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What do Crystal Meth and Contraception Have In Common?

By Kara Loewentheil

…erity inquiry. It seems ridiculous to us that a religion could require the use of meth, but there is nothing new about the use of intoxicating substances as a means of facilitating communion with the divine. And in a religion like Wicca, without a central authority (like the Pope, for instance), how do we determine that the use of meth is not in fact central to this particular Wiccan’s religious exercise? I’m not suggesting we can’t determine that…

The Christian Worldview Revealed by Sessions’ Use of Romans 13

By Susan B. Ridgely

…istration subscribe, and which influences the Ralph Drollinger-led White House Bible study (Capitol Ministries) that Sessions attended one day prior to his announcement. The worldview behind the Romans 13 controversy is the ideology of Reconstructionist Christianity as interpreted by Focus on the Family, the conservative Christian media empire founded by James Dobson. Ralph Drollinger’s wife Danielle worked for Focus in the early 1990s and Dobson…

These Are the New Battlegrounds for LGBT Rights Under Trump

By Sunnivie Brydum

…the clearest and most present danger for LGBT Americans, particularly because it exemplifies the ways in which the bedrock principle of “religious freedom” has been weaponized to block the advance of LGBT equality. When FADA was first introduced by Idaho Rep. Raul Labrador introduced in July 2015, it garnered 172 co-sponsors in the House. All of them were Republicans. The bill stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and Labrador even attempted…

Park 51 and RLUIPA, Or, Conservatives Hoisted On Their Petard

By Daniel Schultz

…nd Institutionalized Persons Act, arguing that it “protects religious land uses from discrimination.” Thus because of Republican legislation, conservative opponents of the Park 51 project have had to fight not on legal grounds, but on the far weaker notion that the community center’s organizers should build elsewhere out of respect for the Ground Zero site. That, it should be said, is hardly a compelling argument.** Or as Melissa Rogers puts it on…

In Praise of Failure: Is Defining Religion Such a Good Idea?

By Ivan Strenski

…a bit and think about language, since we are at least talking about how we use, or should use, words. Fully to appreciate what I am saying, know that here in Riverside County, California, I am writing close in time and space to the shootings in San Bernardino. I have been driven to distraction and anger by the way the word “terrorism” is kicked about. For example: mass shootings by a white Christian, “crazy, unexplainable,” but, mass shootings by…

Just Like January 6, One of the Most Disturbing Aspects of the Right-Wing Coup Attempt in Germany is Who Was Behind It

By Annika Brockschmidt

…ecial operations are particularly attractive to right-wing extremists, because they feel safe there, they have a structure, and because they can live out their beliefs that they’re better than everyone else. It makes sense to check closely that you don’t recruit the wrong people for this. But there’s another problem when you consider a unit like the KSK: You’re asking the people in it to do extreme things (…) Officers told me ‘you can’t be surpris…

Confession Fail: iPhone App Controversy Muddies the Sacramental Waters

By Elizabeth Drescher

…nfession with a priest. However, it has seemed easy enough for the average user to misunderstand the developers’ intention that the app be used as an incentive to go to church. Indeed, enough that Vatican officials were moved to issue a statement yesterday making clear that use of the Confession app—or any technological devise—cannot substitute for the sacrament properly offered by a Roman Catholic priest. Kreager is quick to affirm the Vatican’s…

Crying Witch: Learning From the O’Donnell “Dabbling” Debacle

By Spencer Dew

…ith someone who said that he was a witch. The problem is, when it comes to use of the word “witch,” real witches can be nearly as varied as those of novels, movies, and television. Most vocal in their use of the term are segments of the pagan Wiccan communities. Among contemporary Wiccans there is often (following the logic of identity politics) an effort to reclaim the term “witch” as meaning exclusively those of their nature-revering, goddess-ro…

Did Jesus Help Ghanaian Women with Birth Control?

By Allie Carter

…ive use amongst women of the Kassena-Nankana ethnic group in Ghana. She focuses on a study of contraceptive use and childbearing amongst women who attended evangelical churches: To their amazement, they found that female Christian converts were three times as likely to use family planning as women who retained their traditional African faith, and had significantly smaller families. The churches certainly didn’t promote family planning. But, despit…

How to Slow Down the Rush to War: What Obama Should Do About Syria

By Aryeh Cohen

…t crisis in Syria, in which the U.N. is blocked from acting decisively because Russia and China will use their vetoes against any action that imperils Assad, President Obama should call a conclave of the world’s other countries, all of them, and let them together decide on what should be done with regard to saving the people of Syria from its rogue regime. The specific use of chemical weapons should be referred to the World Court for possible tria…