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“The Slut Assumption”: Myths About Jewelry Reveal Diamonds Aren’t Always A Girl’s Best Friend

By Wendy Doniger

…at alternative title would you give the book? Are Diamonds Always a Girl’s Best Friend? Myths of Sex and Jewelry How do you feel about the cover? I love the cover, the way the designer cropped the Ingres painting to make it more mysterious and suggestive. The Indian edition also has a lovely cover, a painting by Raja Ravi Varma of an Indian woman covered in jewelry and smiling seductively. Is there a book out there you wish you had written? Which…

Biggest, Best & Worst LGBT Religion Stories of 2016 and more in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…he whole reassignment process is complete, “they [must] not act as the opposite sex does and has to, since this is haram [forbidden].” Russia: Putin Christmas speech reportedly attacks West for abandoning Christian roots President Vladimir Putin devoted a portion of his Christmas speech to attacking western countries for abandoning their Christian roots, according to a video posted to several website with pro-Putin messages. This (unverified) text…

UPDATE: Sam Brownback as Religious Freedom Ambassador? His Distinguished Predecessor Hopes for the Best

By Peter Laarman

…d enacted the nation’s strictest work requirements for welfare recipients. Best friend to the plutocrat and ruthless scourge to the poorest among us: that’s Sam Brownback’s actual idea of “national moral leadership.” But I do hope that Rabbi Saperstein is right in respect to the guy’s qualifications for his new job. And at the very least, it will be a great day for Kansas and Kansans when Sam Brownback departs Topeka. _______ 8.4.17 Author’s No…

Will the Pandemic Hasten the Decline of Christianity or is it ‘America’s Best Hope for a Religious Revival’?

By Chrissy Stroop

…and privilege despite declining demographics. Further loss of prestige and numbers will not automatically translate into the loss of power for a group that’s doing everything it can to maintain minority authoritarian rule. But even so, America’s trajectory of rapid religious disaffiliation since the 1990s seems bound to catch up with the white, right-wing Christian population eventually. Conservative Christians and social scientists have already b…

C’mon, Joel, Swerve a Little Bit

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…haviors that were chosen, by the way. I figure if these are some of God’s “best” and gay and lesbian people are not, perhaps it’s simply because we have a higher standard of morality than God’s “best.” Indeed, I think the LGBT community has far more courage than Osteen, who simply wants to “stay in my lane” and preach the feel-good gospel that keeps the money rolling in. What makes God’s “best,” Joel, is not someone who hides behind a happy gosp…

Perry Gives Huntsman Best Week of His Campaign

By Joanna Brooks

…right, everyone: Rick Perry’s anti-science ramblings gave Jon Huntsman the best week of his campaign. But perhaps an even bigger accomplishment by Perry was reorganizing reality in such a way as to make Mormons—reputed to be the most politically conservative religious groups in the U.S.—appear moderate. In fact, Perry has the two climate-changing-believing Mormons in the GOP presidential hopeful pool looking like downright liberals. And Perry hims…

Closed-Door Conference in Poland Shows How US Conservative Christian Networks Export ‘Conversion Therapy’

By Antonia Gross and Rina Nikolaeva

…e the Montana Senate Judiciary Committee, alongside representatives from a number of anti-trans organizations, including familiar faces like the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation. The “Changed Movement” began, according to its website, when Williams and Woning testified along with 30 others and delivered a book with stories of “ex-gays” to California Senators who were, at the time, considering a ban on conversion therapy. Subsequ…

From Pastor to Harvard’s ‘Godless Church’ Planter

By Becky Garrison

…nnect with other clergy persons. Over the past 18 months, I’ve developed a number of relationships with people who contact me because they find themselves in a similar situation. They ask questions, I don’t push. I’m simply a listening ear…someone safe for them to talk to. What was the response to your coming out as an atheist? An enormous number of Christians have threatened to do physical harm to me. Many others have been kind in their response…

Conversion Story #643 (not a real number)

By Amina Wadud

…as Muslim. Here too, I began the practices, but only from books, doing the best I could. Then several months after the shahadah, I was coincidently given a copy of the Qur’an. Then I was hooked. I count my dates of entry from these two points: Thanksgiving day 1972 when I said shahadah, and March 1973, when I was began reading the Qur’an. For some time after that, all I read was Qur’an. Still today if things get freaky I return to just reading the…

The Benedict Opt-Out: Why Christian Self-Isolation Won’t Work

By Kaya Oakes

…n will help parents to keep their children faithful. Given the statistical number of Nones among Millennials and Gen X and the seemingly unpreventable increase in those numbers, these children, like Emily, or the children of many homeschooling parents, will eventually encounter peers who are not religiously affiliated. Given the way technology works, they will also inevitably find a way to expose themselves to popular culture. And the question rem…