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Sacred&Profane: On Sexual Diversity, Perversity, and Ecstasy

By Gary Laderman

…gh, the powers associated with sex and the sacred can be envisioned in any number of ways, with or without God to set the terms and consequences of sexual relations. Ascetics who practice celibacy in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and other religious cultures, see the profane sexual body as a distraction, or obstacle, in the pursuit of spiritual fulfillment and empowerment. In the biblical story of David and Bathsheba, the adulterous sexual uni…

NBA Player Jason Collins Comes Out

By Peter Montgomery

…eligious and cultural. In Utah, we visited the Mormon Salt Lake Temple. In Atlanta, the house of Martin Luther King Jr. That early exposure to otherness made me the guy who accepts everyone unconditionally. Of course it didn’t take long for religious right leaders to bring a different Christian persepctive to the conversation. Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber tweeted that it was “sad” that Collins was being treated as heroic for admitting his “aberre…

Chick-fil-A: Have More Wives?

By Peter Montgomery

…athy’s intent would have been plenty clear even if he didn’t expound to an Atlanta radio station: “I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,’” said Cathy. “I pray God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we would have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is all about,” he added. Matti…

Can a Church Split Truly Be Gracious?

By Adam J. Copeland

…erians, calling itself a new Reformed body. Their website reports they now number 127 congregations and 213 pastors. Most of these come from the PCUSA. Beyond my denomination, there is a growing rift and talk of a possible schism in the United Methodist Church. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has lost approximately 600 congregations in the past few years. The Anglican Communion views the Episcopal Church of the United States with increa…

Theologians Claim Death Row Inmate as One of Their Own

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…best and most self-reflective. When so much public God-talk is cringeworthy and meanspirited, it’s worth noting moments like these. Photo: Diocese of Atlanta. Dr. Jürgen Moltmann, Kelly Gissendaner and the Rev. Cathy Zappa….

Where in the World is Sarah Palin?

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ticed one thing up here that I have seen *nowhere* else in the big city of Atlanta, one hundred miles to the south. I have seen “McCain-Palin” signs on countless front lawns up here. At home, I see the single name “McCain” in white letters on a deep blue background (usually with a link to his website), but not a hint of Governor Palin. At home, I see signs T-shirts and bumper stickers that say “McCain” and “Nobama,” but Sarah Palin is not a part o…

State as Executioner: Rick Perry Did Not Invent the Death Penalty

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…had himself been a suspect in the murder. Yet Davis is scheduled to die in Atlanta on September 21, pending the results of a hearing that is being held as this piece goes to press, amid considerable public outcry. A Country Without History? My Greek friends’ incredulity about the face of judicial killing in the United States was based primarily on history. Greece languished under a military junta in the Cold War years and suffered all the totalita…

Prosperity Televangelist Brought to Court on Fraud Charge

By Jonathan L. Walton

…votional’ or ‘inspirational’ messages delivered daily to subscribers’ cell phones.” And despite the non-disclosure agreement that Devone entered into with Creflo Dollar Ministries—wherein the latter would “equally share the revenue” derived from the “nearly 1 billion viewers”—the plaintiff claims the ministry went forward with its own “Word on the Go” daily service. The official complaint claims that the service generates Dollar more than $50 mill…

Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates: The Problem with Popularization

By Kathryn Lofton

…dmiration for and curiosity on symbols of American ambition. For this, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has proclaimed Vowell an “American original” who is “somehow simultaneously patriot and rebel, cynic and dreamer, and an aching secularist in search of a higher ground.” The aching secularist has found storied higher ground in The Wordy Shipmates, where she applies her anti-cool cool to the tale of seventeenth-century Massachusetts Bay Colony an…

International Religious Freedom Battles Heat Up

By Sarah Posner

…placed to do the deed stealthily. He has his own close associations with a number of the Brotherhood’s top fronts and operatives in his home state of Illinois, in Washington and elsewhere across the country.” The “cromnibus” spending bill that passed this weekend included just a one year reauthorization for USCIRF, after a battle in the Senate over Durbin’s proposed reforms, which had included a proposed three-year reauthorization. USCIRF has clai…