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If it’s Really About “Religious Freedom,” Why Mention Just One Belief?

…cept my order for a cake. FADA would, at the very least, allow a religious business-owner to launch a sexual behavior investigation before agreeing to work with a given customer or hire a potential employee. The basic question at hand is this: at what point does our right to equal treatment under the law take priority over a business owner or healthcare provider’s religiously informed feelings about our relationship? And what are the appropriate l…

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Kansas Tries to Figure Out Its Own Religious Freedom Laws

…ference also wants protections for non-clergy. HB 2453 would have shielded business owners, private employees and government employees who declined to serve couples on religious grounds, provisions which were opposed by gay rights activists as discriminatory. Another state group, Kansans for Liberty, is disappointed that the Senate failed to take up HB 2453 after it passed the House. Its president, Craig Gabel, seems to have a firm grasp on the le…

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A Call for Heresy

…d when we communicate. Human communication, like life in general, is risky business. But it is exciting business. It’s like an unscripted drama, an improvised dance. What alternate title would you give the book? Saints in Peril: Islam and America in the Age of Globalization. Fortunately, my publishers, especially the press’ marketing manager, convinced me that their title is more appealing. The best they would allow me is change “heretics” to “her…

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From Porn to Born-Again: A Remembrance of Bettie Page

…the brother and sister team behind the wildly successful mail-order pin-up business that made Page’s image a locker-room staple—were the only products of her career that she regretted. “Under my arrangement with the Klaws,” Page told the Los Angeles Times, “I had to do at least an hour of bondage poses in order to get paid for the other modeling work.” Page’s run as the risqué muse of America’s slowly awakening sexual sensibilities lasted about a…

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Bill Mill-ennialism: Arkansas’ End Times Politics May Be Coming to a State Near You

…Rapert’s first dance. He’s been involved in the Christian Right bill mill business since at least 2015 when he was a founding member of the Arkansas Legislative Prayer Caucus and for which he served as Chair or Co-Chair from 2017 – 2020. But even during his chairmanship, the ambitious state senator was quietly seeking to form a bill mill and national network of his own along with then-Georgia Republican State Rep. Delvis Dutton called the Legisla…

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Inevitable Megachurch Abuse of PPP Funds is Coming to Light — Private Jet Included

…probably only grew. Osteen took nearly millions of dollars meant for small businesses. Osteen’s church claimed that it used $4.4 million in taxpayer funds “to provide full salaries and benefits, including health insurance coverage to all of its employees and their families.” But we’ll likely never know. Many of the safeguards that apply to SBA loans and that applied to other nonchurch entities through the PPP, didn’t apply to churches. It’s not ju…

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A Matter of Life and Debt: The Role of Religion

…The only exceptions to this rule of diminishment: (a) borrowing by shrewd businesses that can make a higher rate of business profit than the rate of interest they must pay on their debt, and (b) microcredit schemes that can sometimes nurture itty-bitty businesses in very poor societies. Question: Well, that’s all very nice. But take Americans’ credit cards away and watch how the economy collapses completely. Is that what you want? Answer: All tha…

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What Does It Take to Fell a White Nationalist? (Hint: Pedophilia)

…ntract, Simon & Schuster made a business decision the same way they made a business decision when they decided to publish that man in the first place. When his comments about pedophilia/pederasty came to light, Simon & Schuster realized it would cost them more money to do business with Milo than he could earn for them. They did not finally “do the right thing.” Yiannopoulos is only the most visible part of the regressive movement that swept Trump…

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WA Supreme Court: LGBT Discrimination No More About Flowers Than Civil Rights Were About Sandwiches

…p, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, courts have come down against business owners who refuse to provide goods and services for weddings between same-sex couples. Opinions in these cases have found that antidiscrimination laws are neutral, generally applicable measures that do not favor secularism over religion, or single out particular religious groups for ill treatment. The right-wing legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom represente…

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A New Goal for Anti-Choice Activists: Targeting “Sex-Selective” Abortion

…ated that “Planned Parenthood’s representative made it appear the abortion business would have no problem with doing abortions” for women seeking to select for sex. “In fact, comments from Planned Parenthood’s representative make some wonder whether the abortion business would ever ask if a woman or couple wanted an abortion for that reason.” I asked Ertelt to clarify what he meant: How had the Planned Parenthood representative “made it appear” th…

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