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Holey Holey Holey: The Problem with a New Study Valuing Religion at $1.2 Trillion Per Year

By Michael Schulson

…ots,” a category that includes a few predictable choices (Hobby Lobby, Chik-Fil-A), and a few less conventional ones (Walmart, Whole Foods Market). The Grims’ third and highest estimate, $4.8 trillion, includes all the household income of all the Americans who tell Pew researchers they’re affiliated with a specific religious tradition, though even Grim admits that method is “hard to defend.” Let’s focus for a minute, though, on that $1.2 trillion…

Does Record Number of Religious “Nones” Mean Decline of Religiosity?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…the Pew report suggest to me that our growing fixation with religion-by-the-numbers may be distracting us from richer, more nuanced understandings of American religious practice. Wanted: A Community that Doesn’t Share My Beliefs and Values Take the demographic category of “Nones” itself. The Pew report notes the difficulty with survey questions which ask respondents to define their religious outlook in negative terms—“no religion,” “no religion i…

Malawi Catholic Bishops Call For Enforcement of Sodomy Law; Ukrainian Thugs Disrupt Equality Festival Opposed by Orthodox Church; Indonesian Islamists Continue Rhetorical War on LGBTs; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…The AP story quotes a lesbian activist who says she has been receiving late-night phone calls for several weeks threatening to kill her if she does not close the advocacy group she works for. The campaign by “Islamic hardliners” has already forced an Islamic boarding school for transgender students to shut down. Indonesia’s human rights commission has deplored the outpouring of hatred, but President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has been silent. He was ele…

Crisis in Sudan: ‘If the World Stands Idly By This Time, They Will Bring Genocide’

By Frederick Clarkson

…dral. By the grace of God I am alive. My people are being hunted down house-to-house, arrested, tortured, and bombarded by their own government. Our homes, aid centers, and churches have been burned down and the Nuba people are being trampled down. In the months prior to the invasion of Abyei, there were many signs of what was to come: Military equipment—tanks, planes, helicopters and more positioned near the border, as well as looting and burning…

A Matter of the Heart: Talking to Gay Christian Rocker Jennifer Knapp

By Kristin Rawls

…rts and shows, as well as contributing to these dialogues we’re having. My phone’s ringing off the hook, and I’m participating as much as I can in discussions with LGBT lay people and clergy. There are so many people who want to have a positive dialogue about this. I’m getting to the point that I feel like I can engage at a positive level and contribute to that conversation. So, did you follow the recent change in the Presbyterian Church-USA? Th…

Report from Paris During COP21: Let Us Not Commit Global Suicide

By Donna Schaper

…with a man high up on a light pole, waving a home made banner of the earth-as-womb, a fetus resting inside. He was in front of the Grand Palais, an enormous glass roofed building constructed for the 1900 Paris Universal Exhibition, where we were trying to see opening day—mistake! You’d think New Yorkers would know this!—of an exhibit called Solutions COP21. His ruggedness and raggedness–the flag had seen more than one demonstration—paled next to…

The Religious Right’s Apocalyptic Visions of an Obama Presidency

By Bill Berkowitz

…of the Flies is, for conservative Christian evangelicals, a bleak one: “Far-left liberals could hold a 6-3 majority on the US Supreme Court. “The nation’s highest court could rule same-sex ‘marriage’ is a constitutional right—in all 50 states. “Preaching from the Bible could be banned from radio and television. “States may not be able to restrict abortion, and taxpayers could be forced to fund abortions. “In several states, it could be illegal to…

It’s Not Raining Eligible Muslim Men

By Shabana Mir

…I have agonized, along with my friends, about the disproportionately large numbers of such women and the much lower numbers of truly eligible Muslim men. Many friends have wondered if “he” is out there at all. Many friends have asked me if I can introduce them to someone, and friends have asked me if I can introduce their friends to someone. I empty my pockets helplessly; there are few that I’d introduce to them with confidence. The “good ones” ar…

Dirty Money in the Appalachian Church: Six Years After Deadly Coal Mine Disaster, Where Are We Now?

By Michael J. Iafrate

…at the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia that killed twenty-nine coal miners. I will not soon forget that Saturday’s vigil Mass homily when the soft-spoken pastor declared those responsible for the explosion—executives of Massey Energy, including CEO Don Blankenship—should be charged with murder. In that Wheeling, West Virginia parish, one of the wealthiest in the state, I believe I heard the prophetic gospel being proclaimed. Soon…

Students at Conservative Catholic College Speak After Sudden Cancellation of Pro-Gay Speaker

By Rob Shryock

…mic departments at Providence co-sponsored a lecture by John Corvino, a pro-gay-marriage philosopher whose website is called “The Gay Moralist.” Corvino’s lecture, “The Meaning of (Gay) Marriage” was to be given on Thursday, September 26th, and would be followed by a critical response from Providence theology professor Dr. Dana Dillon. What happened next has been widely reported throughout the media. Providence College’s Provost, Dr. Hugh Lena, s…