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Global LGBT Recap: Adventists Talk About, Not To, LGBT People; British Muslim Group Welcomes Gay-Rights Activist; Homophobia Exports Continue

…e subject of an investigation about whether he violated his town council’s code of conduct, which includes a clause saying that councilors must treat other people with respect. In the U.S. meanwhile, a congressional candidate who blamed gays for tornadoes and autism won the primary and will be the Republican challenger to Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Taiwan: Church-Sponsored ‘Happy Family’ Rally Draws Pro-Equality Protesters, Including Buddhist Nuns On Su…

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Queer Repentance: On Not Surrendering to a Text, to Guilt, or to Habit

…cannot avoid. Queer spiritual consciousness is inherently distrustful because it has seen how rules, codes, and even the operation of conscience itself can be tools of oppression and self-repression. Of course, straight people ought to come to this realization also. But religious queer people have to. Yet once we have had our moments, done the work, and cultivated the mistrust, what is next? If it is not libertinism, then what is to be our guide?…

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RDPulpit: McCain Attack Ad is “Hopeless“

…terpretation will remember that John’s Revelation was written as a kind of code to an audience hard-pressed by persecution and loss. Few believe that its message was intended to be taken literally—much less as a roadmap to events two millennia in the future—but rather to provide comfort and reassurance to a struggling community. It is a bitter irony therefore to see it taken out of context and used to attack a politician offering a platform of hop…

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How to Make Nones and Lose Money: Study Shows Cost of Catholic Sex Abuse Scandals

…end up, in other words, as Nones. The economists involved in this study focused on the zip code where a clergy sex scandal had occurred. They found a “large and statistically significant effect” on charitable contributions in those zip codes after a scandal, and not only to Catholic-based charitable organizations. The researchers theorize that perhaps once a person stops attending church, the social pressure to be charitable declines. Interestingl…

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Conservative Christians Finally Get Serious About Divorce

…e about dreaming a life together; not giving in to the will of another because they supposedly “head” the household. I suspect I’m not alone in this idea of marriage. Another interesting statistic shows that divorce rates are lowest in “blue” states—those states that generally tend to vote for liberals or progressives. The lowest divorce rate can be found in Massachusetts, where gays and lesbians have been able to marry since 2004. The differing v…

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Democrats Have Seized the Narrative Frame From the GOP, But Can They Find a Better Story to Tell About an Inclusive, Pluralist US?

…ed values. After all, “religious” or “friendly to religion” is essentially code for deference to the conservative Christian values of exclusion and exceptionalism. If Democrats wish to embody their espoused values of inclusion and freedom for all Americans, they ought to ignore the Republican framing of the question entirely and instead find a better story to tell. Christianity remains hegemonic in American discourse, and that’s a key reason Democ…

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Angels & Demons: America’s Preeminent Pop Theologian Takes on Religion and Science

…Darwin. Since The Origin of Species appeared in 1859, there’s been little use hoping for convergence. Europe has fallen for secular scientism, and the United States for semi-closeted creationism. The best one can expect is a habitable truce. So where is Dan Brown’s confidence coming from? Deep in the American psyche, it turns out. Since colonial times there has been a gnostic strain running through our religious imagination, one that could embrac…

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‘Politicized Religion’ Doesn’t Explain Evangelical Support of Donald Trump

…s this common understanding of the relation of religion and politics truly useful? In critiquing the “politicizing” of evangelical Christianity, for example, Prothero implies that evangelicals’ authentic or essential identity is something other than “political,” which is to say, of course, that it is properly “religious.” The notion of “politicized religion” relies on the assumption that religion is apolitical in nature, and that religion and poli…

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Devil’s Bookmark: Doubting God’s Existence, but Angry Nevertheless

…ut the analyzing tendency of psychological criticism has sometimes been accused of verging on voyeurism, where the author’s secrets are pried from his characters on the critic’s couch. James Wood comments on this investigative turn in literary criticism: “the critic as analyst or perhaps as detective interrogates the text for those moments at which the poem seems to be displaying its stresses; when, in effect, it is sweating. These are the moments…

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Israeli Right Demonizes Israeli Left, With American Money

…has moved farther to the right as mainstream politicians steer clear of causes, issues, or ideas that would place them in the progressive (code name for lefty-socialist) camp. In the meantime, the legacy media has muzzled itself, likewise fearful of the right’s blanket criticism of the “liberal press.” (For more on this see David Domke’s study of the post 9/11 press: Political Fundamentalism in the White House, the ‘War on Terror’ and the Echoing…

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