Search for "Delta Airlines 1800-299-7264 Flight Change Policy"

LDS Leaders Owe Repentance and Apology for Cruelty to LGBTQ People and Their Children

By Holly Welker

…eadership session of General Conference, the church abruptly rescinded the policy. A bizarre statement stressed that the “changes do not represent a shift in Church doctrine” because “we cannot change the Lord’s doctrine,” but the church wants “our members and our policies to be considerate of those struggling with the challenges of mortality.” (Questions: Precisely who isn’t struggling with the challenges of mortality? Doesn’t consideration for t…

Former Employees: Racism & Abuse in Leading Religious Right Org.

By Sarah Posner

…tts of companies that fail to meet its standards of “decency,” Fischer (no policy wonk, despite being director of “Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy”) has taken the public rhetoric to a new, ugly level. According to former employees of the AFA, the views represented by Fischer are not only tolerated within the organization, but any opposition to its anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant invective—including reliance on white nativist…

The Panic Over Churches’ Tax-Exempt Status in a Gay-Married World

By Sarah Posner

…evoke a non-profit’s tax-exempt status if it violates a fundamental public policy (in that case, public policy against race discrimination). The Bob Jones case is an essential part of the conservative movement’s institutional memory of what they consider to be government overreach, particularly by the IRS, and undue government interference with religious affairs and religious freedom. As historian Randall Balmer has documented, Bob Jones Universit…

‘Religious Freedom’: Constitutional Principle or Electoral Politics?

By Frances Kissling

…ous persons. And the Supreme Court has already determined that when public policy aimed at everyone conflicts with individual religious beliefs, public policy is the higher good. Justice Scalia in his majority opinion in Employment Division v. Smith, 1990, noted: “We have never held that an individual’s religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the State is free to regulate.” The CHA seems re…

“Hem and Haw”: A Failed Syria Strategy

By Haroon Moghul

…gional clout—and perhaps leaves the door open to future involvement. This policy of not having a policy, of trying to enter the room while keeping it propped open with your back foot, is a disaster. Either we take out Bashar Assad, and use the threat of decisive force to get Russia and Iran to join a discussion, on a future Syria without the Assads or we don’t. (Meanwhile, rebel forces who refuse to come to the table will be told in no uncertain…

Former AIPAC Spokesperson Rallies Conservatives to Attack CAP, Media Matters as Anti-Semitic

By Sarah Posner

…ss who report on and analyze matters pertaining to Israel and U.S. foreign policy in a way not officially sanctioned as “pro-Israel” by the neoconservative foreign policy establishment, Block urged a conservative listserv to “amplify” the story as portraying the bloggers as anti-Semites. Smith’s story painted Media Matters blogger M.J. Rosenberg, himself a former AIPAC staffer, and bloggers at the Center for American Progress, including Matt Duss,…

Pence’s Religious Freedom Policy Made ‘LGBQ’ Hoosiers Sick—Literally

By Sunnivie Brydum

A new study reveals the scope of psychological damage done by Indiana’s 2015 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) to gay, lesbian, bisexual and questioning Hoosiers. Although the study, led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health’s Center for LGBT Health Research, stops short of suggesting Indiana’s law directly caused LGBQ people to feel physically or mentally unwell, researchers noted that Indiana was the only state…

Old Politics, New Bedfellows: The Olson/Boies Challenge to Prop. 8

By Jesse Lava

…tial for the progressive movement to build broad coalitions and to win the policy changes that will make this world a more humane, egalitarian, and free place. If Ted Olson wants to join liberals on the gay marriage issue, that’s certainly better than if he doesn’t. And of course, that’s likely the real reason Boies and Olson are joining forces: to give permission to anti-gay conservatives to change their mind and pro-gay conservatives to, um, com…

Religious Liberty…For Bishops

By Tom Davis

…policy as it was. After a 4 month fight, the Board of Hospitals agreed to change the policy, meaning that birth control would be allowed in the public hospitals of New York City. There were many fights like that. But in this current controversy, only one religious voice is being heard despite the fact that, on the 8th of February, 20 representatives of protestant and Jewish groups released a statement supporting the government policy, declaring t…

Protest Greets the Honoring of Rev. H. Eddie Fox at Emory’s Candler School of Theology

By John Blevins

…t of the Church today. It’s time for Emory University to clarify the tension between its own non-discrimination policy and that of the United Methodist Church. And when Candler decides to come down on the side of honoring denominational policy in violation of university policy, it’s time for the university to break its silence and respond. Like this story? Your tax-deductible $5 or $10 will help us pay writers, coders, interns, and editors. And wi…