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A Bill Passes, Westboro Baptists Shrug

By Rebecca Barrett-Fox

…ica’s Enemy” and “Your Soldier’s in Hell.” Because people at funerals are emotionally vulnerable, they are more likely to hear the words of God, as pronounced by Westboro Baptists: “We’ve turned America over to the fags/ They’re coming home in body bags.” Westboro Baptists have already been challenged—daily, at pickets as well as in the courts—about this activity. In Snyder v. Phelps, the father of a fallen Marine, Matthew Snyder, sued for civil d…

2012 GOP Candidate Would Reinstate DADT

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…not attending a Christian concert at Fort Eustis in Virginia. An influx of more liberal chaplains may bring more tolerance into the armed services as the Pentagon gets ready to enact the lifting of DADT—but a gander at the coming elections in 2012 reveals the fight over the policy is far from over. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told the American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer on his radio show that he would re-enact the ban on gay service…

Christian Pollsters Find “Homosexual Behavior” Gaining Moral Ground

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…showing that 54% of those queried said gay and lesbian relationships were morally acceptable, with 42% morally disapproving. That poll also shows a whopping 63% supporting marriage equality for gays and lesbians. Lifeway’s next poll will likely show even more in the “No” column as those “undecided” on the issue grew from 13% to 17% since their last poll. Evidence of growth within the “moveable middle” and Louis Giglio’s swift withdrawal from Pres…

Fight the Tower: Protests Continue at Union Theological Seminary

By Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons

…ake with the proposed luxury development. https://youtu.be/AhRXu2lN8-Y The most depressing part of the months-long fight for any information or open conversation with our administration came when I asked my professor Serene Jones, who also serves as Union’s President, if the institution was worth saving at any cost. The only answer to the question that doesn’t make these gothic walls an idol would be a simple “of course not.” President Jones only…

How Can You Exclude The NAACP and Liberal Protestants from Human Rights History?

By Austin Dacey

…censorship. Fundamentalists, evangelicals, and some Catholic leaders were among their most vocal opponents on these issues. When ecumenical Protestant organizations such as the Federal Council of Churches (FCC) advocated for human rights, they did so in the context of the African-American freedom struggle (one of the earliest uses of “human rights” occurs in Frederick Douglass’ 1845 autobiography). The FCC maintained an official stance opposing ra…

Did the Church Create or Co-Opt Human Rights?

By Austin Dacey

…r, he says, registers papal usage, “for there is no other obvious source.” Moyn’s motivation is not that of the Christian culture warrior who would beamingly trace back to Jerusalem everything now esteemed in our culture. Rather, in exposing the conservative lineage of human rights, he seems to want to break liberals’ enthrallment to the ideology of human rights, an ideology he considers insufficiently radical—i.e., welfarist and redistributionist…

Greek Orthodox Bishop Says Spit on Inhuman Gay Scum: This Week’s LGBT Global Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…dly destination. Israel accepts gays serving openly in its military, but homosexuality is shunned among the country’s conservative ultra-Orthodox community. This year, an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed a 15-year-old girl to death at a Jerusalem Pride parade. Homosexuality is a taboo topic in Iran, where gays and lesbians can face lashings or death sentences if convicted. Human rights groups estimate that over 4,000 gays have been executed si…

Do Psychedelics Offer a Path To The “God Within”?

By Hollis Phelps

…counterculture, and with “straight” society’s pushback, replete with fear-mongering and willful misunderstanding. Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experiences William A. Richards Columbia University Press December 8, 2015 Psychologist William A. Richards wants to change that. Richards has spent the bulk of his career researching such substances—which, in line with an established literature, he prefers to call “entheogens”—and their th…

Race, Reparations and the Search for Our Molecular Soul

By Michael Schulson

…“Oh, that’s interesting,” and then went back to reading his newspaper. My mother thought it was very, very interesting. And my mother has struck up a friendship with a Cameroonian community in Northern Virginia where my parents live. This family comes to my parents’ home and has meals with us. They were with us this past Thanksgiving, a few months ago. So you’re participating in the sort of experiences you were looking at as an ethnographer. Yes,…

Do Dogs Have a Soul?: Taking “Creaturely” Life Seriously

By Beatrice Marovich

…n into a phenomenon less based on human qualities and characteristics, and more focused on mortal and animal concerns. This raises questions about where (and how) we encounter these ethereal things of the spirit in the first place. It is a book aimed to make “enlightened” people uncomfortable. The book itself is a blend of things. Dayan incorporates memoir—reflecting on the dogs she has lived with, and loved—and meditates extensively on dog films…