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Ted Haggard’s New Church: Gay-Friendly?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

My partner and I moved from Atlanta to South Carolina not too long after the Episcopal Church ordained Gene Robinson as its first openly gay bishop. Since we were embarking upon a new life in a new place, we decided to check out the Episcopal churches in the area. I sent an email to the rector of the church in the town we would be moving to and asked him if his church was welcoming to gays and lesbians. His response was one that Ted Haggard would…

Challenging 2-D Depictions of Islam on CNN

By Hussein Rashid

…har, The Muslim Guy, and Soumaya Khalifa of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of Atlanta, who suggested me for the segment. Although I consider both of them friends, we did not speak before the segment, and while I think our points were complementary, Don Lemon, the host, had the last words. I believe the three of us were trying to add some complexity to portrayals of what it means to be Muslim in America. It’s good, but not perfect. Unfortunately, Lemo…

Young Male Congregants Sue Televangelist Eddie Long, Alleging Sexual Coercion

By Sarah Posner

…d unity in those relationships was what drew her into Paulk’s multi-racial Atlanta megachurch, but that mirage unraveled in the 1990s, when six women in the church accused him of sexual abuse. As I wrote in God’s Profits, they accused him: of manipulating them into sex based on his theory of a “kingdom relationship:” sex with the bishop (and in some cases members of his family or other pastors) was what God wanted for his kingdom. . . . Paulk refu…

A Jew in Church? No Big Deal

By Benjamin Weiner

…From our ancestors, we may inherit the notion that they are dangerous and blasphemous places, exuding both the seduction of apostasy and the violence of persecution. Growing up in their shadow, we discover our otherness: while attending a friend’s first communion, my mother and I were the only ones not to kneel. And yet the very fact that I was in attendance indicates that some things have changed since the Middle Ages; that to a Jew born in late-…

Conservative Christians Finally Get Serious About Divorce

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…e in 2000, he remains the pastor at the mega-sized First Baptist Church in Atlanta. Divorce has been a growing problem for the faithful. A Barna poll from 2008 revealed 33 percent of couples overall get divorced. Born-again Christians—while apparently prizing marriage—score no better with 32 percent reporting divorce. Divorce was lowest among atheists and agnostics (30 percent) and evangelical Christians (26 percent). Finally, someone in conservat…

Ponzi Pastor, Bacon Terrorism, & Spiritual Jewelry

By Michael J. Altman

…vanity license plates. Keep an eye out for my new “RELGNGUY” plate in the Atlanta area. In South Carolina, a mosque was defaced with bacon. A 9/11 responder is suing the developers behind the Park51 project claiming compensation for “psychological terrorism.” He wants $350 million as compensation. The Washington Post decided not to run a comic from the popular Non Sequitur comic strip entitled “Where’s Muhammad?” The single-frame comic was a paro…

Dads Against Daughters Dating

By Julie Ingersoll

…materials boast that the 1599 bible was the first to include chapters and numbered verses… and was widely popular because of the marginal notes written by reformation leaders (especially John Calvin). Tolle Lege Press and Reformation Bookstore were founded by Brandon Vallorani who now also works for Gary DeMar’s American Vision in the suburbs of Atlanta. These organization comprise a very tight knit community of men (they appear in various config…

Can Evangelicals Ever be Journalists First?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

When I was a reporter for an Atlanta radio station back in the 1990s, there were several other reporters on staff who happened to also be lesbians. One of them came in upset after attending a political rally where a state level candidate had spewed anti-gay rhetoric. She told me there was no way she could objectively write the story. I told her it was simple. She would report the facts and let the candidate speak for himself. She produced a factu…

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

By Kathryn Lofton

…hed amateur love of Americana. In addition to her collaborations with Ira Glass, Vowell is the New York Times-bestselling author of four previous books, all of which focus almost exclusively on her exploratory admiration 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 seculari…

For Sale to the Highest Bidder: The Trail of Tammy’s Tears

By Jonathan L. Walton

…s marriage, and landed Jim Bakker in jail for embezzlement. Well, today an Atlanta venture capitalist hopes to sell over 15,000 hours of PTL footage as he prepares to put over four-tractor trailer loads of film on the auction block. The footage has been reportedly appraised at $8 million. And while I am certain that reels of film displaying Jim’s snake-oil sales pitches and Tammy Faye’s mascara trail of tears may not be high on the budget agenda o…