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Is the Satanic Temple Just an Elaborate Prank? 10 Questions for the Author of ‘Speak of the Devil’

By Joseph Laycock

…cheap, especially if you have never seriously thought about what these commitments might actually mean in a pluralistic society. I was disturbed to read some of TST’s Christian opponents openly renouncing religious freedom if it meant respecting the freedoms of Satanists. I also think TST is forcing the public to think more critically about what “religion” is. They are directly challenging the popular notion that religion is really about supernat…

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

By Peter Laarman

…he culture of, say, 1960. For example, it’s been 45 years since my own denomination, the United Church of Christ, ordained its first openly gay minister, and there’s no doubt 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 coincidenc…

In a Time of Irrational Fear and New Media: The Deadly ‘Dance Plague’ at 500

By Ed Simon

…onths earlier, the very world turned upside down. Society itself seemed to mimic the chaos of the medieval Shrovetide, the pre-Lenten season best known for wild Carnival celebrations, the most famous of which in the U.S. is Mardi Gras—which saw the ordination of an “Abbot of Unreason” or the coronation of a “Lord of Misrule.” Should it be any wonder then, this state of eternal carnival? For the subjects of Strasbourg, the Abbot of Unreason found a…

Must We Burn Something to Get Attention?: 50 Years After the Catonsville Nine

By Jason C. Bivins

…s . . . And yet, and yet, the times are inexhaustibly good, solaced by the courage and hope of many.” Cynicism is understandable, and despair more so. But instead of siding with cheap, whitewashed nostalgia, let us note that certain moments in the past remind us of the future that may yet still be achieved….

Trump’s Easter Egg Roll: Inauthentic Christianity in a Bunny Suit

By Karen E. Park

…that the Obamas had with them, as seen at the 2016 Easter Egg Roll), welcoming families and young children and sincerely trying to show them a good time was never the goal of the Trump administration. In order to understand the real goal of this event, we need to head over to the Egg Roll “reading nook.” To watch the videos of the reading nook, held outdoors on a day when temperatures struggled to climb out of the 40s, is to give the children cre…

First Things First: Sexual Equality Just Is

By Kate Blanchard

…ionship with a spouse and the sense of purpose that comes with raising a family.” That couples in the past might have had so much sex precisely because women felt obligated to continue offering sex, in exchange for continuing financial support, does not seem to enter Regnerus’s imagination. Neither does he imagine that husbands who eschew housework have more sex than husbands who do their share because the former are more self-centered or aggressi…

Can I Get Some Birth Control Pills With That Slushie?: Unpacking the Contraceptive Mandate Rollback

By Sunnivie Brydum

…challenged. What do you see as the potential fallout from such a broad permission to deny an entire category of coverage? Patricia Miller: The most interesting thing about the astounding breadth of the proposed exemption is that it confirms what I and other opponents of the original, ever-expanding exemption suspected in the first place—that this was never about an actual conscience exemption as they have been traditionally understood, but was ab…

When Being “Christian” Means Supporting Trump: An Argument For Hiding Your Faith

By Jonathan Malesic

…n initiation and began celebrating the sacraments only behind closed doors, in order to keep out those who were not full members of the church. Cyril’s aim was to manage people’s identities: did they identify with Christ, or the empire? If they were committed to Christ, then they would express that commitment out of public view. Maybe secrecy is not the right prescription for American Christians in the present moment. But the wise discernment exhi…

On the 40th Anniversary of Hyde, A Theological Defense of Reproductive Justice

By Anita Little

…he same Bible out of which my conservative brothers and sisters pull these cheap one-liners to control the conversation about reproductive health also shows us the life and ministry of Jesus—whom we all claim to follow. The Jesus of the Gospel always treated poor people and people in crisis with compassion, never judgement. I don’t understand how you can claim to model yourself on Jesus while seeking to constantly judge and shame and limit people….

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

By Kriti Sharma

…ndom Lego arrangements would form a functional figure like Hogwarts or the Millennium Falcon, the chance of something like the Millennium Falcon randomly evolving from a bunch of Legos is so infinitesimally small that it is effectively impossible. Similarly, given how many ways an average protein could be arranged if just randomly assembled from its parts, and given how few of those randomly-assembled variants would actually function, no functiona…