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Russian Parliament Hosts U.S. Anti-Gay Activist Paul Cameron

…t of the coverage in the press has largely toed the state line. The Interfax Religion headline ran: “Famous American Expert Supports Moscow’s Ban on Gay Pride Parades.” When coverage draws attention to the controversy surrounding Cameron, it tends to spin it in such a way as to make him into a hero, conspiratorially implying that the rejection of his views in the West and/or scientific establishment derives from ideology. The following quotation f…

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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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Of Personhood and the Pill: What’s at Stake?

…at I wasn’t going to get pregnant without serious professional help. The next six months were full of miseries, large and small, as my doctors tried various unsuccessful treatments. We debated skipping straight to IVF, but eventually decided to first do intrauterine insemination (“artificial insemination,” or IUI) cycle, to see how I responded to the IVF medications. Because we are incredibly and undeservedly fortunate, that “practice” cycle concl…

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Why Trump’s Evangelicals Won’t Care About Those Budget Cuts

…n’t receive the help they need from family. If the civil government uses tax money to help the poor it is understood as tyrannically exceeding its biblical authority and effectively stealing money to do so. (They call such misused taxes legalized theft.) You find this position articulated in rather arcane theological form in the work of R.J. Rushdoony and other Christian Reconstructionists, but you also find it popularized in rather mainstream eva…

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Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith Spouts Christian Nationalism Defending Racist Voter Suppression

…y is straight out of the Christian nationalist playbook. That Hyde-Smith next turns to the Bible and its passages about slavery and thoughtcrime to justify disenfranchising Black voters is apt. She wrongly cited Exodus 20 verse 18, which is about trembling and lightning and thunder and generally being afraid of the biblical god, not the sabbath. The verse comes immediately after the prohibition on coveting your neighbor’s livestock, wives, and sla…

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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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Southern Baptist Convention Declares Gay Rights Are Not Civil Rights

…ey were convinced by organizations like the SBC and Exodus that we are morally evil. Most of all, there would be no fight over the phrase “civil rights movement,” since there would be no need to have a new one. Until the SBC, Exodus and all other anti-gay groups own their bigotry, the lives of LGBT people will always be seen as “less than” and their rights easily trodden upon….

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Vaccine Mandates are Constitutional; Religious Exemptions are Unnecessary and Harmful

…tian Nationalism, have so many receipts. They’re not alone. Today’s anti-vaxxers, be they religious or political, are accustomed (and inured) to the benefits of modern medicine. They want life to get back to normal but fail to realize that that normal was achieved with mandatory vaccination and no religious exemptions. If we’re to be free of the pandemic that’s killed 710,000 of our friends, brothers, sisters, and parents—more Americans than all o…

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Before Oprah, There Was the “Hour of Power”: Crystal Cathedral Pastor Robert H. Schuller Has Died

…ng financial problems and infighting among church staff — including a rift between Schuller and his son (and heir apparent) the Rev. Robert Schuller, Jr., over the direction of church ministry — the Crystal Cathedral filed for bankruptcy, eventually reaching a $57.5 million agreement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange to purchase the gleaming architectural icon of American Protestantism. Exterior of the Crystal Cathedral, 2007. Image via Wi…

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Fatwa Allowing Women to Hit Their Husbands is Useless

…h a woman whose imam told her to keep quiet as she suffered domestic and sexual abuse to a mufti in the Emirates who told a woman whose alcoholic husband was sexually and physically abusing her to get him to “find help” rather than divorce him, it seems that those in positions of knowledge just aren’t aware of the issues and dangers surrounding domestic violence. Until imams and scholars can understand the damaging effects of domestic violence and…

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