Religion Dispatches
…nia megachurch, in a brief interview with RD. “You have a common phrase, a common idea.” The church put the hashtag on their website. Pastors pushed it on social media. It appeared in New Life’s local TV commercials. People use social media. Marketers use social media. Spreading the good news is, on some level, a form of marketing. As a simultaneous marker of identity and identity marketer, the hashtag plays a neat trick: it lets you affiliate you…
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…they know) that they can’t. And it’s too easy for the public to default to complicity in this circle of untruths. The echoes of Messianic movement-building in the Rand Paul video (and surely in many more to come from candidates of all political stripes) aren’t just clichéd. They’re disconnected from any idea of movement that would put into practice a vision of a new America. In a time when the Republican Party’s strategy has been to obstruct any b…
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…after the university granted official recognition to an LGBT student group comprised of same-sex attracted students committed to lifelong celibacy and “spiritual friendship.” (A pre-existing LGBT student group, which affirms marriage equality, is still not acknowledged officially by Biola.) Clearly, attitudes around LGBTQ inclusion are changing rapidly in the evangelical Christian community but they’re not following a linear path toward progress….
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…before they managed to unfurl any banners or chant any slogans…. The LGBT community has come under increased pressure in Russia as President Vladimir Putin has charted a more conservative course since starting his third term in 2012. A 2013 law against gay “propaganda” sparked an outcry among Russian rights activists and in the West. But partly reflecting the influence of the Orthodox church, many Russians back the law or have negative feelings t…
Read More…, whatever organised religion may say, our way of loving is right. No holy communion is more holy than the human communion of two people in love. I believe that we can honestly assert that what we have learned first and foremost is that it is the oppression and repression of human sexual fulfillment that are the primary cause of sickness in our human communities, both straight and gay. In contrast, Christopher J. Hale wrote for TIME Magazine that…
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…ccept into the Church those gay Christian couples who have made a lifetime commitment to one another? While I have always tried to communicate grace and understanding to people on both sides of the issue, my answer to that question has always been somewhat ambiguous. One reason for that ambiguity was that I felt I could do more good for my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters by serving as a bridge person, encouraging the rest of the Church to rea…
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…oaning at a bad joke. Many of the verses have been paraphrased to maximize comedic potential so that “Jesus had disappeared in the crowd” in the Bible becomes “Houdini Jesus” on its card. Double entendres abound and there are swear words. Lots of them. This a strange mix of sincerity and sarcasm prompts the question: at what, exactly, are players supposed to laugh? PLAYERS AGES 8+ looking for interactive fun at the expense of organized religion…
Read More…ces!” he said. “What great richness this diversity is, a diversity which becomes complimentary, but also reciprocal. It binds them, one to the other.” “Children mature seeing their father and mother like this; their identity matures being confronted with the love their father and mother have, confronted with this difference,” he said. Italy: Large protest in Rome against marriage equality Hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered in Rome on Sat…
Read More…tion, saying in 2010, “Up north, they think it was like the K.K.K. Where I come from, it was an organization of town leaders.” (Barbour is also not offended by the Confederate flag.) Moore has elicited comparisons to Alabama’s segregationist governor George Wallace, following his pledge to defy a federal court ruling invalidating Alabama’s ban on same-sex marriage earlier this year. Moore ordered probate court clerks, who issue marriage licenses i…
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…ecognize that the “messy middle” is making a genuine effort to listen with compassion. Whether this middle space will end up becoming a transitional halfway house to full LGBTQ affirmation remains unclear. While I genuinely do not know the extent to which evangelicalism is capable of a thorough sea change, I do know that even if that day is coming, there’s something more than a little off-putting about the gleeful amens shouted by more progressive…
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