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Jose Antonio Vargas’ Coming Out and the Power of Stories over Religious Remonstrances

By Sarah Posner

…cusses how his mother and grandparents, knowing that they got him into the United States without proper documentation, believed his undocumented status could eventually be rectified if he married an American citizen. But what they didn’t know was that Vargas is gay. He therefore falls into a category of undocumented immigrants who, unlike straight people, have no marriage-related immigration rights. That is, the American citizen in LGBT binational…

“[I] Pray For Barack Obama To Die And Go To Hell”: The Story The Media Missed

By Frederick Clarkson

…olvement in the Constitution Party, the third largest “third party” in the United States. In a June speech to the state convention of the Arizona Constitution Party, he introduced himself (in addition to being pastor of a church) as the owner of a “firearms business” operating in “several states” and closed with a plea for an American government based on God’s laws as set out in the biblical book of Deuteronomy. The Constitution Party (which has t…

On Guns and Religious Liberty, Ben Carson “Not an Authentic Adventist”

By Sarah Posner

…s’s eventual return. There are approximately one million Adventists in the United States, and 18 million worldwide. Observing the Sabbath on Saturday, not Sunday, and a commitment to health and wellness, including vegetarianism, are prominent features that distinguish Adventism from other Christian denominations. Protecting the Saturday Sabbath observance has driven Adventist involvement in legal challenges under the Free Exercise Clause, such as…

“I Had No Intention to Write Atheistically”: Darwin, God, and the 2500-Year History of the Debate

By Edward J. Larson

…ut it, a “blind watchmaker.” Dawkins’ books have become bestsellers in the United States and Britain, and his vision of human evolution (or more precisely, the vision of it that he popularized from the work of such preeminent late-twentieth-century biologists as William Hamilton and E.O. Wilson) is shared by many evolutionary biologists today. Humans, like all living organisms, “are survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve t…

Denying Darwin: Another Peculiar American Institution

By Lauri Lebo

…a comparative religions class. The notion that this isn’t the case in the United States is surprising to the British. Unlike in the United States, where evangelicals preach that unless you are washed in the blood of Christ you will perish in hell, the British are less likely to be presented with such a strict religious dichotomy. “To me, they always seemed more like stories,” said Hodgson, who, along with Gordon, is studying human evolutionary be…

Taking the Economy Back From the Elites: Blessed Are the Organized

By Nathan Schneider

…onmentalist, anti-corporate, and anti-war actions are being planned in the United States. People are frustrated, and they’re inspired. But Stout, a professor of religion at Princeton, insists on asking another question: How will they organize? Why are the organized “Blessed”? Well, one definition of “blessed” is fortunate. In a shallow sense, the new elites are as fortunate as anyone has ever been. They practically monopolize society’s blessings….

The Evangelical Abortion Myth: An Excerpt from ‘Bad Faith’

By Randall Balmer

…ties to evangelicalism pushed for legalization. In 1970, for example, the United Methodist Church General Conference called on state legislatures to repeal laws restricting abortion, and in 1972, at a gathering Jimmy Carter addressed while governor of Georgia, the Methodists acknowledged “the sanctity of unborn human life” but also declared that “we are equally bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother, for whom dev…

Whatever Happens with ‘Roe’ It’ll Be The Consequence of Six Conservative Justices’ Belief in Authoritarian Lies

By John Stoehr

…rians, loyalty to the collective is far more important than loyalty to the United States. Sharing control over the country is as unthinkable as sharing control of a woman’s body. I don’t know what the United States Supreme Court is going to do over the next couple days, but whatever it does, it will be a consequence of six conservative justices choosing to believe lies the anti-abortionists tell everyone, but especially to themselves. If the sanct…

In the Papal Pocket: Benedict XVI and the Press

By Mary E. Hunt

…na. With a billion members around the world, and one of four people in the United States being claimed by the Catholic Church, it would seem that the press would be eager to explore this church critically and examine it as thoroughly as they do other large corporations, universities, health care providers, and other shapers of common life. Granted, few organizations can light a candle to the Vatican’s processions and the Pope’s moral claims. But f…

What’s Wrong with Wright’s Words

By Andrew Murphy

…of September 11 can be traced to some basic consequences of something the United States, as a political entity, did. For Falwell it was secularizing the public square and legalizing abortion. For Wright, it was supporting state terrorism and using atomic weapons. To be sure, Falwell was widely criticized for his remarks, and issued a rather tepid apology. But he certainly was not repudiated or renounced by leading Republicans. To the contrary, Jo…