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‘Pure White’ Examines the White Supremacist Origins of Evangelical Purity Culture

By Emma Cieslik

…with that image. Already the question of White Christian nationalism looms really, really large. Why is this a national issue? Because this wasn’t just about getting more attention, this was about making a political statement. True Love Waits placed more than 200,000 purity pledges signed by teenagers on the National Mall in 1994. Image: LifeWay Christian Resources At the time, President Clinton was in office. In fact, during the event, some SBC […

Forget Debates and Dialogue about LGBT Justice, the Religious Right isn’t Listening

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…s right will not admit that its rhetoric leads to all kinds of horrors. It really was launching a war and this is the way they were going to fight it and they’re fighting it that way now, so let’s look at it again and see what we ought to do. I really believe that terrorism gets its way through violence or threats of violence. Here the Southern Baptists gathered recently to say that homosexuality is a sickness, that our relationships are sinful an…

God Will Not Make You Straight: An Interview with GCN’s Justin Lee

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…t I was able to get Alan on a stage with several former ex-gay leaders and really confront him with the damage that ex-gay groups are doing and get him to say publicly that, in his words, “99.9% of people” he met in those groups didn’t change their orientation. Those were a really big deal. The bad thing that happened was that there were some people at the conference, and some who weren’t, who felt like I had handled it poorly because we didn’t an…

What Role do Feelings Play in Conspiracy, Racism and Climate Denial? Welcome to Phoning It In, Episode 1

By Megan Goodwin

…people do to create particular feelings? Absolutely. One of the things I’m really fascinated by is…when we were teenagers, it was never really my thing, but I knew lots of people who loved conspiracy theory. It was fun! You’d listen to Art Bell; you’d listen to “Coast to Coast.” It was kind of innocent! And it was just a little bit weird, kind of funny that people would get so into this—but it was also kind of cool, and you wanted to play along a…

Material(ist) Girl: A Philosopher Argues Against the Soul

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…y. I can do things now I didn’t think I could do. I stand on my head and I really enjoy that. I come down from a long headstand and I really feel good. So, if we don’t have a soul, do you find any value at all in religions? Yes. I think there’s much to be said about lifestyle and how to get on and have a meaningful and good life. I think there is much wisdom in Buddhism and in Christianity also. I think the non-extreme Christians who are very co…

QAnon Didn’t Just Spring Forth From the Void — It’s the Latest From a Familiar Movement

By Adam Willems

…The question that folks want to ask from the outside is like, Does anybody really believe that stuff? The emphasis on belief is a really Protestant impulse. And Carol Cusack says Who cares if they believe it? What does it do for them? What does it do out in the world? What do we know about a society because something like a Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster exists? So rather than expect high-level religious studies analysis from journalists,…

Money, Technology, and the Silence of Churches: A Conversation with Susan Thistlethwaite

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…erfect realization, you live in history and in politics. It’s just another really good example of the Fall. You write that the solution to our yearning to get back to this innocent Garden of Eden really is a religious one, in which we talk about meaning and purpose in a way that can help people. How do you propose to do that? The key to internet-driven culture is having people become more savvy, recognizing how this stuff is coming at them at 90 m…

‘The Quiet Damage’ Details the Heartbreaking Effect of QAnon on Five American Families — But Critical Questions Linger

By Susannah Crockford

…ealth is the real problem, and conspiracy theories are a coping mechanism, cheaper and seemingly less harmful than drugs or alcohol. In dark times like these some will succumb to a mass delusion. Cook’s framing is understandable, but it would have benefitted from more engagement with the work in religious studies on new religious movements, or “cults,” which has analyzed the coexistence of radically different worldviews for decades now, including…

First it Was an Insurrection Flag, Now Supreme Court Justice Alito is Caught Flying Another Far-Right Flag — An ‘Emblem for an Extensive Spiritual Warfare Campaign’

By Annika Brockschmidt

…urge of pickpockets besieging Mom & Pop stores. But who knows? Some people phone a friend to unload about their annoying neighbor, so maybe Mrs. Alito’s way of coping with neighborhood strife is to hoist a flag flown by insurrectionists. Could it be true? Yes. But it is incredibly unlikely—just as unlikely as misogynist-in-chief Sam Alito allowing his wife to decide which flag is flown for days at his house, openly supporting the insurrection. The…

Vatican Instruction on Cremation Rankles Many, But Give it a Second Look

By Karen E. Park

…night dancing with, someone who I had spoken to just a week before on the phone, her laughter weakened but still familiar. When I thought about her ashes being scattered around Boston I felt a momentary panic. Where could I ever go to find her again? Last week, just in time for the Feast of All Soul’s Day, celebrated each year on November 2, the Catholic Church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a new Instruction regarding the…