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Malta Adopts Marriage Equality Over Objections of Catholics and Evangelicals; And More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…al danger. It is much to be regretted that there has been far more concern about alleged ‘boundary crossing’ than about the contempt of God’s Word that made a missionary bishop necessary. In fact, the Bishop of Edinburgh, who has strongly supported the Scottish Episcopal Church’s adoption of same sex ‘marriage’ was invited as a guest of honour to the Church of England’s July General Synod meeting. Although the Church of England’s legal position on…

How a Fringe Theocratic Movement Helped Shape the Religious Right As We Know It

By Sarah Posner

…es Roy Moore, and the religious right’s admiration for his antics, tell us about the ongoing influence of Christian Reconstructionist ideas? Well, I know you’ve written quite a bit about Judge Moore and, as an example, he’s a perfect illustration of the ongoing influence. He is something of a folk hero for conservative Christians but you rarely see recognition of the background to his views. Moore is a regular speaker at explicitly Christian Recon…

Dragged Through the Mud: This Little Church-Backed Support Group for LGBTQ Teens Suffered Bomb Threats, Smears and the Cancellation of its Drag Show

By Chrissy Stroop

…“groomer pedophile pastors will not be allowed in our community,” bragging about “shutting down” defenders of Tinnin and the Landing Spot at the school board meeting, and ranting hateful conspiratorial nonsense about “the rainbow cult.” At one point, Perrine says to Tinnin, “You are working for the Synagogue of Satan.” At another, he claims that the Project Veritas video shows Tinnin “admitting to grooming children” and asserts, “[Tinnin’s] object…

Inside InterVarsity’s Purge: Trauma and Termination at the Premier Evangelical Student Org

By Deborah Jian Lee

…ip conversation about my promiscuity as opposed to a pastoral conversation about how I was just raped.” Since Vasquez first began working at InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, one of the nation’s largest campus ministries, he had been open about his sexual orientation. He started his staff position at the University of Utah in the fall of 2013; soon after, a male supervisor requested that they meet weekly in the supervisor’s bedroom to practice pr…

Does the Right Even Know Why it’s so Threatened by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce?

By Mary Rambaran-Olm

…ncy and power. Like magpies to shiny objects, we’re bombarded with stories about where she and Kelce are going and headlines speculating about her presence at the next football game, all of which distracts us from focusing on government representatives voting on bills that directly affect our lives, healthcare, and future. Yet despite her apparent lack of any meaningful engagement in the political arena, the Right’s conspiratorial hamster wheel is…

RD News Round-Up—September 29, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…lenges facing the nation.” According to The Barna Group, evangelicals feel about the same about the environment as their fellow Americans. While many evangelicals appear to be adopting more environmentally friendly lifestyles, “[o]ne of the most widely debated environmental subjects is global climate change: whether it is happening, what causes it, and what to do about it.” Evangelicals are among the most skeptical population segments when it come…

From The Virgin Mary to a Housewife in Queens: Inside The Seer of Bayside

By Joseph Laycock

…inted out, this title doesn’t effectively convey what the book is actually about. 8. How do you feel about the cover? I think it’s great! There are so many wonderful photos of Veronica out there. Unfortunately it was hard to track down permission to use most of them. I think the one on the cover makes it possible to imagine what it would have been like to attend a Baysider vigil when Lueken was in her prime. 9. Is there a book out there you wish y…

What Happens When We Use Horror Movies to Interpret the Real World? 10 Questions for the Authors of ‘The Exorcist Effect’

By Eric Harrelson and Joseph P. Laycock

…of media. We need to find ways to get the public to think more critically about these topics and to question where their assumptions about things like demons and Satanic cults come from. We all need to take a cue from marketing materials for Wes Craven’s 1972 breakthrough horror film The Last House on the Left and remind ourselves: “It’s only a movie. It’s only a movie.” What alternative title would you give the book? We homed in on “The Exorcist…

This Quote About ‘Pregnant’ Church From Outgoing SBC President is Deeply Troubling For Anyone Concerned About Sexual Abuse

By Jill Hicks-Keeton

…ar’s rhetoric—share a few assumptions that should trouble anyone concerned about sexual abuse. First, notice that God, portrayed as male, has sexual access to women’s bodies for his own purposes whether grandly benevolent (Luke 2; John 3:16) or just plain vindictive (Revelation 2). The church, further, is cast as a woman who owes her bodily fidelity to this demanding male deity whose patrilineality must be protected from her waywardness. Her womb…

Seeking Broad Appeal to US Christians, ‘God & Country: The Rise of Christian Nationalism’ Glosses Over Critical Context

By Chrissy Stroop

…at you end up with is people who are so loud about what God says so little about, and so quiet about what God says so much about. So they’re so loud against gay people. They’re so loud against a woman’s right to have an abortion. The clear implication is that these two Christians, French and Barber, agree more than they differ, since we’re shown both passionately speaking out against Christian nationalism. But if both Barber and French, whose poli…