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ACLU and Thomas More Law Center Rush to Terry Jones Defense

By Lauri Lebo

…n to tell me that we can’t deal with some ass-backward country preacher spouting off about his xenophobic fears of Arab-Americans and/or Islam? Indifference, ridicule, pity — any of these would’ve been an appropriate response to this fool. Arguing him down outside the center would’ve been fine, too, for the more passionate among us. But throwing the man in jail truly risks turning a gasbag into a poster boy for the fight against governmental assa…

White House Position
on Exemption from Contraception Coverage
“Not a Done Deal”?

By Sarah Posner

…” The Washington Post reports this morning that Democratic Senators, on a phone call yesterday with White House senior advisor David Plouffe, argued against adopting the Bishops’ position. My source says it’s “not a done deal” yet, but expected action from the White House within a week. UPDATE: Another womens’ rights advocate tells me that she has “no reason to think” that the Obama administration feels it “owes” the Bishops for health care refo…

The Many, Not the Few: An Anthem for Occupy

By Elizabeth Drescher

…Obama, his guests, and security detail responded—or didn’t, as it turned out. But this misses the heart of the story, as Makana’s set at the APEC dinner was less dissenting performance than performative utterance—the songs he played, the protest t-shirt hidden beneath the complaint dinner musician’s suit, and the secretive cell phone video coming together not merely to support the Occupy Movement or to represent the concerns of the protesters, bu…

Meet the “New Age” Stephen Colbert

By Andrew Aghapour

…s serenity is familiar to anyone who has been trapped in a conversation about gluten, chakras, and homemade kombucha. He captures the condescension and fuzzy logic of New Age grandstanding so well that, like all good satire, it could just as easily be the real thing. Sears’ wildly popular YouTube series on the “Ultra Spiritual Life” focuses the individualistic, condescending, bourgeois elements of New Age culture; it’s all about looking spiritual…

Angry Voters, Right-Wing Populism, & Racial Violence: People of Faith Can Help Break the Linkages

By Chip Berlet

…country have dropped the ball” complains Ostendorf. “We won an election, but we didn’t automatically win any of the policy and structural changes we were working for. Did some progressives really think everything was going to get fixed in Washington? This never happens! Our present situation compels a reexamination of how we do longer-term political organizing in our country,” suggests Ostendorf. When I spoke with Gaddy last Fall, I was visiting…

Confessions of a Hater

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…take root. After that, he stayed more often after class, one day whipping out his phone to show me a photo of a white supremacist leader standing up in a convertible during what was obviously a white pride parade. The red-faced, fist waving man in the picture was flanked by two little girls sitting in the back seat, arms crossed with very pronounced frowns on their faces. “They don’t look all that happy,” I remarked to my student. “Those are my da…

Scolding Those Who Choose Pets But No Children Pope Misses the Rainforest for the Trees

By Sarah A. Bowen

…Mia Mercado, highlighted the irony of a childless man scolding those without children. My phone went wild with calls from animal lovers, queer friends and childless Catholic couples as well. An estimated 1.1 billion people belong to the Roman Catholic church. But even many of those who aren’t Catholic consider the pope’s words influential or have concerns about how his words can affect cultures, laws, and policies. I understood why they were dism…

Can You Make a Comedy About UFO Cult Mass Suicide?

By Joseph Laycock

…explained, “To me, all organized religion is a cult.” He added that institutions like beauty pageants for toddlers were far more disturbing to him than unusual religious groups like Heaven’s Gate. The Away Team could also challenge popular understandings of why incidents like the Heaven’s Gate suicide happen. Dark comedies about cults often suggest that committing mass suicide is simply “what cults do” and that no external factors influence this…

Suicide Leads to Calls for Improved Treatment of LGBT Mormons

By Joanna Brooks

…given permission to speak this way by the prophet.” “Even a simple phrase uttered by a General Authority can give Church members broad permission to look down on, discriminate against, or not entertain more compassionate ways of thinking about homosexuality,” Jahn continues. “For many years, I’d sit in General Conference and plead with God that this would be the session that one of the General Authorities would get up and say that treating LGBT p…

Refusing Religion, Claiming the Future: A Roundtable Discussion on “The Nones Are Alright”

By Peter Laarman

…een those within the “nones” who are unaffiliated with any religious institution but still believe in something, and those who are either “unbelievers” or uninterested in the whole issue of religion, but may maintain some form(s) of belief, however vague that may be. Most of the people that Kaya writes about are those who do not fall in the latter two categories, but instead are on some form of a spiritual or religious quest. They actually believe…