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The Benedict Opt-Out: Why Christian Self-Isolation Won’t Work

By Kaya Oakes

…n will help parents to keep their children faithful. Given the statistical number of Nones among Millennials and Gen X and the seemingly unpreventable increase in those numbers, these children, like Emily, or the children of many homeschooling parents, will eventually encounter peers who are not religiously affiliated. Given the way technology works, they will also inevitably find a way to expose themselves to popular culture. And the question rem…

From Pastor to Harvard’s ‘Godless Church’ Planter

By Becky Garrison

…nnect with other clergy persons. Over the past 18 months, I’ve developed a number of relationships with people who contact me because they find themselves in a similar situation. They ask questions, I don’t push. I’m simply a listening ear…someone safe for them to talk to. What was the response to your coming out as an atheist? An enormous number of Christians have threatened to do physical harm to me. Many others have been kind in their response…

New Poll Finds “Growing Appetite” for Mixing Religion and Politics

By Sarah Posner

…from electoral politics, as they could signal to candidates that a growing number of voters are interested in hearing them talk about their faith. While the number of Americans who believe it is important for members of Congress to have strong religious beliefs has remained steady since 2010—about 6-in-10, with even more significant majorities among Protestants and Catholics—this poll shows a growing number of Americans who want to hear candidates…

Using the “A” Word: Israel and Apartheid

By Shalom Goldman

…th Africa is an incendiary charge in both the United States and Israel. In Europe it is more commonly heard. The claim will make you a lot of enemies on the political Right, and earn you points on the international Left. Israel allied with South Africa The Unspoken Alliance is not directly concerned with the Israel-South Africa comparison, but it cannot, of course, avoid it. Rather, writer Sasha Polakow-Suransky, a senior editor at Foreign Affairs…

The World is (Always) About to End, No Zombies Required

By Kelly J. Murphy

…in the spring of 2014, when zombie courses had long been on the books at a number of institutions across the United States, in literature courses and sociology classes and beyond. Scholars like Kim Paffenroth and Kelly Baker, among others, had already firmly established the relevance and importance of studying zombies and other monsters within the field of religious studies more broadly. Yet between the excellent work of CMU’s media team and the s…

Warships, Animals, Pubs Eligible For Blessings From Church of England, But Not Same-Sex Couples; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ization for the Family. Brown recently traveled through Russia and several European countries while promoting the IOF’s Declaration on the Family and Marriage. In an email to supporters, Brown gushed about his “incredible trip in eastern Europe,” including his address to “over 1,000 pro-family activists” in Serbia. Church of England: Clergy rejection of bishops’ marriage ban leaves position in ‘disarray’ The House of Clergy voted to reject a repor…

Anti-Gay Violence Rages in Gambia; Conservative ‘Complementarity’ Confab; Coming Out in Iraq Can Be Death Sentence; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It drew a number of high-profile participants and attendees from anti-gay religious activists in the U.S. A centerpiece of the “Humanum” conference was a set of six videos, which it turns out were produced by Mark Regnerus, author of a discredited report on “family structures” that is still widely cited by anti-gay activists. Conservative activists, including Tony Perkins, Brian Brow…

The Story Behind the Catholic Church’s Stunning Reversal on Contraception

By Patricia Miller

…limited to procreation; that it was acceptable to limit family size for a number of reasons; and that it was licit to use the naturally occurring sterile period to do so. Enter Catholic physician John Rock. By designing a contraceptive that used hormones already present in a woman’s body to mimic the natural infertility of a pregnant woman, he hoped the Vatican would find a theological basis to approve the method. In 1958, when the Pill was alrea…

Don’t Call It “Prayer Shaming”: Our Moral Failure Exposed

By Willie Dwayne Francois

…2,223 people have been killed in gun-related incidents in the U.S. and the number of people fatally shot by American police officers approaches 1,000. Pointing out a national moral failure and theological treason is not “prayer shaming.” We must raise our voices in the key of hope until Capitol Hill sees what we see: preventable social and personal pain caused by guns. I am reminded that as Jesus prepared his disciples for his death (a state-spons…

Does Religion Condemn Homosexuality?

By Michael Bronski

…Protestant theology. Elsewhere in the Americas, and in much of continental Europe, there is a similar, but specifically Catholic theology surrounding the body and sexuality. Whether affirming or warning against sex, moral teaching is as much about prescriptions for how to live peacefully and productively with others as it is about prohibitions. These principles are often informed by and learned through religious morality. But you do not have to be…