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Why Bill Maher Gets a “C” in My Introduction to Religion Class…

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…of the matter is that what we see in religious studies classes across the United States is the great variety of manners in which religions happen in and through their rituals and practices, through their symbolic and communal exchanges, and, yes, in light of and sometimes in spite of their in-the-head beliefs. Two of the more usefully analytic definitions of religion that I offer my students, which is not to say they are the “right” ones, come fr…

How Can You Exclude The NAACP and Liberal Protestants from Human Rights History?

By Austin Dacey

…dependence for all colonized peoples. Their ultimate goal was to bring the United States’ systematic violation of black citizens’ human rights before the United Nations. This intense NGO lobbying took place in the wake of the 1941 Atlantic Charter. Originally issued by Churchill and Roosevelt, the Charter articulated Allied war aims and principles for a “better future for the world” to be realized “after the destruction of Nazi tyranny.” Among the…

Exclusion is Causing Great Harm: A Conversation With Suspended UMC Pastor Rev. Cynthia Meyer

By Joel Pitney

…riends. I have a daughter who is 21, and she really has no interest in the United Methodist Church at this point. That’s a sad loss. So many people who might otherwise be attracted to the United Methodist Church—with its care for the larger world and commitment to social justice—are put off by the stance on these issues. Those who are LGBT, or who have family members or people important to them who are LGBT (and that includes about everybody), now…

‘Christian Warriors’: Who Are The Hutaree Militia And Where Did They Come From?

By Chip Berlet

…y theories revolving around government plans to impose tyranny through the United Nations or some such international body. These conspiracy theorists, egged on by groups like the John Birch Society, claimed that George H.W. Bush was planning a New World Order before attacking the Clinton administration for political assassinations and drug running. The storyline morphed in recent years into fears that the government of the United States planned to…

Unreleased Religious Freedom Manifesto Isn’t the Culture War Compromise It Hopes to Be

By Frederick Clarkson

…r religion, the Supreme Court, in the 1983 case of Bob Jones University v. United States, rightly refused to grant an exemption to anti-discrimination laws based on religion.” With its claim that the “commitment” of the United States regarding “religious freedom and conscience is at its heart, covenantal,” the Charter appears to be trying to press the Framers into a religious vision they did not share. The term “covenant” has several meanings, but…

The United Methodist Church to LGBTQ People: You’re ‘Sacred,’ But Not Welcome

By Pamela R. Lightsey

…ere efforts to show themselves to the world as “one body,” denominations can only make this claim in the spiritual sense. With the looming impasse on LGBTQ full inclusion into the life and ministry of the denomination, it may very well be that the United Methodist Church has reached the end of being “united.” If this is the case, shame on us, for we will repeat our own history of segregation, bigotry and schism and will put the final nail in the c…

Marriage Vote ‘Transforms’ Not-So-Catholic Ireland; Activist to Malaysian PM – ‘Love Is Not Terrorism’; LGBTs Find Growing Acceptance in Colombia, Not At World Meeting of Families; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ladelphia, the central religious event of Pope Francis’ first visit to the United States, is intended to convey a message of love and joy as it seeks to promote church teaching on marriage. Yet four weeks from its opening, friction is mounting, as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Roman Catholics lobby for a broader role in the event, and organizers move to limit them. The tensions surrounding the gathering will pose a real-world test of the…

South Asian Religious Leaders Challenged to Take on Stigma and Discrimination: Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…try ratings here. Dominican Republic: Govt Commission Bans Miley Cyrus For Promoting Lesbian Sex We have reported previously on some religious leaders’ resistance to James “Wally” Brewster, the openly gay US ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Last week, Blabbeando reported, “The National Commission for Public Performances in the Dominican Republic announced today that they were banning a September 13th Miley Cyrus concert for, among other thing…

How a Bill O’Reilly Bestseller Helps Explain the Anti-Semitism Behind the Poway Shooting

By Tony Keddie

…ods and Kings (2014). In response to this criticism, Scott hired actors of Arab, African, and Indian descent for Killing Jesus. The Lebanese-American actor Haaz Sleiman was even cast as Jesus. But here’s the rub: while Scott hired people of color to play Jesus and his disciples, he hired white actors of European descent to portray the Roman elites, Herodian kings (Kelsey Grammer—Frasier himself—is Herod!), Jewish high priests, and the traitor Juda…

Book Bannings Are Bad Enough, But Where Those Involved Are Considered Demonic, the Stakes Could Get Much Higher

By Frederick Clarkson

…onvert, or else be killed or expelled. It’s a tragic love story between an Arab man and a Moroccan woman who’s forced to convert from Islam to Christianity in Granada, Spain in 1492. Significantly less well known than Heine’s famous quote is the fact that the play centers around the burning of a Qur’an. That act prompts the famous sentence that’s now engraved on a plaque in Berlin’s Opera Square where, in 1933, some 40,000 people gathered to watch…