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Pricking the Conscience of Churches: From AIDS Activism to Ending World Hunger

By Susan Henking

…istory and current status in the United States? Internationally and in the USA, HIV and AIDS share a common denominator—poverty. No, not everyone who is HIV positive is poor, but there is an incredible coincidence of persons who suffer from both. Take a world map and note where hunger and malnutrition are most abundant. If you superimpose on that map the places where the HIV and AIDS pandemic are most rampant, you will find a striking similarity….

The Anti-Gay Highway

By Kathryn Joyce

…erials also told them that when you come to America, you need to vote for A, B, C, and D. And when the conference came, the Africans found that they had been given these lovely cell phones, and there was no charge, and the reason why was because they wanted them to vote a certain way. The Africans have become a powerhouse to change the direction of the American churches. They have to depend on Africa to bring change at home. You will have a situat…

Affordable Care Act Needs “Fix,” Clergy Say

By Daniel Schultz

…to respond to religious groups, particularly conservative ones like the SBC, but so far, nothing. Maybe that will change as religious leaders start to lobby Congress. On the other hand, it might not. I notice two influential groups missing from the list of supporters for the fix: non-denominational evangelicals, whose churches might be self-insured or find other ways to insure their pastors, and the Catholic Church, whose diocesan plans might be l…

Bishop Sends Shockwave, Slaying the Sacred Cow of Individual Salvation [Includes an online comic]

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ch, with all its problems, but every church will hear and heed Rev. Schori’s brave words—we are each other’s keepers and if we forget that, it will surely be the demise of us all. From Integrity USA, in partnership with Douglas Gould and Co., comes this comic, “The Ripple,” connecting the history of the Episcopal Church with the struggle for LGBT equality:…

The Islamophobia Dodge of the Religious Freedom Pledge

By Sarah Posner

…ally to all religious communities in America, including Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and others. At the same time, religious freedom does not mandate belief, but protects the right not to believe. So why won’t the pledge promoters talk about Islamophobia — by the very candidates it is trying to get to sign the pledge? The only candidate so far to sign the pledge is Rick Santorum, who just last week advocated for profiling of Musli…

2 Steps Forward, 3 Steps Back, 1 Step Sideways: The Chaotic Progression of LGBTQ Inclusion at Christian Colleges

By Donovan Ackley III

…reason, grace, and the serenity of spiritually-centered love. Julie Rodgers, 28, is a chaplain at evangelical Wheaton College who identifies herself as a celibate lesbian. Photo via Rodgers blog. People involved in each of the incidents at Christians schools I mention above have been in dialogue with Safety Net, a national non-profit advocacy resource to support lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer, and allied (LGBTQ&A) students, alumni, faculty,…

Obama in India: Missed Opportunities

By Anna Bigelow

…on full display during those attacks when we saw “Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Jews, and Muslims, protecting each other, saving each other, living the common truth of all the world’s great religions that we are all children of God.” Obama spoke eloquently of the shared losses of India and America and rightly pointed out that the terrorists attack places where people come together But that eloquence was sadly absent as Obama struggled to respond clea…

Taqwacore Roundtable: On Punks, the Media, and the Meaning of “Muslim”

By Shahjehan Khan

…actually meeting people that are interested in the music we play. KF: Sure, HR, I’ll expand. What I meant by identity crisis was that Taqwacores resolved what I think is a normal teenage phase when they found people like themselves and some shared world in punk. Maybe BU would say his story would be a goth goes Taqwacore one instead but I think it’s the same either way around—that is, in the end it’s okay the stories are different and any message…

Bruni on Bachmann

By Sarah Posner

…e religious right is neither.” In case you weren’t paying attention, though, Bruni, author of a hagiographic memoir of covering the campaign of George W. Bush, fills you in on what’s been happening in Republican politics over the last 40 years, a phenomenon he apparently failed to notice as he cozied up to the religious right’s 2000 and 2004 candidate of choice: My aim here isn’t to re-litigate Bachmann’s crimes against reason and decency, all wid…

Jay Bakker on LGBT Justice and the Demands of Grace

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…d she taught me how to do that. I’m so proud of that. She didn’t do it like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this no matter how it hurts people,’ she really loved people but at the same time had a sense of who she was. That was beautiful to me and it taught me a great lesson. Why do you think your mom was so popular with gays and lesbians? I used to think it was just her makeup and her kitsch, and that’s part of it, but it’s also because she’s such a survivo…