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

By Sarah A. Bowen

…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 dismayed….

Can You Make a Comedy About UFO Cult Mass Suicide?

By Joseph Laycock

…ssures have caused them to feel they have no other option. Jones says his film will portray how obstacles like a leader with failing health and harassment from concerned family members could lead a hypothetical movement to consider mass suicide as a viable option. Despite his good intentions, Jones has faced some backlash from critics who claim his project is in bad taste. He understands the reaction, but defends the right of comedians to make lig…

Suicide Leads to Calls for Improved Treatment of LGBT Mormons

By Joanna Brooks

…f his life immediately cast out by excommunication and cut off from his family—his wife and children—now, and for the eternities? Can any human being bear so much? Can this religion we love do any better? As members of the LDS Church prepare for one of the Church’s worldwide General Conferences this weekend, Bryan’s friend Jahn hopes Church officials will offer stronger, more compassionate guidance and leadership on LGBT issues. Jahn remembers tha…

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

By Peter Laarman

…nue to be mass incarcerated and pipelined into prisons in disproportionate numbers, while being marginalized in mainstream public school curricula. In the absence of truly democratic policies that provide equitable access to jobs, housing and education, the social and cultural institutions provided by some black churches, both alternative and traditional, represent an antidote to these inequities. Hence, while remaining largely spiritual-to-religi…

Walking Dead and Zombie Ethics, or “Don’t Fight the Zombies. You Can’t Win”

By Kelly J. Baker

…ver two of its targets, Rocky and Alexa. For many critics, Rocky looked eerily similar to President Barack Obama, and the Alexa character, originally titled “the ex,” seemed to encourage violence against women. Zombification allowed for consumers to act on vengeful fantasies. If they are zombies, violence can’t be wrong, can it? Shooting targets in the face is not real violence, if they are monsters. Zombies Are Us: Humanity and Its Discontents In…

“Even the Rich Suffer”: An Interview with Google’s Jolly Good Fellow Chade-Meng Tan

By Max Zahn

…ly going to have more of it. If he can pass money on to his family, one family will become much richer than the other. This is the nature of capitalism, unfortunately. The mechanism on the other extreme is the propensity for people, when lacking incentive, to avoid doing anything at all. Incentivization is important. The extreme example is collectivization in communist countries. If you collectivize farms, everybody starves because nobody works ha…

Mitt, the Marriotts, and Porn

By Joanna Brooks

…out $100 million in revenues to do so. (Lucky for them, Marriott guests will still be able to enjoy the Book of Mormon stashed in the nightstand drawer in Marriott hotel rooms, courtesy of the mega-Mormon Marriott family.) The hotel chain says that the decision is economic: in-room porn profits have tanked because the porn industry has moved on-line. But it’s being reported that the move is actually an effort to protect Romney against anothe…

Departure of the Queen

By Amina Wadud

…this time with the Queen. She has not yet departed after all, and we are still honored by her visit. Perhaps it is the deafening silence of being so removed from the hustle and bustle of the cities and even from my own family that makes me feel a bit melancholy. I should probably catch ride outside the gates of the estate where I can have bars for my cell phone and get in touch with them later today. Before the shaykh arrives, I continue with my Q…

This Narrative of Death that is So Powerful Among Us

By Daniel Schultz

…t? Dan: At least some of them were. Because that was illegal. Well, it’s still illegal, but… Walter: But we’ve been at it a while. Dan: Right. But Cavanaugh—among others, I think it’s Darius Rejali—documents how those techniques spread from the Philippines and within a very short time, you start to see them in US jails, as those soldiers come home. Walter: I didn’t know that. It’s not surprising, but I didn’t know it. Dan: There’s a University of…

Why We Can’t Afford to “Wait And See” How Trump Dismantles LGBT Rights

By Sunnivie Brydum

…” how the Trump administration comes after your family (and unless your family donated millions to the Trump campaign, you can bet that eventually Trump’s policies will impact your way of life), please use that safety to speak out. Call your representatives now, and again in January, and every time the incoming administration tries to trample the progress we’ve made over the past eight years. Take to the streets for those who cannot, and, perhaps…