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Lying About Our Religion, And Other Problems With Polling

By Michael Schulson

…sing the magic of statistics. When two people say they’re voting for Marco Rubio, they’re voting for the same Marco Rubio. When two people say they believe in God, there’s a lot of gray space left to fill, presumably with the kind of conversation and investigation that does not translate easily into percentages and pie charts. A whole lot of anthropological work has mapped the ways that individuals adjust their beliefs across contexts, and through…

New Age Tragedy in Sedona: Non-Indians in the Sweat Lodge

By Johnny P. Flynn

…t Ray’s sweat lodge was covered in plastic sheeting. As I have tracked the news stories and anecdotes of sweat lodge deaths and near-disasters, every one of them was covered with plastic sheeting or plastic tarps. Missed by many who use the lodge is its fundamental purpose of celebrating creation and the creator as emerging from the principle of the feminine. In my tribe, women control the sweat lodge. While men may tend the fire, brings the rocks…

Are We Living Through World War III?

By Haroon Moghul

…-motivated violence. A number of commentators seem to believe Mateen was struggling with his own sexuality. But Cohen does not hesitate to assign Mateen to larger, world-historical forces: Islam is in epochal crisis. Its Sunni and Shiite branches are mired in violent confrontation. Its adjustment to the modern world has proved faltering and agonized enough to produce a metastasizing strain of violent anti-Western jihadist beliefs to which Mateen —…

Former Employees: Racism & Abuse in Leading Religious Right Org.

By Sarah Posner

…puppies in the corner who learned to keep out mouths shut.” Inside the One News Now Newsroom The AFA’s radio and news division, in particular, said Martin, had become a place where authority could not be questioned, and where the “news” was nothing more than a mouthpiece for conservative “sources” whose views were portrayed as fact. (The Values Voter Summit award citation to Wildmon described One News Now as a “respected online news service.”) And…

Equality Opponents Try to Reverse UN Progress; Anti-Gay Pentecostal Pastor Elected Mayor of Rio; Indonesian University Official Tells LGBT Students To ‘Normalize’ Or Be Punished; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…s. The next hearing is set for Nov. 29. Iran: Commentary on ‘double-edged sword’ treatment of transgender people OutRight Action International’s Kevin Schumacher calls Iran’s treatment of transgender people a double-edged sword in a commentary at Huffington Post: Iran – an Islamic theocracy that criminalizes consensual same-sex relations, forces women to adhere to a strict and modest dress code in public, and has zero-tolerance for dissident’s fre…

Elephant Orphans and Ecological Spiritualities: An Earth Day Reflection

By Jacob J. Erickson

…gative energy you give off towards them.” The caretaker assents that these stories are all, in some way, true. I’m taken aback by the positive nature of the questions, their optimism, their interest in the minds, rituals, emotions, mysteries of these creatures. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. A large number of the “spiritual but not religious” crowd in the West are self-proclaimed ecologists or naturalists. A large number of atheists and agn…

Convergence of Far-Right, Anti-Democratic Factions in the Northwest Could Provide a Model for the Rest of the Nation

By Frederick Clarkson and Cloee Cooper

…to DC with like-minded pastors on his private jet and put them up at the Trump International Hotel, a few blocks from the White House. But like others whose rhetoric may have exceeded their readiness to be associated with the events at the capitol, Peters later said he didn’t agree with the insurrection. Nevertheless, Peters’ church seems to be flourishing in the post-insurrection period. They plan to open a school in the Fall (although they don’…

UN Human Rights Council Creates LGBT Watchdog; Orthodox Council Affirms Traditional Teaching on Family; Pope Francis Says Church Should Apologize to Gays; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…most but not all of the Orthodox Churches in Crete during June 18-26. The Russian Orthodox Church, which represented about 2/3 of the world’s 250-300 million Orthodox Christians, pulled out days before the convening. After a week of deliberations, the Council released an official message on Monday. The message encourages dialogue with non-Orthodox Christians for the purpose of helping them “know more precisely the authenticity of the Orthodox Tra…

‘Welcome to the War’: What a Creationist Conference Can Teach us About Evangelical Vaccine Resistance

By Caroline Matas

…ce theory, secular humanism, same-sex marriage, vaccine mandates; the fuel running the machine is a belief that this world is split into two “religions”—the “true” one and the “false” one whose aims are unceasingly hostile and evil. Of course, not all evangelicals are young-Earth creationists, nor are all evangelicals opposed to the Covid-19 vaccine. But the logical conclusion of an exclusionary worldview that asserts that all who aren’t for God a…

Racial Justice and Queer Masculinity: The Gospel of Frank Ocean

By Josiah Daniels

…en God’s Good News of justice seems to have gone missing from our material world. As theologian Walter Brueggemann insists: God must be “held to justice, and if God cannot subscribe to this earthly passion, then the claims of heaven must be deconstructed.” Our piety and sanctimonious denial too often prevent us from directing such grown-up talk towards God. But for those who believe God gives a damn, this sort of “real talk” is essential. So with…