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‘We’re all in this together’: The Perils of Kumbaya Rhetoric

By Peter Laarman

…out eradicating it? These are questions that have answers, but the thoughts-and-prayers crowd won’t be asking them. Nor will the politically minded liberals who would have us believe that a “return to normal” with Joe Biden at the helm will make everything all hunky-dory again. Trump’s incompetence and malice—and the GOP’s connivance in all of it—have certainly made the pandemic worse than it needed to be. But the underlying structural problems an…

Holding Out for a Hero: New ID Book Aims to Save You From Despair of Evolution

By Kriti Sharma

…ur own fear and pain and get you home safely. Despite Axe’s passionate call-to-action, heroes are actually not badly needed. But friends are. Good friends don’t need to be particularly heroic, pious, smart, strong, or good. They’re not free of fear or uncertainty. Rather, they’re just attentive enough to their own fears and uncertainties to support others who are facing the same. Unlike the savior-evangelist, the good friend trusts you to be able…

Why The Advocate‘s Choice of Pope Francis for Person of the Year is a Mistake

By Anthea Butler

…was a statement that shocked the world with its compassion, but the follow-up proved that it was not a change in church teaching. In September of 2013, in an interview with Rev. Anthony Spadaro, Pope Francis made clear that he is a “Son of the Church” on matters regarding the Church’s catechism on homosexuality, abortion and contraception—but that “the dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral minist…

Turn on the News: Some Abortion Opponents May Opt For a New Vaccine, But Behind Their Skepticism it’s Often a Different Story — of Disinformation, Conspiratorial Thinking, and White Nationalism

By Daniel Schultz

…d “some” is doing a lot of work here. As Jenkins points out, only about one-in-ten Americans claim religious objections to COVID vaccination. That figure comes from a PRRI poll, which doesn’t break down the objections any further. Meaning, we don’t know how much of that 10% is rooted in concerns over abortion. It could be that people are balking because they see vaccination as unnecessary, or because they see vaccines as contaminants, both of whic…

How To Control Your Ungodly Urges… On a Budget!

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…r example) responded with the unprecedented, totally creative, really-takes-an-intelligent-person-to-come-up-with-it tactic of calling Fluke, and her friends, sluts who can’t control themselves. (Patricia Heaton, the star from Everybody Loves Raymond who once won an award from Feminists [!!] for Life, tweeted a whole series of insulting tips for “G-Town Gal,” which were SO FUNNY!) Ha ha! Oh, stop, my sides hurt! Obviously I’m being sarcastic. Name…

Hajj Journal: Tawaf: How I Fell in Love…

By Amina Wadud

…as high as your ears, with palms toward the black stone, and recite “bismi-Lah, Allahu Akbar laa ilaha illa-Allah.” Then raise your right hand as if in greeting and bring it back to kiss. If you are close enough to the stone, you’re supposed to kiss it. If you cannot kiss it, you should touch it with the right hand; if not, then just wave and kiss the hand. People also will touch it with an item of clothing and then kiss that, if they are close e…

Seeking Broad Appeal to US Christians, ‘God & Country: The Rise of Christian Nationalism’ Glosses Over Critical Context

By Chrissy Stroop

…the old evangelical “WWJD” fad in promotional materials—thanks for the not-at-all annoying reminder that I wore those cringe cloth bracelets in the 1990s, my dudes—I hoped the film itself would focus less on efforts to “save” Christianity and more on the very real threat to our democracy from authoritarian Christians. Unfortunately, the WWJD invocation was a tell. At the end of the day, God & Country is more concerned with laundering the reputati…

With Methodist LGBTQ Vote and GOP Support for Trump, White Protestantism Has Hit Bottom

By Peter Laarman

…oubt that respect for reason played a major role in its conversion to a gay-positive position. Rejecting reason and common sense, only the American Baptists* and the United Methodists still take the view that committed gay relationships are unacceptable. It is surely no coincidence that both of these bodies have a straight white man problem: too much power in the hands of straight men who aren’t especially interested in the rule of reason and whos…

This is Not a Religion Column: Christian Candidate Quiz Bowl

By Jeff Sharlet

…nd Vitter and Foley, Ney and DeLay and Duke Cunningham, but also the lesser-known luminaries of the many right-wing revolutions that seemed once, not so long ago, to be cresting irresistibly together, Christian crusaders and invisible handers and “New American Century” dreamers all riding the same tsunami. Consider now the crestfallen. This week’s winners: Tim Goeglein, “pipeline to the President” for religious conservatives, given the shove after…

Dylann Roof Was Wrong: The Race War Isn’t Coming, It’s Here

By Willie James Jennings

…an) citizen stepped on the shores of Africa and the Americas and other soon-to-be-colonized places and said, “God has given this land and these people to me. This is mine.” The belief in God-given possession flows like a vampire virus through the veins of this country. We eagerly draw lifeblood from as much of the world as possible, in land, natural resources, and cheap labor. What does it mean to be born in a place that measures your value, your…