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The Black Church: Institution or Abstraction?

By Anthony B. Pinn

…e in the United States are black churches, as varied in orientation as the number of congregations. There are millions of African American Christians housed in thousands of churches across the country; some of them rather large and others small in number. In using this phrase, we must remain mindful of the similarities and differences between local congregations, spread across urban and rural areas that the term, “Black Church,” easily covers. It…

Why Bill Maher Gets a “C” in My Introduction to Religion Class…

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…piety of life, with the practice of all moral duties. Not until definition number four in that dictionary do we find that religion might, beyond Christians, include “pagans and Mohammedans.” Of course, that definition ends with, “We speak of false religion as well as true religion” (emphasis his). It should come as no surprise that Webster’s 1828 version is the dictionary of choice for home-schoolers across the United States. The outlook on langua…

Are We Entering the End Times for Mainline Seminaries?

By Elesha Coffman

…nce existed mainly to train full-time pastors faced reductions in both the number of churches that could support such positions and the number of people eager to take the more challenging, but lower paying, church jobs that remained. Some seminaries shifted their missions to serve the academy or society more broadly, while others trained more part-time, second-career and lay pastors. These shifts were less abrupt than decisions to close or merge a…

Secularism in the US is Larger, More Diverse and More Dynamic Than Ever, But You Wouldn’t Know it From the Media

By Chrissy Stroop

…s as mostly atheists and agnostics when they clearly are not (although the numbers of atheists and agnostics are rising as well), the subtext that the nones haven’t fully thought through their choice to disaffiliate from religion is offensive—and it’s a prime example of how journalists talk over nones instead of to us. Bolling, by contrast, works directly with students, which gives him valuable insight into their mindset and decision making. “Some…

Even After an Obama Victory Reports of the Death of the Religious Right are Greatly Exaggerated

By Bill Berkowitz

…, D.C. has been seriously diminished,” as the Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State wrote early this morning, even in an Obama administration, expect some or all of the following to take place against the backdrop of a mainstream media giddy with reports of the demise of the religious right. Right off the bat, longtime leaders of the religious right, monitoring every move Obama’s transition team makes, will dis…

Who Would the Buddha Bomb?

By Danny Fisher

…ives that, disappointingly, grow less and less helpful as they increase in number and length. When I spoke to Bhikkhu Bodhi about the fracas in an interview last fall, he cautioned against interpreting his statements as a blanket endorsement of military solutions: I think what has to take priority now, since the formation of the United Nations, are the conditions for just warfare that are laid down within their charter. One is that a nation is jus…

A Legal Document with Soul: Will the US Ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

By Sara Friedman

…country whose government is not recognized by the United Nations, and the United States, which, by its own admission, is the world’s most zealous champion of human rights worldwide and proprietor of the world’s most progressive laws protecting the rights of children. More than 10 years in the drafting, the CRC would not have happened without the support of the United States, including the significant contributions to its language under the presid…

Anti-Gay Campaign In Indonesia Leads to Arrests; Mexico’s Religious Right Wars Against Secular State & LGBT Equality; Muslim Preacher Sparks Controversy in UK Re Death Penalty For Gays; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…known and will be involved. These are positive things,” Cherlow told JTA. United Arab Emirates: Lebanese Gay Man Faces Death Penalty Earlier this month a 21-year-old gay man from Lebanon was arrested after posting a photograph in drag online and is facing the death penalty for charges that include offering sexual services to other men. France: New Gender ID Law, New Anti-Marriage-Equality Protests The Associated Press reports that tens of thousan…

LGBT Human Rights in UN Sustainable Development Negotiation; Swiss Bishop Says Speaking of ‘Family Diversity’ is ‘Attack on the Creator’; Canadian Food Bank’s Anti-Gay Dogma; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…sexuals who are Catholic and want to be part of the Church,” Salinas said. United Kingdom: MP says anti-extremism laws threaten Christian teaching A Conservative Member of Parliament, Mark Spencer, is complaining that a law aimed at radical Islamic clerics who promote extremism and encourage children to become terrorists is, in a misguided notion of fairness, being applied to Christian churches that teach traditional views about sexuality and marr…

In This Week’s LGBT Recap: Are Gay Priests Overdue for a Stonewall Moment?

By Peter Montgomery

…Schubert; C-Fam’s Austin Ruse, who is fomenting anti-LGBT backlash at the United Nations; Howard Center founder Allan Carlson; Janice Shaw Crouse, who led the 2015 World Congress of Families summit in Salt Lake City; and Movieguide’s Ted Baehr. Also among the initial signers are anti-equality activists from around the world; many of them, like Nigeria’s Theresa Okafor, have participated in World Congress of Families summits. Also listed as signer…