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Talking About Religion Will Not Help Romney

…ormonism again? Romney tried, gamely, over the weekend, using his mission experience in working-class neighborhoods of Paris as a point of experiential empathy with Americans on the down and out. Not the greatest of comparisons, perhaps, but a step in the right direction, say some. Still, just raising the question of religion means that  someone (this time, political consultant Garry South over at the Politico Arena) is going to start bloviating a…

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Is Refusal to Write Anti-Gay Cake Message a Violation of Religious Freedom?

…raph the ceremony, etc.). And that’s probably not an accident; if I were a betting woman, I’d bet heavily that a pro-religious-exemption think tank or law firm, like the Becket Fund, had come up with this plan and recruited a plaintiff to set it in motion. The involvement of the local politicians mentioned in the story is likely strategic as well: Talking Points Memo quotes an “anti-gay” state lawmaker who says he supports the baker’s right to not…

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Akin and the God Factor

…mockery he has now attracted, this relatively obscure congressman whom I’d bet half the pundits discussing his fate today had barely heard of before his primary win, is a National Superstar, the very embodiment of the Christian Right’s all-too-often abandoned determination to stand up to GOP pols who forever pay them lip service but rarely deliver the goods. […] And if he does win, he will enter the Senate next year not as some random wingnut dude…

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Massacre Of Islamists By Egyptian Military Likely Strategic

…ver end. (Indeed, you can only kill a people you’ve demonized, and that’s exactly what the military government has pushed state media to do since the June 30th coup.) For those sadly naive protesters who thought overthrowing the only elected government in their entire history, well, no such future is visible to me. I’ve been wrong before. I hope I am. But I doubt it. It’s hard to say what will happen here except that things will get worse. Probabl…

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“Ex-Gay” Gospel Star Donnie McClurkin and the Decline of Public Theology

…d adults in his life, linking that childhood trauma to his own early homosexuality and announcing his deliverance from homosexuality as a lifestyle. While Mclurkin begain talking this way as early as 2002 it is undoubtedly his comments in 2009 that are the source of the withdrawal of his invitation to the DC event. In 2009, at the annual Holy Convocation convention of the predominantly black and Pentecostal Church of God in Christ denomination, Mc…

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Confessions of a Former Gun-Worshipper

…e all waiting, of course, to hear what Vice President Joe Biden will say next Tuesday as he presents the findings of his gun task force. You can bet there will be something about closing the now infamous “gun show” loophole that allows for nearly 40% of gun purchases to proceed without a background check, as well something about reinstating bans on assault weapons—like the weapon used at Sandy Hook elementary. Maybe Vice President Biden will also…

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Ross Douthat’s Missing Pregnant Women

…l knock the United States off its global perch, there has always been one excellent reason to bet on a second American century: We have more babies than the competition. [taps on x-ray board and draws circles with pointy thing] Ah, see, I think we may have a problem in this area here. Because while there is a general sense in which “we” Americans “have babies,” there is also a more specific sense in which “we” women who undergo pregnancies and giv…

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Electionpocalypse, Part II: The Mythical Jewish Vote

…as the most important issue. The political divide in the Jewish community between Orthodox Jews and the rest of American Jewry is reflected in the fact that Orthodox Jews support Romney over Obama by 54 to 40 percent, while Conservative, Reform and “just Jewish” voters favor Obama by between 64 and 68 percent. Orthodox Jews made up just 8.3% of the respondents to the AJC poll. The rest: Conservative, 26.6%; Reconstructionist, 1.6%; Reform, 32.2%;…

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Who’s Accusing Who of Mormon-Baiting?

…eports like Donohue’s and Deal’s are cropping up, and Mormons are feeling extra sensitive about the fate of the nation’s first major 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…

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Tropical Storm Isaac Bears Down on RNC

…preparedness more than Mormons.  I myself have a 72-hour kit in my bedroom closet, an earthquake-ready pair of running shoes, whistle, and a flashlight under every bed in the house, and 9 months of rice and beans in the garage.  (Although I do expect our supplies will run out in about 48 hours because we’re the types that feed the neighbors.) Mitt Romney, this tropical storm is in your wheelhouse.  I bet your pragmatic mind is spinning through al…

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