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Pittsburgh Paradox: A City Haunted by God and Steel

…thiest industrial metropolis in America, only to see its economy gutted by free-market orthodoxy—makes the region a metaphor for the nation itself. Which is what makes the spiritual implications of Pittsburgh’s meaning all the more important, because if we try and reconcile transcendence with grubby reality, we derive a poetics of the sacred amidst the profane, what I described in a 2015 essay in Belt Magazine as being a place of “strangeness and……

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Should Chaplains Be Involved in Psychedelic Experiences? Are ‘Trips’ Inherently Religious?

…as guides during an experience itself. Most of the discussion, however, focused on how chaplains might help users understand and integrate their experiences in light of pre-existing faith commitments. As trained caregivers, chaplains could play an important role in the newly-emerging psychedelic landscape, providing guidance to those who may choose to incorporate the use of psychedelics into their own spiritual journeys. We could perhaps think abo…

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Condoms and Common Sense

…ually that the Vatican feared that people would not be able to distinguish between the use of condoms to prevent the spread of a deadly disease and the use of contraceptives. There was more concern with the possibility of headlines that read “Church reverses stand on contraception” than with the millions who were dying. It will be seen as churlish in the face of the Pope’s welcome comments to point to the past (and probably to continuing sins) aro…

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Catholics Talk About Sex

…aception as, “characteristic of a less than fully human way of acting, because it diminishes the need for reason and the use of the will to make responsible and truly loving decisions about how to use one’s God-given gift of sexuality.” As a moral theologian and sexual ethicist, I completely disagree. The ability of a young person to make a decision about any sexual behavior that includes protecting one’s self and partner from disease or pregnancy…

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Hicksters, Stickers, and Affection: Why I Left D.C. for the Family Farm

…one’s soul. Yes, the Immokalee agricultural workers who pick our tomatoes use their hands every day, work outside, get regular exercise, are free from the restraints of a cubicle, and even live in “tiny home” communities (formerly known as “trailer parks”). It may sound idyllic to the young, well-educated, and the restless masses of yesterday and today. But not many of us are seek employment alongside migrant laborers because of the near constant…

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From “It’s Just Words” to Just Words: Speech Ethics in the Time of Trump

…n that was never shared. As my progeny, Karis possesses some of my genetic code. Furthermore, since we live in the same house and share daily experience, I also have contributed to her cultural DNA. Even as relatives who share so much, Karis and I must exercise patience if we are to genuinely hear, and be heard by, the other. If an abiding commitment to patience is necessary for healthy communication between blood relatives, how much more patience…

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Anti-Gay Forces On Offense in Europe; ‘African Islam’ Challenged by Extremists; Irish Marriage Foes & ‘Sounds of Sodomy’; Global LGBT Recap

…rminology manipulations used by Catholic church and its allies. “Religious freedoms” is the basic concept used here to try and provide some legitimacy for discrimination and intolerance towards anything other and different, i.e. towards anything that does not fit within their narrow definitions of life and family. Slovakia: Traditionalists ‘On the Offensive’ Cato Institute analyst Dalibor Rohac wrote last week in the New York Times that while “it…

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GMO or No: Problematic Intersections of Religion, Biotechnology, and Food

…create advanced pharmaceuticals and treatments for conditions including diabetes, hemophilia, and hepatitis. Genetic disorders can be curbed, and perhaps in the future, eradicated. At the same time, GM foods have caused considerable ethical controversy over the potential for unknown harm. Particularly in Europe, Japan, and parts of Africa, the uproar over untested, unlabeled GM foods in the food supply has been dramatic. Some of the controversy ca…

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Rome vs. the Sisters

…rs forced virgins to describe themselves as “brides of Christ” rather than use the male martial imagery they had come to use during the Roman persecutions. The early equality between male and female desert monastics was likewise undercut when eighth century bishops began taking control of women’s monasteries and ordained monks to the priesthood for the first time (but not nuns, of course). And as, throughout the following centuries, groups of dedi…

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303 Creative Is Not a ‘Religion v. Gay Rights’ Case — But Here’s Why the Christian Right is Happy with the Media Suggesting Just That

…incentive the Christian Right has to keep the focus on religion instead of free speech is because the implications if Smith wins on the free speech argument are, frankly, unthinkable. A win for Smith would bore a hole right in the center of nondiscrimination laws—nondiscrimination laws for all, not just for LGBTQ people—no matter what ADF want us to think. A win for Smith would, by some measures, create an entirely new class of rights: artists who…

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