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A Response to the Newsweek flap: Passages vs. Principles

By James F. McGrath

…hat text. The reason for doing so, according to not only Galatians but Acts 15, was apparently experience. The early Christians had witnessed uncircumcised Gentile Christians manifesting the signs that God’s Spirit was at work in their lives, and believed that God’s “seal of approval” in the present trumped Scripture, at least in this instance. That being the case, perhaps it should not take more than an encounter with some gay and lesbian Christi…

LGBT Mormons Ask in Historic Temple: “If they could just see us, don’t you think they would change their minds?”

By Joanna Brooks

…s Burning”—the very hymn our ancestors sang to dedicate the Kirtland temple 175 years ago, in 1836, on a day when, as the folklore goes, neighboring villages reported seeing a cloud of fire hovering over Kirtland. Standing in the sunlit white interiors of the temple, Liam, a young gay LDS man who had travelled all the way from London just to take part in the conference, wept openly. His mind was on the leadership of his Church, the Church of Jesus…

And the Violent Bear It Away? Disciplined Nonviolence and the Coming Election Emergency

By Peter Laarman

…nshirts—the Sturmabteiling, or SA—facilitated his rise during the 1920s and 1930s. A badly polarized Weimar Republic found itself totally defenseless in the face of stormtrooper-incited chaos and crime. Of course our official founders—those rich white men in wigs—chose to euphemize and sanitize what they knew full well would ultimately threaten the stability of their perfect machine: the unspeakable violence they authorized within the system of ch…

Jesus, Carpet Bomb My Heart: An Undercover Muslim in Detroit

By Haroon Moghul

…from what they were told it is. All the passionate music, jubilation, and spiritual energy cannot hide the meanness of spirit that would perpetrate this kind of fraud. As much as TheCall prayed for “Jesus to cover Dearborn in light, and cast out the darkness,” Kamal Saleem was the one speaking in the dead of night. Engle should pay more attention to his own moralizing etiology of America’s crisis. Democracy, like a free-market economy, operates o…

Joel Osteen and Annise Parker: Strange Stage-fellows

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…s not going to tell homosexuals they can’t come to our church. If the Holy Spirit convicts them, then they’ll change.” Not to read too much into Iloff’s statement, but what I hear is that Osteen took the opportunity mix politics, religion, and friendship evangelism all at once. He got to pray “in Jesus’ name” at a government event for an elected official who happens to be an open lesbian, who says she believes in God – but the Holy Spirit still ha…

#SorryNotSorry: What U.S. Christian Denominations Teach About Homosexuality

By Stephanie Russell-Kraft

… American Baptist Churches USA (Mainline Protestant) Members (as of 2009): 1,310,505 In 1992, the American Baptist Churches USA General Board affirmed a one-sentence resolution on homosexuality: “American Baptist Resolution on Homosexuality”: “We affirm that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” In 2005, the board added the same language to its official identity statement. 54% of members believe homosexuality sho…

Come Let Us Reason Together: A Response to Critics of Evangelical/Progressive Initiative

By Robert P. Jones

…ts of our body together in the way that God decided is best. —I Corinthians 12: 4—6, 17—18 (CEV) Third Way’s* recently released “Come Let Us Reason Together Governing Agenda” has sparked lively discussions about the policies it puts forward, but it has also cast in bold relief some tensions and factions in the growing chorus of voices that are politically progressive and religious. The two-year initiative set out to find common ground based on sha…

An Historic Meeting: African and African Diaspora Women Convene in Ghana for First-Ever Religion Conference

By Rosetta E. Ross

…s and powers that put religion to use in service of empire. During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s African-descended women (including Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Brigilia Bam, Musimbi Kanyoro [from Africa], and Katie G. Cannon and Jacquelyn Grant [from the United States]) joined other women of color from Asia, Central and South America, and Austraila-Oceana in shaping and broadening liberation theologies—and especially in challenging the patriarch…

Kirill’s Sermon May Be Bad Preaching and Even Worse Theology — But it’s a Top-Notch Rejection of Liberal Democracy

By Daniel Schultz

…it is relevant nonetheless: O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, meddling, lust for power and idle talk. But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of integrity, humility, patience and love. Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to condemn my brother. For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen. We can all learn from that, but perhaps none better than religious leaders who happily excuse the de…

‘When I Spoke in Tongues’ Points the Way Out of Fundamentalist Christianity

By Andreea Nica

…“The point was having this direct line to God, this evidence that the Holy Spirit had entered me and claimed me as his own. Now that same Spirit was reaching back out to God and appealing to him on my behalf.” It’s rare to come across individuals who can so precisely capture what it means to leave a unique and profound (religious) meaning system. Moreover, the ability to unravel the emotionally wrenching and often complex social psychological proc…