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Trump’s Pathological Devotion to Border Walls Isn’t Political, It’s Theological

By Alana Massey

…nsport goods effectively and devastating several economies. The 10-sq mile city of Qalqilya was particularly affected as the mostly agricultural city was nearly surrounded by the wall, cut off from water supplies that nourished their harvests and with only a single and congested route out of the city. Within the first year, the UNDP estimated that the wall had already destroyed 83,000 olive and fruit trees and 37 km worth of water networks. Devast…

Where Polls and Surveys Fall Short: A Conversation with Robert Wuthnow on “Inventing American Religion”

By Andrew Aghapour

…s pretty much it. Evangelical leaders themselves didn’t believe the Gallup numbers were right, and [they thought that] the best way to combat those Gallup numbers was to ask Gallup to do another survey. And so in 1978, Christianity Today, a leading periodical for evangelicals, paid Gallup to do a big survey and in addition to just asking the born-again question, they asked questions about belief in the Bible, belief in Jesus, and intent on convert…

Why Bill Maher Gets a “C” in My Introduction to Religion Class…

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…pages I’ll confine myself to Religulous.) This is the kind of thing a fair number of my students, raised in the Protestant-dominated United States (even Catholics and Jews have assimilated this definition), come to university thinking about religion; the two key components of which are “belief” and “God.” Religion is some cryptic interior, individual thing that exists in one’s own head, and is only understood in relation to a God. I don’t blame my…

Catholic Bishops End Family Synod With Little To Say To Gays; World Congress of Families Has Plenty To Say, None of it Good; How Same-Sex Marriage Came to a Buddhist Temple in Japan; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…have been fleeing to Europe for years. But experts estimate that a record number of gays and lesbians seeking asylum, as many as 50,000, will arrive this year in Germany, the European nation accepting the largest number of refugees. Rather than leaving their home countries specifically because of anti-gay persecution, many are fleeing violence and war in nations such as Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Once in Europe, gays and lesbians are herded alo…

Marriage Vote ‘Transforms’ Not-So-Catholic Ireland; Activist to Malaysian PM – ‘Love Is Not Terrorism’; LGBTs Find Growing Acceptance in Colombia, Not At World Meeting of Families; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ples to marry in civil ceremonies. Gay rights advocates in Bogota say that number would be even higher today in the city of about 8 million, known for its burgeoning gay culture and nightlife. But it’s not just Bogota. Support for LGBT rights is spreading across the country. Manizales, a medium-sized city in Colombia’s more conservative “coffee country,” recently hosted a gay pride parade with little controversy. To Sanchez and other gay rights ad…

Archbishop of Chicago Accuses Emanuel of McCarthyism Over Chick-fil-A

By Sarah Posner

…values do not conform to those of the government of the day move from the city? Is the City Council going to set up a “Council Committee on Un-Chicagoan Activities” and call those of us who are suspect to appear before it? I would have argued a few days ago that I believe such a move is, if I can borrow a phrase, “un-Chicagoan.” That from the good Cardinal who once said, “You don’t want the gay liberation movement to morph into something like the…

Country Trumpkins

By Daniel Schultz

….” As well, there are people who have explicitly chosen not to live in The City. Expats from the city, some wealthy, some less so, settle in the country. Most of these folks carry that “responsibility” frame of reference, which they link to the downsides of living in a city: noise, crime, asshole neighbors. There are also many people who grew up in the country and have decided to remain, or return after a few years away. Between the two groups, th…

Mormons Condemn Anti-Gay Violence in Utah

By Joanna Brooks

…on LGBT people reported in the last two weeks, faith leaders in Salt Lake City convened a candlelight vigil last Friday in the city’s historic Liberty Park. Hundreds attended the vigil and subsequent march through Salt Lake City; including representatives from American Baptist, Roman Catholic, United Church of Christ, Buddhist, Humanist, and Pagan traditions. But the “big news” of the event, according to vigil organizer Marian Edwards (pastor of…

Unmasking the “Veiled Prophet” Behind a 135-Year-Old St. Louis Tradition

By Spencer Dew

…and this history and ongoing practice is being put to such use in the Arch City Religion Project, one of the latest digital means of mapping (and remapping) American Christianities and American religions more broadly. Run by St. Louis University professor Rachel McBride Lindsey, a scholar of religion and visual culture and author of the recently released A Communion of Shadows: Religion and Photography in Nineteenth-Century America, the Arch City…

Church’s Lawyers Have SNAP in Their Sights

By Kathryn Joyce

…Donahue sees a criminal prosecution or a civil lawsuit as an angry threat when the overwhelming amount of victims see those as the best way to warn people about dangerous predators and in most instances, the only way. Where do things stand now? We have pro-bono lawyers in Kansas City, not yet in St. Louis. There’s a hearing on April 20 in Kansas City on the Church’s motion to compel, seeking to make SNAP turn over more records and make me answer m…