Religion Dispatches
…hurch as an institution and for the health of its members as individuals. “Utah has the highest rate in the country of online porn consumption, mental illness, and passive-aggression,” he says. “For a state to lead in any one of those pathologies is enough for me to step back and say, ‘Hey, what’s going wrong here?’ But for Utah to lead in all three markers is persuasive evidence that we have serious things wrong in our culture.” Part of the patho…
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…ight now the UCC church in North Carolina and the “Sister Wives” family in Utah are using a “religious liberty” argument to oppose bans on same-sex marriage and polygamy, respectively. In doing so, they turn a popular Christian Right claim back on its makers. In your view, has religion traditionally inspired marriage activism, or has it simply provided rhetorical tools to those with other agendas? Maybe a little of each? The short answer is a litt…
Read More…e weekend coverage, here’s a roundup of what we learned about the two-time Utah governor and Obama-appointed ambassador to China and his approach to the 2012 primaries: 1. He will not allow Utah to define him. His major executive experience is as a popular (and quite moderate) governor of a deeply red state, but Huntsman campaign headquarters will be in Orlando, Florida. 2. Moreover, he will not allow his Mormonism to define him. In his ABC interv…
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…series of smaller events in other cities run by a travelling team from the Utah temple and has also given birth to the popular “Color Run” phenomenon, employing the same kind of powdered, cornstarch-based colors, and the same spirit of carnivalesque engagement in “sharing love.” Mormon festival-goers are led in chanting Sanskrit mantras and instructed in the metaphysical ramifications of such chanting. They are lectured on vegetarianism, on the tr…
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…Mormonism, Benjamin E. Park This week, new legislation goes into effect in Utah that decriminalizes polygamy among consenting adults. The development, which was voted on in February, was a long-time coming. But while many decriminalization bills have been proposed over the years—Utah’s polygamy laws are the harshest in the entire country—what made this one successful was not who was involved, but who stood quietly to the side: The Church of Jesus…
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…do.” …Romney’s decisive break with Trump could end up hurting him even in Utah, a red state where the president is uncommonly unpopular. What that means for his reelection prospects, the senator couldn’t say. (He doesn’t have to face voters again until 2024.) But as he thought about it, another hymn came to mind. “Do what is right; let the consequence follow,” he recited. “And I don’t know what all the consequences will be.” Trump and his defende…
Read More…e important. And LDS Church leaders have worked with gay rights leaders in Utah to support the passage of workplace and housing anti-discrimination measures. Fischer’s cherry-picking of Mormon texts in an attempt to manipulate and embarrass Romney reminds me of what Martin Bashir did a few weeks ago in his much panned Book of Mormon based screed against lying. Conservative Christians will continue their anti-Mormonism, but now it looks much more l…
Read More…coming out, and the trailer, three-minutes of nauseating footage, centers around how each of these former homosexuals lived their lives in clubs, engaging in cheap, easy, and often public sex, or were sexually abused. For all the claptrap the religious right yells about how they don’t want to think of us “that way,” the trailer for the film is positively voyeuristic! Let’s face it, gay sex is completely titillating to heterosexuals, especially con…
Read More… You can even use your iPhone to tweet the latest execution news, like the Utah Attorney General. But for others the internet is a place for anti-religious rage. Over at the Huffington Post, they have debuted a new discussion between religion and science and the American Association for the Advancement of Science continues to seek dialogue between science and religion. University of Colorado psychologist Tor D. Wager grew up in the Church of Chri…
Read More…r GOA-backed candidates this year in Senate primaries in Nevada, Kentucky, Utah, Colorado, as well as the non-primary in Florida (where Marco Rubio chased Gov. Charlie Crist out of the primary—and out of the Republican Party). All of the candidates supported by GOA-PVF were opposed by the Republican establishment in their respective primaries. And all of these candidates agree with Gun Owners of America that it is not enough simply to defeat anti-…
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