Search for "cheap airline tickets for a child phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Satanists Take Aim at School Spanking

By Joseph Laycock

…rural Texas were two different worlds. Last week worlds collided when The Satanic Temple’s “Protect Children Project” erected a billboard in Springtown, Texas, featuring the organization’s goat-skull logo and the caption, “Never be hit in school again.” The billboard was reportedly torn down after just a single day. The website listed led to a form students could present to school officials explaining that hitting them violates their religious rig…

Abuser Priests Were “Off Duty,” Lawyer Argues

By Patricia Miller

…so argues the Diocese of Trenton, NJ. A lawyer for the diocese told the Delaware Supreme Court that Rev. Terence McAlinden wasn’t “serving in his capacity as a priest” when he molested a New Jersey teenager he took on trips to Delaware. When one of the justices asked how you could tell if a priest was on duty, the lawyer argued: “Well, you can determine a priest is not on duty when he is molesting a child, for example. … A priest abusing a child i…

Wild Goose Festival’s (Mostly) Welcoming Spirit for LGBT Christians

By Kristin Rawls

…Sojourners, a festival sponsor, published an opinion piece justifying the magazine’s rejection of ad copy from the gay-affirming Christian organization Believe Out Loud. Wallis rejected the calls that he adopt a position affirming—and not merely welcoming—LGBT people. The Sojourners controversy and the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s recent decision to open its doors to LGBT ordination made inclusion a hot topic of conversation. Though a wide range of…

Duggarmania, Stripped of Religion

By Sarah Posner

…another pregnancy was healthy for mother or child, and whether people are capable of actually parenting 20 children. The Duggars, though, are just (in their mind) following God’s will. That’s their choice, obviously, but activist right-wing Christian organizations hold them up as paragons of not just Christian virtue, but of Christian parenthood, and (most crucially) Christian motherhood. As Julie Ingersoll reported last year, the biblical patriar…

Tim Pawlenty’s Dilemma: How Far Will His Anti-Choice Extremism Go?

By Sarah Posner

…a ban was enacted in Nebraska in 2010, and four more states — Kansas, Indiana, Idaho, and Oklahoma — enacted one this year. The question, then, for the 2012 GOP hopefuls is whether they support these even more radical measures, including elimination of family planning funding, 20-week abortion bans with functionally no exceptions, laws requiring women visit religiously-motivated crisis pregnancy centers before they can obtain an abortion, and the…

Arrest the Pope: New Atheist Effort to Seek Justice in Sexual Abuse Crisis Should Be Applauded

By Frances Kissling

…ng view here — ed. The Daily Telegraph* is probably not the best source of analysis of a growing body of legal opinion that the Roman Catholic Church, as either state or religion, should be subject to prosecution by the International Criminal Court for “crimes against humanity.” The paper did, however, give the idea a boost when it published an article claiming that Richard Dawkins wants to arrest the Pope for his role in the cover up of the sexua…

Talking Prop. 8: Of Rites and Rights

By Peter Laarman

…state and nation. RD Contributors Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge, Rev. Peter Laarman, and I have watched the unfolding of the Proposition 8 Case intently, and we wanted to have a “virtual” conversation about the important takeaways for the RD reader. At this writing, the proposition has been struck down, a Notice of Appeal has been filed, and the State of California and its citizens await the judges ruling with regard to the resumption of same-sex ma…

Woe is Me (“Ya laytani”)

By Amina Wadud

…tem of hierarchies, prioritizing the universals over the particulars, the ‘aam over the khass. That way when the Qur’anic revelation includes details that are only relevant to the Prophet or his household we are not confused to extend their application beyond. For example, the Qur’an tells the Prophet’s wives that they are not permitted to remarrying after his death. What kind of general ruling can be made from this? None. So none was made. For al…

Is This Light?

By Amina Wadud

…at talks about zinah, adultery and fornication, starts with the female al-zaani’a, when male starters is the norm for both Arabic language in general and the Qur’anic language in particular. I can only wager a guess, not even worth mentioning I’m afraid. There are other problems about the word zinah, as recent times have shown. Verse 2 says to punish the female and the male guilty of zinah with one hundred lashes. (!!) Okay, that would be bad enou…

The Fear is Real: A New View of Halloween “Hell Houses”

By Lucia Hulsether

…ion for the faithless “left behind”; a climactic battle between Jesus and Satan; and a final judgment in which Jesus orders a teenage church-girl to be dragged by demons into hell for “knowing me only in your head, and not in your heart.” Unsurprisingly, scenes from the “tribulation” make up the majority of the walk. Our tour group was asked to imagine that we were in the days just following the rapture, and the Antichrist (whose speeches involved…