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TN Conservatives: Government Butt Out… Government Butt In

…trast in how religious conservatives view the role of government. First in Nashville, the Metro Council has voiced its “support for extending workplace protections to gays, lesbians and transsexual people working for city contractors.” The measure comes up for a final vote on March 15. Some churches in Nashville are up in arms over the measure. [Rev. Maury] Davis, pastor of the Cornerstone Church, a Pentecostal congregation in Madison, said the ex…

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Keeping the “Southern” in Southern Baptist Convention

…(the SBC is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, headquartered in Nashville with over 16 million members and 44,000 churches) met to hear the recommendation of a task force reporting on whether to change the name of the organization. Specifically, the issue was whether to take “Southern” out of the title and create a new name for a denomination founded in Georgia in 1845, by and for slaveholders. The result was reported in breaking news M…

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Fix the Economy GOD’$ WAY: Dave Ramsey’s Great Christian Recovery

…cial distressed callers to his radio program, catapulting him from a local Nashville radio personality to the 6th- or 7th-ranked nationally syndicated radio show (below Limbaugh and Hannity, but above better-known personalities from Laura Ingraham to Glenn Beck). He has, rather quietly, become a national phenomenon. Though only a minor celebrity compared to more outlandish personalities like Beck, Ramsey has now risen to the top tier and continues…

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How Merle Haggard Saved My Soul

…s. Without Bakersfield and Haggard—rougher, twangier, and more direct than Nashville would allow—there would be no pre-Rubber Soul Beatles sound (go back and listen to it again), no Gram Parsons or Sweetheart of the Rodeo, no Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam or Sturgill Simpson, arguably no X or the Replacements (no, really, listen to it all again). Haggard’s band, the Strangers, were a tight band, more precise and fluid than anybody this side of Captai…

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Francis Visits the Church that John Paul Broke

…umber of marriages within the church has declined by nearly half. Only the number of Catholic funerals has held steady. And while the number of Catholics overall has remained level, that’s largely due to Hispanic migration to the US; some 40 percent of those born Catholic have left the church. But numbers don’t tell the whole story. The church Francis will encounter is fundamentally different in character from the church of John Paul in two import…

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Burning Down the Temple: Religion and Irony in Black Rock City

…een working feverishly to finish their projects but had put off purchasing tickets were left out in the cold. It was a different scene in 1997 when I first came to Burning Man and only waited briefly at the entrance as a “Greeter” cast a cursory glance at my car. But the Greeters’ enthusiastic reception remained the same. These Greeters, a dusty naked couple, asked me to get out of my car and embraced me, shouting “Welcome Home!” I had crossed the…

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What a Turn-of-the-Century Anti-Abortion and Contraception Crusader Reveals About GOP Efforts to Ban Abortion Pills by Mail

…items within their borders (as is already the case federally with lottery tickets). A Republican-controlled Congress could then impose a nationwide ban on the mailing of abortion pills or certain contraceptives. (Republican-controlled state legislatures have already demonstrated a willingness to enact questionable legislation for nothing more than its intimidation factor.) Which brings us back to Anthony Comstock. In 1878, the Supreme Court uphel…

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Refusing the Monsters on Maple Street: A First-Person Commentary from the Mass Hysteria at JFK

…alse—swept through the terminals, sending passengers, law-enforcement, and airline workers scrambling for cover and eventually onto the tarmac. The responding authorities found neither shooters nor evidence of any shots fired. The most likely explanation offered for the panic was that the cheering of Olympics fans for Usain Bolt’s performance in the 100 meters sounded like gunfire. In an episode titled “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street,” from

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

…ual recompense. In the video message that was played before my last United Airlines flight, you expressed your desire to greet each and every passenger; you invited us to sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight. If I could greet you now, I would want to know: were you unaware of the monstrosity that was about to follow? There, rising above the hiss of the pressurized air, as the video monitors snapped to the image of an engorged sun bursting from be…

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Invited by Allah

…ccurred to me it would be a very easy to make hajj from there. I bought an airline ticket and was in contact with the family of one of my graduate school friends. They would pick me up from the airport and host me during my stay and the days of ritual. Nice plan. So I went to the embassy to get the visa and was denied because (as an American) I needed proof that I was Muslim. How do I prove I have been a practicing Muslim for a decade? I went to t…

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