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Behind the Inclusive-Sounding Ads of this $100 Million PR-Blitz-for-Jesus it’s the Same Old Conservative Christian Fantasy

By Chrissy Stroop

…alled The Signatry.” Both the Servant Foundation and the Signatry, its financial arm, are headed by Steve French—and that’s all we know about who exactly is behind the campaign. Donor-advised funds, which don’t have to disclose the identities of the donors providing the funding for the projects they support, are often used by the Christian Right to minimize transparency. As CT reports, the “He Gets Us” ad spots were produced by Bill McKendry, whos…

Thoreau’s Ferocious Critique of Philanthropy Does Not Make Him “Selfish”

By Alda Balthrop-Lewis

…g every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that corporations may be enriched. When those who earned their wealth by mistreating the poor workers they employed sought honor for giving a small portion of their wealth in charity, Thoreau called foul. “It may be that he who bestows the l…

Conservative Christians Oppose New ‘Inter-Religious’ University

By Philip Clayton

…ry’s oldest center of its kind. A second imam training program is being launched by the once all-Christian Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley; its website calls it “the largest and most diverse partnership of seminaries and graduate schools in the United States, pursuing interreligious collaboration in teaching, research, ministry, and service.” Why would this relatively benign-sounding news frighten conservatives so deeply? Yet resistance fro…

Gay Marriage to End “Culture Wars”?

By Bill Berkowitz

…lar, remain staunchly opposed to allowing gays and lesbians to marry, and increasing numbers of Republicans and white evangelicals say that gay marriage will be very important in their voting decisions.” A Pew Research Center survey conducted after the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage found that 49% of Americans said they oppose allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, while 38% favored gay marriages. In July 2004, 56…

Normalization is Control: Telling Stories to Survive

By Mariam Durrani

…the election, where people could not imagine someone with so little experience and such hateful rhetoric could assume the presidency. And yet, 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl’s questions didn’t demand that President-elect Trump respond to the growing protests against his election. Instead, she offered “softball questions” that fixated on his personal feelings about becoming president, “repeatedly minimizing Trump’s most dangerous promises as…

Did the Pope Embrace the Prosperity Gospel?

By Sarah Posner

…xtensive investigation, the results of which it provided to the Senate Finance Committee, which launched a probe of Copeland and five other ministries, Copeland was able to evade accountability: In 2007, Sen. Charles Grassley, then the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, began investigating the activities of six televangelists, including Copeland, to determine whether they were misusing their tax-exempt ministries for profit. Copeland…

Why #FreeBritney is an #Exvangelical Cause

By R.L. Stollar

…ver vulnerable populations, but together they have both legal and social sanction. To get a more nuanced and personal perspective on the role religion has played in Spears’s life and conservatorship, I spoke with Bethany Grace, who, like me, was raised in the evangelical homeschooling movement, and who is (full disclosure) a friend. Grace wrote on social media that Spears’s conservatorship is “evangelicals’ dream of what to do with all of us backs…

Pastor of Kentucky Church Severed From Baptists Over LGBT Inclusion: Not Activism, Just Honesty

By Mike Greer

…ppened to be gay and lesbian. So the coming of folks from Burma and their incorporation, and our incorporation into them, their incorporation into us so that we might be one church, laid the groundwork for us and it paved the way. When we began to have some conversations and began to discern how we were going to be in relationship with LGBT folks in spring of 2013 it became evident to me, and I think to others, that it was a pretty simple move to…

Play to Extinction: Religious Groups Unite Against Predatory Gambling

By Frederick Clarkson

…benefits,” he said, “came with ‘undeniable and significant costs.’” These included increases in crime due to “desperate gamblers committing illegal acts to finance their problem and pathological gambling.” These crimes included forgery, credit card theft, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, alcohol and drug offenses.” He also cited increases in homelessness and divorce. Similar data have piled up from numerous reputable sources since the l…

Lifestyles of the Rich and Pious

By Patricia Miller

…e needed the extra space for “an indoor exercise pool”—the house already has a large outdoor pool—“a hot tub, three fireplaces and a library.” Maybe he could have Boston Cardinal and Francis ally Sean O’Malley over for the weekend. The Franciscan lives in a “rundown rectory” in Boston’s South End. I bet he would love the hot tub….