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Is Cardinal Dolan’s Pro-Life Piece More Evidence of Pro-Catholic Bias from RNS Publisher?

By Evan Derkacz

…Given the scrutiny and incriminating details it’s all the more curious to look into a short op-ed RNS posted on June 8 in response to a piece by its own columnist, Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest. In it, Cardinal Timothy Dolan argued against the columnist’s suggestion, in the wake of the vote in Ireland, that the U.S. “pro-life” movement should accept the fact of legal abortion and instead to turn its efforts toward reduction. The Cardinal,…

Physicians, “Conscience,” and the Denial of Options

By Wendy Cadge

“Doctors and other health care providers should not be forced to choose between good professional standing and violating their conscience,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, announcing the Final Regulations to Protect Health Care Providers from Discrimination last month. “This rule protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience.” Part of the last minute flurry of regulations…

Did the “Science Guy” Bill Nye Single-Handedly Revive Noah’s Ark Theme Park?

By Mike Greer

…ry bond sales weren’t materializing and the state wasn’t prepared to make good on a promise to provide tax incentives and road funds—all of which changed after the debate. Last week the Ark Encounter project broke ground. The Commonwealth is set to provide tax incentives and road improvement expenditures of $30+ million to a religious scheme that has grossly discriminatory hiring practices and promotes a state image of collective ignorance. Thanks…

Leaving Empire: The Risks of American Insularity

By Ryann Croken

…eorge H.W. Bush’s “Operation Just Cause.” This military campaign, my guidebook informed me, liberated Panamanians from the reign of General Noriega, brought democracy to the nation, and protected US citizens from the threat posed by the small, tropical isthmus. As we approach the 20th anniversary of Operation Just Cause this December, one might think that the poetic power of smooth, whole numerals would provide us with a reasonable occasion to med…

Attacks on Tim Walz’s Lutheran Denomination are Undermined by Reality — I Mean, Is ELCA Even Exciting Enough for Controversy?

By Daniel Schultz

Almost as soon as presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, attacks focused on his association with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) started to roll in. Harris herself is a Baptist. Christianity Today played things safe, noting that Walz had upset conservative Christian leaders during his time in office in Minnesota and carefully explaining the difference…

Voodoo’s Quest for Respect

By Spencer Dew

…ast month, announcing the enthronement of what the New York Times called “Voodoo’s Pope,” drew attention to one of the world’s most misunderstood and frequently maligned religions. The official title of the newly-created position is “Supreme Chief” or “Supreme Master,” and the figure in question, Max Beauvoir, a houngan (priest) and longtime self-styled public relations figure for the religion both in Haiti and the United States, wasted no time in…

Freedom’s Just Another Word…

By Ben Brazil

…licated pride in being an American. But this morning, riding my bike to school through the crisp autumn air, I found lines from the Gettysburg Address cycling through my mind. More importantly, I felt myself really believing them, deeply and emotionally affirming “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” This is overdramatic, b…

Sometimes You Can’t Say a Word

By Jonathan L. Walton

…r its own unjust agenda. While these are all important topics that should soon be discussed, last night they seemed so inconsequential on an existential level in regards to the beauty of the moment. For instance, my eighty-four-year-old grandfather, a retired newspaperman and World War II veteran, has lived his whole life in the state of North Carolina where his grandparents and parents picked tobacco as slaves and indebted sharecroppers. Even the…

Dear Timothy Keller: The “Evangelical” Problem isn’t Pollsters

By Jessica Johnson

…is voiced by some white evangelicals since Donald Trump’s victory and Roy Moore’s loss—elections in which roughly 80% of white evangelical voters supported each candidate despite multiple sexual assault accusations against each—Timothy Keller, the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, took to the New Yorker to offer a rose-tinted historical gloss to the turmoil and looks to a multicultural future. First, Keller couches the c…

What Passover Taught Me About Being Black

By A. E. Brooks-Key

…nexpected happened. I met a group of Hebrew Israelites from the Israeli School of Universal Practical Knowledge (ISUPK). To those unfamiliar—and even to those who are—the ISUPK are an enigmatic group. They believe that enslaved African and Indigenous populations of the western hemisphere are the genealogical descendants of the biblical Israelites. For the sake of space, I won’t go into all the particulars of their doctrine but suffice it to say th…