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Spiritual Unplugging, Or What to Do When There is Wifi at the Ashram

By Matt Hamilton

…self-interrogation boiled, my hand extended to the right. I reached for my phone, but I found nothing. At first I laughed at my instinct, my muscle memory. The phone, with its glowing screen, gave me solace and control. But I was tied to my cushion for another hour, and in this ashram for another day, so email would have to wait. I panicked. My heart raced. Would my editor be asking for me? Would a reply from that politician’s secretary sit unansw…

An Open Letter to CEO Jeff Smisek On United Airlines’ Blasphemous Safety Video

By Austin Dacey

…le ourselves before this sublime work. But for now I will not rest, I will not sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight, until I hear the end of this violation. And neither should you, for it is the abomination that brings desolation. The final reckoning will not register which airline company boasted the most freshly painted fleet or ranked last in customer satisfaction. But there are some sacred goods of such high ideal as we instead are called to…

Mormon Women Knock at the Door, Are Turned Away

By Holly Welker

…ust be made to enforce it. In the April 2007 priesthood session, a musical number was provided by a men’s chorus. The chorus was selected and trained by Brigham Young University professor Rosalind Hall, who also chose the music for the choir—but Hall was not allowed to attend the performance; instead, she was replaced by a male colleague, Ronald Staheli, for that one event. In fact, Hall was not even allowed to be in the conference hall to hear he…

Our Failure To Understand Ferguson: A Cognitive Explanation

By Andrew Aghapour

…te segregation and economic favoritism. When I spoke with Rothstein on the phone, he underscored the long-term effects of this last policy. During the 1940s and 1950s, suburban subdivisions were built in St. Louis, and throughout the country, using federal loans stipulating that no homes be sold to African Americans. Priced at about $125,000 in today’s dollars, these were affordable—with a mortgage—to working class families, black or white. Yet bl…

Texas Board of Education Sets Sights on Islam

By Lauri Lebo

…l studies texts” across the U.S. and that past social studies textbooks in Texas also have been “tainted” with pro-Islamic, anti-Christian views. The resolution cites examples in past world history books—no longer used in Texas schools—that devoted far more lines of text to Islamic beliefs and practices than to Christian beliefs and practices. The full text of the resolution is here. The Texas Freedom Network has a great critique of the resolution…

Mexico moves toward national marriage equality; Greek govt announces civil partnership legislation; Pope warns against ‘secularism and relativism’; Global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…age of hate.” Guatemala: US Church offers sanctuary to lesbian refugee The Austin American-Statesman’s James Barragan reports that the First Unitarian Universalist church in Central Austin announced on Thursday “that the church would give sanctuary to Sulma Franco, a 31-year-old Guatemalan immigrant who fled her home country after threats on her life.” “We’re honored to step into an ancient tradition: the tradition of churches offering sanctuary t…

Doonesbury Cartoons Cause Controversy, But for Wrong Reasons

By Sarah Posner

…nal probe to rape repeats a troublesome theme that emerged very briefly in Texas, and became the centerpiece of opposition to the Virginia bill last month. When I was reporting a story on the anti-choice movement in Texas last year, several pro-choice activists mentioned to me that the state’s ultrasound law, passed in May 2011, was state-sanctioned rape because it would necessarily require a transvaginal probe, depending on the stage of pregnancy…

Humiliating “Kim Davis Bill” To “Protect” Anti-LGBT County Clerks Passes Texas Senate

By Sunnivie Brydum

…permissible if SB 522 becomes law. The bill also highlights the fact that Texas marital code still only identifies “a man and a woman” as the two parties who may apply for a marriage license. Even for Texas Republicans, this bill is a mean-spirited (though not at all unprecedented) attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality in pursuit of accommodating a vocal minority who claim their faith trumps their neighbors’ pursui…

Creationist-Leaning Texas Sets Textbook Agenda

By Lauri Lebo

…s the country. Because of its steroid-enhanced textbook purchasing muscle, Texas remains the big dog in the Christian fundamentalist-led fight to sneak Jesus into public school education: Until recently, Texas’s influence was balanced to some degree by the more-liberal pull of California, the nation’s largest textbook market. But its economy is in such shambles that California has put off buying new books until at least 2014. This means that McLer…

The Contested Religious Powers of Baseball on Display in Cuba

By Sean O'Neil

…ment of 50,000, as if the faithful at church. The devotion was audible, as tickets were distributed to friends of the Cuban government and not through a public sale. Here the religious nature of the Cuban sporting event is acknowledged only to be dismissed as inauthentic. The patriotic, quasi-religious crooning is suspicious because of its apparent production by the Cuban government, which distributed tickets to friends. Morosi recognizes religiou…