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Vatican’s New Media Evangelizing Strategy Can’t Save it from All The Bad News

…ia and its head, Pope Benedict, have not been able to stem the tide of the news cycle about the sexual abuse scandal, nor has the biggest newsmaker in the scandal used media effectively to convey a coherent message to Catholics that is sincere, contrite, and constructive. Even more disturbing is the eagerness to use media in order to evangelize, while demonizing legitimate reporting on the sexual abuse stories. In late April, it was revealed that…

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Heterosexual With Issues: Haggard’s Self-Hate

…, hugging and roughhousing with male congregants, riding a scooter through New Life’s sprawling lobby. Then it all implodes, his ruin narrated in news clips. We see a church leader reading a letter from Haggard to his crying congregants: “There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life.” In an archaic-seeming settlement agreement, the church pays Haggard severance, but “banishes” him…

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How Belief in Moscow as ‘The New Rome’ Explains Kirill’s Astonishing Declaration That ‘Russia Has Never Attacked Anyone’

…aditionally views America as the site of the Garden of Eden and the future New Jerusalem, a new Holy Land. Just as early Christians believed Rome existed to facilitate the spread of the Christian Gospel, many Mormons today believe the United States exists to facilitate the Restoration. Furthermore, many American evangelicals believe American exceptionalism derives from the fact that America has been given a special mission from God. In addition to…

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Conservative Christians Oppose New ‘Inter-Religious’ University

…ing negates my faith. That logic fueled the age of religious warfare. This new postmodern world requires a different economy of belief. Those who reject interreligious bridge-building based on mutual respect and understanding, those who insist ever more rigidly on the exclusive truth of their own way, distance themselves further and further from other traditions. Are these the sorts of religious leaders we want to be producing, to take the helm in…

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‘Russkii Mir,’ the Russian Equivalent of ‘Blood & Soil’ Ideology at the Heart of Putin’s War, Explained and Rejected by Theologians in New Statement

…uote from a scholar to the effect that “Putin wanted to be the father of a new Russian nation, but he is the father of a new Ukrainian nation instead.” The same might be said for his hopes to sponsor a revived Russian church, and just possibly for his dreams to use American social divisions against themselves. Any religious body wanting to counteract “division, mistrust, hatred, and violence” just got handed the tools to do so, courtesy of Orthodo…

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Why It’s Heresy to Read the Bible Literally: An Interview with John Shelby Spong

…of God returns to Jesus who is being put forward by the Christians as the new temple… the new meeting place between God and human life. So, the transfiguration story is the Christian version of Hanukkah. Once you get that framework in Mark’s gospel, Rosh Hashanah to Passover, then you can begin to see it in Matthew and in Luke. It’s very different because Matthew is very Jewish and Luke is very Gentile-oriented. Luke tells a different sort of sto…

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Is Eddie Long Preparing For a Confession?

…sounds like someone trying to prepare their loved ones for some difficult news. Will New Birth congregants accept more revelations about their beloved “Bishop”? The people I encountered today were either sold out to Bishop Long, or looked a little stunned that they didn’t hear a strong denial. Doubt may begin to work on the hearts and minds of the faithful if the allegations mount, and the time to trial drags on. Finally, and perhaps most worriso…

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Orthodox Jews Begin to Reckon with Sexual Abuse

…ually have a single beth din while larger communities, like those found in New York and New Jersey, may have many. These include beth dins that specialize in sexual abuse, though they are few; Rabbi Basil Herring, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America, says there are probably no more than two or three in the country. Perhaps unsurprisingly, beth din rabbis are often reluctant to speak about their work. Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Wein…

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Note to the New Pope: Half of the World’s Poor are Women

…merican woman who cares more about gender than about the poor to whom this new pope is dedicated. But let’s be clear: half of the world’s poor are women, and the Church’s effort to deprive the Catholic women among them of contraceptives, of the use of condoms that could protect them from HIV-AIDS, and of the ministry of women priests who would marry, absolve, and anoint them, is no service to them. Even as President Ronald Reagan challenged Michae…

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Maybe The Question Is: *Should* Shabbat Be The New Yoga?

…ze sabbath principles to non-Jews? Most importantly: Is Shabbat really the new yoga? Unlike yoga, Shabbat is difficult to commodify. The biggest new sabbath boosters are all nonprofits with social missions. But, certainly, it’s easy to imagine how a slightly exotic practice of mandated rest could, in the right hands, become an interfaith wellness touchstone: feel good through this ancient spiritual wisdom! Shabbat certainly resonates with an afflu…

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