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We Regret to Inform You That You Do Not Mirror the Holy Family

By Patrick Hornbeck

…beyond the usual marrying age and the other an unwed pregnant virgin.) In Texas, a state law adopted just last year permits adoption and foster care agencies to turn away prospective parents for sincerely held religious reasons. The women in this case, however, are suing in federal court, since the Catholic Charities program in question is funded through an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services. The local Catholic diocese responded t…

Ted Cruz’s McCarthyism and the Christian Right

By Sarah Posner

…erful Jane Mayer recounts an Americans for Prosperity rally she covered in Texas two and half years ago, at which now-Texas Senator Ted Cruz “accused the Harvard Law School of harboring a dozen Communists on its faculty when he studied there” in the early 1990s. The revelation of these baseless, McCarthy-esque accusations sheds light on the origins of Cruz’s baseless, McCarthy-esque questioning of Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel. (The bes…

#VanillaISIS, White Tears and the Adventures of Captain Moroni

By Megan Goodwin

…ze the single largest protective custody seizure in American history, when Texas law enforcement and social service workers removed more than 400 children from the Yearning for Zion ranch in El Dorado, Texas. Comparisons between Mormons and Muslims usually trade on damaging stereotypical portrayals of both groups and have led to violence against religious minorities. #VanillaISIS is hilarious, but arguably not productive if we’re invested in Ameri…

Ian Buruma on the Political Excesses of Religion

By Lisa Webster

…lectual work. Our conversation ranged among topics from Dutch Calvinism to Texas billboards to the new European culture wars. ________________ The first essay in the Taming the Gods is about America and Europe. Can you talk a little about that? Well, one of the things that became clearer to me as I did my research is that people like to think that there’s a real divide in Western civilization between the New World and the Old World, the U.S. and E…

Gulf Oil Spill May be “Act of God”

By Johnny P. Flynn

…owed them offshore in California and the Gulf. My brother cannot count the number of back operations he has endured, and one of my most vivid memories of working offshore in California is seeing a good friend nearly cut in half when we were forced to “hurry up” and offload equipment from the platform (Platform A, by the way, the same one that blew out in the Santa Barbara Channel in 1969). We know that oil exploration and production is more danger…

Are Southern Baptists Softening Stance on Immigration?

By Mike Greer

In recent comments after visiting Central American refugees in Texas, the Southern Baptists’ emerging point man in the culture wars, Russell Moore, cleverly managed to capitalize on the polarizing problem, even after the public statement of Texas’ Catholic Bishops that “Now is not the moment for inflammatory political rhetoric, but of compassionate and orderly resolution to the conditions of these women and children who are already in a difficult…

Top Ten Religion & Science Stories of 2009

By Lauri Lebo

…nce” in Texas Classrooms In April, fundamentalist Christian members of the Texas Board of Education inserted intelligent design code words into its science education requirements. The wording includes directing students to analyze and evaluate “sudden appearance” in the fossil record and analyze the “complexity of the cell.” The language prompted creationist and pro-intelligent design organizations like the Seattle-based Discovery Institute to cla…

Beyond ‘Thoughts and Prayers’: How the Christian Right’s Politics of Providentialism Keeps America from Addressing Gun Violence

By Chrissy Stroop

…n mourning the 21 human beings senselessly killed at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas on August 3rd, we learned that another nine human lives had been snuffed out in the wee hours of August 4th outside a popular bar called Ned Peppers in downtown Dayton, Ohio. Republican leaders continue to block any meaningful action from being taken. The heat wave continues. Department stores are experiencing the back-to-school rush. Water continues to be wet. Republ…

Religion and the GOP’s Immigration Problem

By Sarah Posner

…The Tea Party audience booed Perry when he reiterated his support for the Texas law, known as the Texas DREAM Act. Perry, as well as the other candidates, refused to endorse the federal DREAM Act, which languishes in Congress and would, if passed, provide a path to citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants who pursue higher education or join the military. The House passed it last year, but Republicans fillibustered it in the Senate. As…

Stephen Broden, Beck’s Black Robed Regiment In Action

By Sarah Posner

Via TMPDC, Think Progress reports on Texas congressional candidate Stephen Broden’s radio interview in which he says that a violent revolution to overthrow the government is “on the table.” On Glenn Beck’s special program on religion in America on July 1, Broden said, “I think that the thing that we’re fighting here against, Glenn, is that there is a power grab on the part of the progressive left. And in order for them to effectively pull power f…