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Texas’ Anti-LGBT Adoption Bill Is Unconstitutional and Unnecessary, Say Texas Law Professors

…eticulously lay out the reasons why House Bill 3859 , formally titled the “Freedom to Serve Children Act” is not only unnecessary, but also likely unconstitutional—raising serious Establishment Clause concerns. Although the bill doesn’t identify specific religious beliefs that must be protected, the fact that all faith-based child welfare agencies in Texas are Christian makes plain the kinds of people who will most likely be turned away. “The larg…

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Democratic Hopeful Pete Buttigieg Makes Faith 101 Misstep

…t Buttigieg (and all the other candidates) to read Niebuhr’s Moral Man and Immoral Society, and internalize its lessons. Social leaders who want to effect meaningful change are condemned to represent the interests of their group, even though doing so might contradict their personal moral code. The short version of Niebuhr is that you can lead or you can have clean hands, not both. In 2019 America, that means you can embrace the people who are actu…

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

…rk Kim Davis, and was a central feature of the 2016 Mississippi “religious freedom” bill that’s been put on hold by a federal judge for likely violating the Constitution’s Establishment Clause. The failure of both of those cases could eventually spell doom for the Texas bill, but given the GOP control of all of the Lone Star state’s branches of government, it seems unlikely that some silly little constitutional concerns would stand in the way of s…

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Before Breitbart: How Right Wing Media Transformed American Politics

…before bolting the party in 1952 and starting For America, a PAC aimed at promoting conservative politicians. So there’s a tradition of activism within media. But these efforts weren’t movements; they were short-lived and generally the expression of a single personality, without ties to other organizations and efforts. And perhaps most important, the activism was secondary to the media work. For the folks in my book, deciding to start media outle…

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Is Religion the Only Tool Left for Legal Discrimination?

…tions for LGBT people vary so widely by state, city, and locality, whereas freedom of religion (notably not “religious freedom”) is a core value enshrined in the Constitution, it’s safe to assume that those who believe their “traditional values” are under assault will continue to use every weapon at their disposal in an effort to fend off the inevitable. It remains to be seen how successful the American right wing’s understanding of “religious fre…

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Shutting Down the Vatican…Website

…known for attacks on Scientology, decided to send a message to the Catholic Church by shutting down the official Vatican website (still not responding as of this posting). What are the Church’s misdeeds, according to these code crusaders? They go back to the selling of indulgences in the 16th century. And more recently, of course, there’s the Church’s interference in Italy’s domestic politics. (Not just Italy, we’d have to say.) – The Eds.  …

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Santorum’s War on Satan… er, on Higher Education

…in 100 years.” It isn’t a stretch to say that his invocation of “truth” is code for conservative Christian dogma; his real problem with Harvard—and academia in general—is that its scholars do not defer to such dogma. But there’s no need to stretch as Santorum explicitly linked higher education to the work of Satan in a 2008 speech (which has recently gone viral) at Florida’s Ave Maria University. The intimate connection between these views and his…

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Why Conservative Evangelicals Won’t Let Us Pee in Peace

…acy to SBC traditionalism. If that’s what they want to teach, fine. It’s a free country, and there’s no reason to begrudge anyone their beliefs. But it’s simply horseshit to pretend that there wasn’t a historical process by which conservatives captured the reins of the denomination and have slowly but surely been purging even the mildest dissenting voices for the past 30 years. So let’s be clear: the conservative SBC ethics is only one among many…

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Sit Down and Shut Up: Pulling Mindfulness Up By Its (Buddhist) Roots

…leapt on the conference stage and unfurled a banner demanding an “eviction-free San Francisco.” The protestors were talking about physical displacement, but I’d argue that a kind of spiritual gentrification was also getting underway at Wisdom 2.0. As the recent glut of best-selling books, trend pieces, and celebrity testimonials attest, the mindfulness industry shows no sign of a slowdown. Apple has even built a mindfulness tool—reminding users to…

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Religious Resistance to Bolivian Gender Law; US Religious Right Celebrates Court OK For Romanian Marriage Initiative; Will LGBTs Be Banned from Indonesian TV?; Global LGBT Recap

…marginalized communities and to honor their country’s commitment to basic freedoms guaranteed in the Moldovan constitution. “Moldova has already made great democratic, constitutional, and economic advancements. It was only three years ago that the nation took an important stand for human rights and basic freedoms when it overturned a similar anti-LGBT propaganda law,” said Representative Lowenthal. “The U.S. values its relationship with Moldova a…

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