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White Supremacy, Mental Illness, or Society: What’s to Blame for Religious Violence?

…specific set of institutions and political positions, is regularly used as code for “most of Islam.” And those who obsesses about Islamism often flirt with more bald-faced statements of Islamophobia. Critics of white supremacy and patriarchy, on the other hand, point out that these ideologies are pervasive in the culture at large. The blame casts a wide net, not in order to single out a minority group, but in order to implicate a culture that’s be…

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Are Evangelical Films Destined to Leave Secular Audiences Behind?

…m should be. This, it would seem, is the site of a deep division within American evangelicalism. There’s a serious difference of opinion over what values should be paramount in making movies. Left Behind could have been the vehicle for showing how this problem could be solved, but it didn’t work. The fight that Lalonde had with authors of the book and that Lalonde had with fans of the movies who were anxious about the remake will continue. And it…

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Why I Am Still a Christian

…the basis of its history. Of course, Christians have committed a much historical mischief and done outright evil things. But that’s not the whole story. There’s much in the tradition to be both admirable and imitated. So, I decided to write “the other side of the story,” the sort of history that enables me to stay Christian. What’s the most important take-home message for readers? I hope people read the book and understand that spiritual amnesia i…

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Women’s Ordination Horrifies Traditionalist Anglican Clergy

Today, the Church of England came several steps closer to achieving women’s equality within the church. The national assembly voted, after only two hours of debate, to move legislation in support women bishops to the revision committee stage. People on both sides of the debate have met the advancement with varying levels of apprehension. Voices on the side of women’s ordination in the Church of England believed that the legislation did not go far…

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Did the Duggars’ Fundamentalism Cause Sexual Abuse? Not So Fast

…dren is worth getting riled up about. Nor do I mean “Let’s be cautious” as code for “Maybe this isn’t an important question.” To the contrary, it’s a vital question. Yet it’s also an easy question to approach in an unhelpful way. Precisely because sexual abuse is appallingly common, compassionate people look for patterns to explain why it happened in this instance and not that one. And that’s a good thing: abuse prevention means recognizing common…

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The Roots of the American Right’s Muslim Brotherhood Panic

…y the MB or a derivative organization. Consequently, most of the Muslim-American groups of any prominence in America are now known to be, as a matter of fact, hostile to the United States and its Constitution.” (emphasis in original; I wrote more about Gaffney’s calls on Congress to “investigate” shari’ah here). WND’s Aaron Klein, whose attempt to link the Brotherhood to Obama I wrote about on Saturday, and has been echoed by Rush Limbaugh, now pr…

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A Jew in Church? No Big Deal

…ly fascinating, and perhaps admirable, that we have come to a moment in American religious life when an Orthodox Jew can say such a thing, it also betrays a stunning naiveté. The evangelists Cohen seems to enjoy so much, though they might fetishize a Jew, presumably would not reciprocate; Jesus, after all, being the only way to the father. And he has strangely fond words for John Hagee, joining the ranks of shortsighted Jews who refuse to see the…

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Whistleblower Alleges $100B Hoarding Scandal by LDS Church; But There’s An Easy Fix

…ransparency requirements. Even the most extreme understanding of religious freedom could not stop Congress from legislating transparency because accountability to the taxpayers does not “prohibit” or even hinder the free exercise of religion. For instance, Ensign claims that “the amassed funds would be used in the event of the second coming of Christ.” But filing financial information with the IRS would not prohibit the church from hoarding this w…

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Queer Repentance: On Not Surrendering to a Text, to Guilt, or to Habit

…when applied to homosexuality, unhealthy. For our community, “change” is a code word for repression, distortion, and fear. So LGBT people must either abandon repentance or queer it. If we are not to reject it, we must make it our own, make it more complex, set aside its oversimplifications. The good news is that this is a gift to everybody else. Total surrender to heteronomous ethics is unhealthy, period. It may be prescribed by some, but it is al…

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Jose Antonio Vargas’ Coming Out and the Power of Stories over Religious Remonstrances

…ay” rather than “draw[ing] them in.” She added, “I want to make sure we’re using language to draw people in who share the same concerns about declining jobs and opportunity.” Edwards was reacting to someone in the audience bringing up the term “white privilege;” Edwards, who is African-American, cautioned that when people of color use that terminology, it tends to drive away white people. Vargas, moderating, interjected, “White people have to talk…

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