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Will the Pandemic Hasten the Decline of Christianity or is it ‘America’s Best Hope for a Religious Revival’?

By Chrissy Stroop

…and privilege despite declining demographics. Further loss of prestige and numbers will not automatically translate into the loss of power for a group that’s doing everything it can to maintain minority authoritarian rule. But even so, America’s trajectory of rapid religious disaffiliation since the 1990s seems bound to catch up with the white, right-wing Christian population eventually. Conservative Christians and social scientists have already b…

UPDATE: Sam Brownback as Religious Freedom Ambassador? His Distinguished Predecessor Hopes for the Best

By Peter Laarman

…d enacted the nation’s strictest work requirements for welfare recipients. Best friend to the plutocrat and ruthless scourge to the poorest among us: that’s Sam Brownback’s actual idea of “national moral leadership.” But I do hope that Rabbi Saperstein is right in respect to the guy’s qualifications for his new job. And at the very least, it will be a great day for Kansas and Kansans when Sam Brownback departs Topeka. _______ 8.4.17 Author’s No…

A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation

By Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné

…ir multi-national, multi-racial and multi-ethnic character. That said, the numbers of nations and people that we mention are sourced solely on the claims of the groups themselves. We have no way to independently verify these numbers, so they should be used advisedly. Simply put, the global vision of the NAR is based on their understanding of the Great Commission text of Matthew 28:18-20, with an emphasis on “discipling nations” (28:19). Internatio…

Biggest, Best & Worst LGBT Religion Stories of 2016 and more in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…Ways Ministry’s Bondings 2.0 blog reported on what its readers saw as the best and worst stories for LGBT Catholics in 2016. OutRight Action International posted video of a panel discussion on “the future of global LGBTIQ activism over the next four years, Trump’s potential impact, and our strategies for strengthening our community and resilient activism as we move forward.” Many American anti-LGBT religious activists are expanding their global r…

C’mon, Joel, Swerve a Little Bit

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…haviors that were chosen, by the way. I figure if these are some of God’s “best” and gay and lesbian people are not, perhaps it’s simply because we have a higher standard of morality than God’s “best.” Indeed, I think the LGBT community has far more courage than Osteen, who simply wants to “stay in my lane” and preach the feel-good gospel that keeps the money rolling in. What makes God’s “best,” Joel, is not someone who hides behind a happy gosp…

Telling the World a ‘Big Story’: RD in Conversation with Karen Armstrong

By Laurie Patton

…, they are calling us to lay aside the egotism that holds us back from our best selves and from the divine. This is certainly true of the doctrines of Trinity and Incarnation, for example. They also insist that the best way of achieving this is by compassion, in which, “all day and every day” we have to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there. The doctrines and mythos of religion only make sense if we put them into pr…

Perry Gives Huntsman Best Week of His Campaign

By Joanna Brooks

…right, everyone: Rick Perry’s anti-science ramblings gave Jon Huntsman the best week of his campaign. But perhaps an even bigger accomplishment by Perry was reorganizing reality in such a way as to make Mormons—reputed to be the most politically conservative religious groups in the U.S.—appear moderate. In fact, Perry has the two climate-changing-believing Mormons in the GOP presidential hopeful pool looking like downright liberals. And Perry hims…

Conversion Story #643 (not a real number)

By Amina Wadud

…as Muslim. Here too, I began the practices, but only from books, doing the best I could. Then several months after the shahadah, I was coincidently given a copy of the Qur’an. Then I was hooked. I count my dates of entry from these two points: Thanksgiving day 1972 when I said shahadah, and March 1973, when I was began reading the Qur’an. For some time after that, all I read was Qur’an. Still today if things get freaky I return to just reading the…

The Benedict Opt-Out: Why Christian Self-Isolation Won’t Work

By Kaya Oakes

…n will help parents to keep their children faithful. Given the statistical number of Nones among Millennials and Gen X and the seemingly unpreventable increase in those numbers, these children, like Emily, or the children of many homeschooling parents, will eventually encounter peers who are not religiously affiliated. Given the way technology works, they will also inevitably find a way to expose themselves to popular culture. And the question rem…

New Poll Reveals a Paradox in Evangelical Support for Donald Trump

By Daniel Schultz

…te boundary. Before secular government enthusiasts get too excited by this number I would point out that, for a fair number of evangelicals, the worry is that the state will interfere with the church, not the other way around. Similarly, a little more than one in four White evangelicals said the federal government should declare Christianity the official religion of the United States. Far more (61%) said that Christianity should not be the officia…