Search for "best sites to find cheap airline tickets phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Racial Justice Will Be Top Priority for New Prez of the United Church of Christ

By Frederick Clarkson

…p struggling and to plan to “die with dignity.” You’ve also said that “the best days of the United Church of Christ are ahead of us.” What do the best days look like in a time of managing what you’ve called “diminishment”? For me, it is important to see the 1957 merger that created the United Church of Christ—not as the establishment of an institutional expression of the church or the creation of a new denominational identity, but as the birth of…

Haiti and the Push for Theological Questions

By Paula M. Cooey

…of those who are not on the face of it evil), how can this possibly be the best of all worlds? And if this is the best of all worlds, what does this have to say about its creator? And if this is not the best of all possible worlds, and still God’s creation is good, what does this have to say about its creator? In other words, if God is benevolent or good, how can God be all powerful, given human suffering? If God is all powerful, how can God possi…

Nostalgia Voters? Not Really. Trump and His Supporters Value This More Than the Past

By Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead

…eep America Great” isn’t just an empty phrase or trite repackaging of the ubiquitous MAGA slogan. Trump’s supporters believe it. They believe it because the appeal of “MAGA” was never really about returning to some golden age when America was at its best. On the contrary, to Trump’s supporters, America is at its best whenever their cultural and political influence is strong. To the extent that such influence can stay strong, from their perspective…

To Pray or to Protest? The Both/And-ness of Black Christianity

By Jamall Andrew Calloway

…tending were “weak and impotent responses.” So instead of going to church Best was, as he explained, “… at home frustrated by the inability of those spaces—deeply conservative as many of them are—to truly bring about social and political change.” I do not agree with Best and, in fact, I think indulging in personal frustration at home about other people’s responses is more of an impotent reaction to injustice than praying at an altar. I want to p…

Conservative Bishops Unhappy At Synod, But Ignore Walkout Call; Australian Religious Leaders Step Up Marriage Equality Opposition; Italy Debates Civil Unions; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ong after, the former acquaintance called to threaten Subhi from a Turkish phone number. Power noted that Subhi spoke at a recent UN Security Council Session, the first-ever dedicated to LGBT rights, which she said was an important precedent to set: But also, it allowed us to convey, in a single voice, and with the authority of the Security Council – which is the premiere global enforcement body for peace and security – it allowed us to convey tha…

South Asian Religious Leaders Challenged to Take on Stigma and Discrimination: Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…o Nazis and Communists. Last week British official released figures on the number of same-sex couples who got married between March 29 – the first day marriage was legally available in England and Wales, and June 30. Of the 1,409 marriages, 56 percent were to female couples. According to Gay Star News, about 120,000 people are in civil partnerships, which they will be able to convert to marriages beginning in December. Costa Rica: Survey Shows Spl…

Who Is “Sam Bacile?”

By Sarah Posner

…d that the film was intended to be a provocative political statement assailing the religion. He denied being Sam Bacile, the pseudonym for the video’s purportedly Israeli Jewish writer and director, but AP said the cellphone number it called for a telephone interview with Bacile on Tuesday matched Nakoula’s address. —- For more RD coverage of the events in Libya see “Tragic Violence in Libya: No Excuses,” by Haroon Moghul — ed….

Rites, Rituals, and the King

By Amina Wadud

…kah. Each prayer will have from 2-4 rakat. Clearly in sajdah we have the best expression of our status as ‘abd-Allah. But we also stand; in fact, we begin the performance at the stand: the best expression of our status as khalifah of Allah. The bow, or ruku’, after standing, acts to put the whole of the performance in motion, and to point in the direction of that motion, towards God (metaphysically, and the Kaaba in Makkah, physically). The fina…

Religion, Morality, and the Death of the American Soap Opera

By Katy E. Shrout

…in the context of reaffirming that bad situations will be resolved for the best. Characters who claim not to believe in God are aberrations, usually identified as gravely troubled—perhaps grieving a deceased loved one—and will often be depicted as recovering their faith in the end. Clergy make appearances as minor characters, but sometimes, as was the case with an Episcopal priest on One Life to Live in the 1990s, have been major players, too. It’…

The Trouble With Harry (Potter): Religious Conservatives Do Have Something to Fear

By Jay Michaelson

…ean here the unreconstructed monotheistic God) has no role whatsoever. The best man wins the duel—or rather, the man with the best wand. Now, one could, of course, make the same claims about comic-book sagas like Superman or Batman. Why should Harry Potter have to take any more refuge in the numinous than Kal-El or Bruce Wayne? Well, because there is something intrinsically religious about the Potter series; and I don’t just mean the rab…