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A Third Reconstruction? Rev. William Barber Lifts the Trumpet

By Peter Laarman

…that the Southern slave and Jim Crow states, where the great majority of African Americans and many Latinos live, are ripe for a new Southern Human Rights Moral Strategy. This new demographic in the South feels a deepening need for relief from the pain caused by extremist politicians who vote against the interest of the very people who elected them because they have been conjured by the Southern Strategy. A majority of the South’s gubernatorial an…

Only 5 Million “Real” Catholics in the U.S.?

By Marian Ronan

…is going after the sisters. The pollsters had better gear up, because the number of Americans identifying with—and funding—the institutional church is deﬁnitely at risk. My only concern with highlighting this line in the sand is that it may be exactly what the bishops and the Vatican have in mind. There is some disagreement over whether Pope Benedict ever actually called for a “smaller, purer church.” But there can be little doubt that this is ex…

Hagee Hangs On

By Bill Berkowitz

…to everyone else.” “Normally, remarks about the most sensitive issues of the Jewish people would cause Jewish leadership to examine a friendship,” Rabbi Haim Beliak, co-director of JewsOnFirst, told RD. “Will this happen in this case? There have been examples where certain African Americans said terrible things about Jews and that made the relationship more tenuous. I’m waiting to see how mainstream Jewish leaders will deal with Hagee’s offensive…

Act, Pray, Tweet: What the H*ll To Do About Gun Violence?

By Marcia Pally

…was when gun violence barely made it into the press. First, for much of American history, there was much less press than today, and what there was, was overtly owned by business and/or political interests. Folks read the papers for partisanship and lurid entertainment, not objectivity, which became a badge of good journalism only in the 20th century. More importantly, gun violence rarely made it into the press because it was unexceptional. High-No…

It’s the Catholic Bishops, Not Those Who Toppled Junipero Serra Statues, Who Have Failed the Test of History

By Jacqueline M. Hidalgo

…rotesters did not “discern carefully the entire contribution that the historical figure in question [Serra] made to American life.” Archbishop Gómez responded more thoughtfully at the end of June though he also chided protesters and described many criticisms launched against Serra as “revisionist.” Yet, it’s the bishops, not the protesters, who have failed the test of history. Their statement misconstrues historical “entirety” by focusing on inten…

National Endowment for the Arts is Funding “Pornography”—Again!

By Bill Berkowitz

…Center), Martin Mawyer’s Christian Action Network, or Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association. My personal favorite direct mail package — sent by the American Family Association — contained a smallish envelope warning supporters to look inside at their own risk. Inside the envelope was a series of Robert Mapplethorpe photos. Controversial artists in one way or another associated with NEA-funded projects — Mapplethorpe, Andres Serrano (“Piss…

Global LGBT Recap: Nigeria Jails Gays, Russian Orthodox Spox Calls for Criminalization Referendum

By Peter Montgomery

…Olympics in Sochi, the U.S. State Department issued a travel alert for Americans heading to the Olympics that touched on a number of issues including crime, potential terrorism, and access to medical care. It included a specific warning about Russia’s anti-gay “propaganda” law: LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER (LGBT) ISSUES: In June 2013, Russia’s State Duma passed a law banning the “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” to minor…

Hajj Journal: Door Number 89: The Door with No Name

By Amina Wadud

…d inside the mosque one day, I came across Bab raqm tis’wa thamanin, “door number 89,” literally. The door with no name. Facing the mosque at door number one, bab maalik ’abd-al-’Aziz, this door is off to the left. Looking at the mosque floor plan, this is where the building structure of the mosque is deepest. This is “the women’s section.” I noticed as I was walking through the first floor toward door number one, the kings’ door, on my way out af…

Marriage Vote ‘Transforms’ Not-So-Catholic Ireland; Activist to Malaysian PM – ‘Love Is Not Terrorism’; LGBTs Find Growing Acceptance in Colombia, Not At World Meeting of Families; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…contrary to natural law,” Bishop Fernández added. On behalf of the Puerto Rican Bishops Conference, San Juan Archbishop Roberto González-Nieves is also on record, saying “same-sex marriage destroys the richness of the complementary qualities of the sexes and deprives progeny of the paternal or maternal figure.” González had previously called for a referendum on the matter, to counter a “dictatorial imposition on the state’s part.” Evangelical lea…

In a Time of Irrational Fear and New Media: The Deadly ‘Dance Plague’ at 500

By Ed Simon

…e of nationalism was emerging in individual states, the media explosion of cheap print caused a type of epistemic collapse where truth itself was uncertain. With such uncertainty, Europeans experienced the simultaneous birth and death pangs of two different eras, where medical historian John Waller claims that this dance phenomenon was a “hysterical reaction … one that could only have occurred in a culture steeped in a particular kind of supernatu…