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The Plot to Turn the Synod into a “Plot”

…nt of the total number of the members mentioned in articles V and VIII. Despite this, Douthat assures us that “as a Catholic,” he expects “the plot to ultimately fail; where the pope and the historic faith seem to be in tension, my bet is on the faith.” It’s a measure of how deeply conservative Catholics identify the “faith” with the doctrinal orthodoxy of JP II and Benedict that Douthat actually believes he speaks for Catholics more authentically…

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Who’s Accusing Who of Mormon-Baiting?

…r party presidential candidate. But I’ll bet you a twelve pack of caffeine-free Diet Coke and a dozen pink-frosted sugar cookies that there is no anti-Mormon phonebanking script in use by Catholics for Obama. Anywhere. Is anti-Mormonism real? Yes. But even if one poorly-trained rogue phonebanker veered off script into an anti-Mormon ad lib, it does not make for a concerted anti-Mormon effort.  (Leave that to orthographically challenged “Heaven is…

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Are You There God? It’s Me, Donald: A President at Prayer

…e crowds at the inauguration? What a flock, right? You had a great view, I bet, the original Eye in the Sky. Back me up, it was over a billion people. Huge. But I’m confused about this other line: “the quality of our lives is not defined by our material success but by our spiritual success.” I don’t get it. “Spiritual success”? Sounds like a dumb deal. Ewww…I don’t have money, I have my feeeelings… What do you think, Lord? What if I say that some…

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Opting for Lucy Over Linus: Watching The Great Pumpkin in the Age of Trump

…ll left-wing protesters are violent thugs. She exhibits all the willful obtuseness the right uses to muddy matters of fact and justice. She’s the worst. *** To my surprise, Lucy is the character I most want to be like right now. She’s a model for liberals in the age of Trump. It’s true that her critique of Linus’s delusion sometimes crosses the line into bullying. But she acts with love toward him throughout the show. No one else does. In the very…

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How the Religious (and ‘Nones’) Vote May Tip 6 Swing States

…p, probably along with white mainliners (52%) and white Catholics (51%). A better bet would be to connect with Hispanic Catholics (35%) and the sizable religiously unaffiliated (34%). Spotlight the Catholic congregations assisting Puerto Rican refugees and highlight Mike Pence’s threat to reproductive rights and education. Pennsylvania: With its highly religious—and highly conservative—central region balancing Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylv…

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Some Mormons See a Message in the Angel Moroni’s Fallen Trumpet

…ransgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Beth-el: [Bet-is House] [el- is GOD] and the horns [trumpets] of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. *When the trumpet fell off from Moroni on salt lake temple today.” While this sounded reasonable to many, the following day, several Latter-day Saint scholars of Hebrew had criticized the faulty reading of the passage and pointed out that horns referred to the actual s…

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The Left Behind: Why Are White American Christians So Racist?

…ow dark the shadow side of that same instinct can be. When “the way things used to be” involves poisonous racial resentment, the desire to preserve tradition becomes corrupted. Traditionalism isn’t in itself bad, but it can promote social rigidity just by bringing together people like-minded in their stubbornness; at worst, it can lead to radicalization. In fact, radicalization seems to be the bigger picture of white Christianity, and white Americ…

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Tea Party Bullies on Homosexuality: “No Punishment Too Severe?”

…DeMint reportedly said that people encouraged him in his position limiting freedom for gays and lesbians, saying he “shouldn’t back down. [The people who agree with him] don’t want government purging their rights and their freedom to religion.” As I reported here months ago, DeMint has been using a Christian Reconstructionist group’s mailing list for fundraising, indicating that, at least in part, he thinks he and they are compatible. Reconstructi…

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Why Trump’s Evangelicals Won’t Care About Those Budget Cuts

…some aspects of the Trump agenda are merely tolerated by evangelicals because they care more about fighting abortion/LGBTQ rights and “preserving” their privilege in the name of religious freedom. But the support for tax cuts, over assistance for those in need, is not just a gift from Trump to his rich friends, tolerated by evangelicals because they care more about other issues. These budget cuts are in keeping with the religious right’s understa…

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Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith Spouts Christian Nationalism Defending Racist Voter Suppression

…g, and essentially shut down “Souls to the Polls” initiatives historically used by Black churches to get out the vote. Hyde-Smith, the latest in a long and shameful line of senators from Mississippi—including mediocrities such as Theodore Bilbo and James Vardaman—rose to defend the measure that seeks to make it harder for people to vote if they don’t look like her. And she turned to a Christian Nationalist motto and the Bible to justify her defens…

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