Religion Dispatches
…one later in life are small.” Very small, in fact, as Zuckerman notes: just five percent. (This post originally stated, erroneously, that Merino is at Pennsylvania State University, and that his paper was published in 2012. It has been corrected.)…
Read MoreMy favorite new website is All Dead Mormons Are Now Gay. It’s a simple game: enter the name of a dead Mormon, or the site will choose one for you, and with the click of a mouse, the deceased LDS member is instantly converted to homosexuality. Of course, this makes no sense, and is somewhat offensive. But then, so are the views of some (though not all) Mormons that the dead can be posthumously baptized – or at least given the offer of baptism (whi…
Read MoreA 2008 hidden-camera video of a perturbed Mitt Romney discussing Mormonism with an ultra-conservative Iowa talk radio host named Jan Mickelson started making the rounds again late last week, and now, according to Politico.com, it has gone “viral.” Prickly and irritated, Romney pushes back when Mickelson challenges him on his view of the end-times and whether Jesus Christ will reign from Jerusalem or a New Jerusalem in the Americas. “I understand…
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…Bruce R. McConkie, a member of the Church’s high-ranking Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, once a leading proponent of racist theological justifications of the ban, told a gathering of LDS educators: “Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge…
Read MoreA new website, and a new robocall in Ohio, is claiming that Christians and Jews are against Mitt Romney and for Rick Santorum, mostly because Romney is for your kid’s male teacher wearing a dress and heels to school, and Santorum is for “social sanity.” Here’s the text of the robocall, via the website JewsandChristianstogether.org: Hi, my name is Brian Camenker; I’m a Jew from Massachusetts. And, this is Darcy Brandon; I’m a Christian from Califo…
Read More…RD contributing editor Anthea Butler, who wrote about Trayvon Martin and American Exceptionalism this week, appeared on Melissa Harris Perry’s MSNBC program this morning to talk more about the tragic shooting and its aftermath. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy…
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…never be able to change the laws back to being pro-woman until women themselves are voting pro-choice.” Christian women can own their abortions—or they can repent. There are entire ministries devoted to women who regret their abortions, like Rachel’s Vineyard, a Christian “therapy” retreat funded by Priests for Life. The church bulletin at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo contains an ad for Rachel’s Vineyard aimed at those who have “suffered from the…
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While anti-abortion advocates in the U.S. have embraced Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng as a “pro-life” activist, Chen is, in fact, a crusader against forced abortion and sterilization. In the U.S., “pro-life” connotes opposition to abortion, per se, so Chen isn’t an anti-abortion activist in the U.S. sense. He is a self-taught lawyer who brought down the wrath of local officials by demanding they follow the law of the land and stop forced abor…
Read MoreThe recent vote in North Carolina opposing Same Sex marriage has unleashed a stream of invectives from fundamentalist pastors hoping to one-up each other on their homophobia. None, however, could outdo the most recent contestant to the fray, Pastor Charles Worley, who said that lesbians and gays should be “penned up with a fence, and food dropped down to them. In a couple of years, they would die, because they can’t reproduce.” Meanwhile, don’t b…
Read More…ngs together the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox churches, the bishops resolved that the parliamentary committee on Gender should be tasked to engage the House on the Bill which is now at committee level. “We also ask the Education committee to engage the Ministry of Education on the issue of incorporating a topic on human sexuality in the curricula of our schools and institutions of learning,” the resolutions signed by archbishops Henry Luke Orom…
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