Search for "cheap airline tickets for military members phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Texas Board of Education Wants to Change History

By Lauri Lebo

…ndations, and present them to the Board of Education. In August, the board members will begin the first round of hearings to review the proposed changes. “I don’t see at all that we will divide into factions,” said new board Chairwoman Gail Lowe, seemingly rather disingenuously, in a recent newspaper interview. Lowe was one of two board members who appointed Barton to the panel of experts. A Young Earth Creationist like her predecessor, Lowe was r…

LDS Church Calls on Members to back Minnesota Anti-Equality Initiative

By Joanna Brooks

…s same-sex marriage.) According to LDS Church data, there are about 30,000 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Minnesota, constituting less than .5% of the state’s population. It is unclear at this time whether LDS congregations will be activated as volunteer and fundraising units, as they were during California’s Proposition 8 campaign in 2008. One Minnesota Mormon blogger reported, “The letter did not come out and say w…

Hypocritical Freakout over Shari’ah, but Not Biblical Law

By Sarah Posner

…claim or dispute you have with, or against SMI, its employees, directors, members and associate members, that is related to SMI and its ministries in any way, shall be settled by Biblically based mediation and, if necessary, legally binding arbitration. And SMI agrees similarly with respect to any matter SMI might have against you. Shari’ah scare mongers complain that application of shari’ah law threatens the Constitution, most specifically by in…

Pussy Prophets & Nuns on Buses: Will Feminist Politics Get More Holy & Foolish?

By Beatrice Marovich

…tify their actions in the eyes of believers. Still, the fact that the band members are defiantly arguing that the gods are on their side is significant. Ultimately, not only are the innermost feelings of the members of Pussy Riot impossible to measure, they’re functionally irrelevant. What’s far more interesting, far more relevant, and far easier to reflect on, are the ways in which they publicly entangle feminism, religion, and politics. If “uto…

Is Criticizing Mitt Romney an Excommunicable Offense? No.

By Joanna Brooks

…et has now put an array of information within a mouse-click of questioning members. Some members report feeling betrayal when they encounter on the internet unexpected information that runs contrary to what they’ve learned from their parents and teachers, especially after they’ve made deep investments in their faith. That question of openness—the matter and manner in which the LDS community sorts through its own history and practices—is a source o…

A Reporter’s Guide to the New Apostolic Reformation

By Frederick Clarkson and André Gagné

…of the EVAT network still exists—for example, some individuals still list membership in EVAT in their online bios since Wagner’s 2016 passing; see Robert Henderson and Peter Roselle. There is, unfortunately, no public membership list. One thing to keep in mind is that apostles may not be the only leaders of “apostolic networks.” Prophets are also sometimes included on apostolic councils or teams. Ahn explains in Modern-Day Apostles that “because…

Is Alcoholics Anonymous a Religion?

By Galen Watts

…over time, and are employed for different social and political reasons. AA members who left a religious tradition but found a home in AA have their own reasons for calling AA a “spiritual” program, as do members whose secular humanism leads them to equate all “God” talk with “religion.” My aim is simply to make these assertions less self-evident. AA is not like every other treatment What we can be sure of, however, is that the Twelve Steps are not…

LGBT Mormons Ask in Historic Temple: “If they could just see us, don’t you think they would change their minds?”

By Joanna Brooks

…apart. Go on this journey together.” On Sunday morning, when I joined the members of Affirmation in the Kirtland Temple, I did exactly what Mormons so often do when we gather for worship: I cried. And I was not alone. Many Affirmation members were overwhelmed to be welcomed as gay Mormons into a sacred Mormon space, a historic temple that represents the first organized aspirations of the Mormon movement. Tears flowed freely when the Affirmation…

When Religion Kills: The Narco-Traffickers of the Borderlands

By Luis Leon

…t every Knight should be “firmly and truthfully in the just cause of God.” Numbers thirty-four through thirty-eight prohibit drugs, kidnapping, and mandate drug testing. Forty-three requires members to become cultured through learning. In forty-eight, their philosophy on divine justice is unpacked: “no one should kill for pleasure (gusto) nor money.” Each murder should be considered carefully to determine if there exists sufficient cause. Forty-ni…

‘Brazil’s Trump’ Bolsonaro Lost — But Anti-Democratic Movements Seldom Accept Electoral Defeat

By Craig Johnson

…whole. Both are disproportionately armed. And both are disproportionately members of conservative branches of Christianity. Central to the nationalism of both Trump and Bolsonaro is the privileged playing the victim. Both do this in their political and personal lives, treating any accusations against them, not as criticisms or disagreements in a society based on the peaceful resolution of differences—but as personal and illegitimate attacks from…