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For Better or Worse: The Rise of the Professional Wedding Celebrant

By Carlos Wilton

…ly not a civil ceremony Mr. Kushner was proposing. It was a religious one. Welcome to the strange new world of wedding celebrants. When I was ordained as a Presbyterian minister more than 30 years ago, the only wedding officiants were public officials and members of the clergy. Couples seeking a religious ceremony had to sidle up to someone like me and ask if I’d be willing to oblige. As long as one or both of them professed Christian faith, I was…

The Politics We Deserve

By Jason C. Bivins

…h, and might become more. I expect no fundamental policy changes, though I welcome distributive shifts; and I await no magic kingdom, as Obama’s detractors have long complained he promised us. But what strikes me as undeniable is that the tone just changed, the self-understanding just changed, our face to the world just changed, in however limited a fashion, and to whatever limited effects. I was stunned by the degree to which, in one of the nasti…

God Dissolves into the Occupy Movement

By Nathan Schneider

…as occupiers in over a hundred American cities feel the power of worldwide welcome and affirmation. There is obviously more to be felt and said about this than any journalistic treatment could hope to engage; one senses in many recent commentaries the strain of needing to say more and not quite having the words. Over the course of a couple of days, four regular RD contributors, moderated by Senior Editor Sarah Posner, shared their own thoughts abo…

Gay Rights Org Delivers 150,000-Signature Petition to LDS Church

By Joanna Brooks

…outwit US government prohibition on the doctrinal practice of polygamy. I welcome this statement as a demonstration of civility, public engagement, and moral responsiveness. Of course, the statement does not go as far as many LDS LGBT people and their allies hope. It does not offer institutional welcome or affirmation to LGBT people who want to live full lives as LGBT people. It maintains that LGBT behavior is sinful. It does not create new space…

New Research Links Spiritual-Not-Religious to Mental Disorder

By Elizabeth Drescher

…ial trauma, or a mix of both, are likely to feel comfortable or to be made welcome in traditional religious settings. Those suffering with psychological conditions, says King, “may reject organized religion, or they may seek existential meaning for their distress in spiritual matters. It is hard to assess causality.” The relationship, that is, may be a matter of selection, with those more vulnerable to psychological distress opting out of institut…

Unified Catholic Opposition to Trump’s “Muslim Ban” is Wishful Thinking

By Patricia Miller

…rators who would do us harm, but we must always be equally vigilant in our welcome of friends. Of course, how to tell friend from foe, and exactly how “vigilant” to be is the crux of much of the controversy over Trump’s executive action. And while the bishops urge Catholics to “welcome the stranger” and “speak in defense of human dignity,” the statement lacks the urgency of previous exhortations to protect “religious liberty.” When the Catholic bi…

Gay Marriage: Can We Get a Little Respect?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

Editor’s Note: Welcome new readers! If you like this post sign up for RD’s daily email newsletter here. —- It was an impressive display—more than two hundred people standing in front of the State House on a blustery November afternoon, demonstrating in favor of marriage equality for gay and lesbian people. What made it most impressive is that the rally was in Columbia, South Carolina, a place not known as a bastion of gay rights activity. As a ve…

The Next Islamists: The Wide Green Smudge That’s Changing Our World

By Haroon Moghul

…ramework, to the on-the-ground happenings within the Muslim world—with the welcome exception of Vali Nasr’s brilliant Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean For Our World (Free Press, 2009) and Ben Simpfendorfer’s intriguing The New Silk Road: How a Rising Arab World is Turning Away from the West and Rediscovering China (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009). The Wide Green Smudge Simpfendorfer, fluent in Arabic and Chine…

Pope’s US Visit Provokes Intense Attention; New Vatican Book on Man-Woman Complementarity & New Int’l Report on Christian Role Models for LGBT Equality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…a banner announcing, “We are your children, your teachers, your faithful. Welcomed by God, dismissed by our bishops. Pope Francis, will you welcome us home?” In New York, openly gay journalist Mo Rocca was among those on the altar at the papal mass in Madison Square Garden to do a reading. Rocca read from the book of Isaiah in Spanish; his mother is an immigrant from Colombia. The pope ended his US trip in Philadelphia, where the Catholic Church’…

Return of Uganda Anti-Gay Bill?

By Peter Montgomery

…osexuality Bill to a vote. According to Burroway, Kadaga received a hero’s welcome on her return from a conference in Canada. She is calling criticism leveled against anti-gay persecution in Uganda by the Canadian foreign minister an attack on Uganda’s sovereignty and culture. She reportedly received a hero’s welcome at the airport. “The rally at Entebbe’s airport was organized by religious leaders, former Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba…