooms around the holidays. The secular “nice” list included gingerbread people, penguins, and yetis, while the religious “naughty” list included Christmas carols, Santa, and candy canes. Regarding candy canes, the memo explained that, “Historically, the shap…

The Nitty-Gritty of the Senate Abortion Amendments (King Herod Aside)

By Sarah Posner

…utler at TPMDC, the Associated Press is reporting that the coveted vote of Nebraska’s Ben Nelson for health care reform might be lost over abortion language. Nelson’s Stupak-like amendment was rejected by the Senate last week. To win Nelson’s approval, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) reportedly proposed a compromise amendment which Nelson says “doesn’t get to the fundamental issue of barring federal funding for abortions.” The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bi…