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Will Gay Rights Pave the Way for Decriminalizing Mormon Polygamy?

By Joanna Brooks

…rown and his four wives, last week filed a legal challenge to the state of Utah’s anti-cohabitation statutes. It’s fascinating to see public discourse on polygamy begin to shift in the pages of the New York Times. Just last year, here at RD, I tangled with a NY Times Book Review contributor who in a review of Brady Udall’s masterful novel The Lonely Polygamist insisted that polygamy was inherently “abhorrent.” Why? Well, the critic explained, beca…

Mormons & Romney Presidency “Dangerous” According to Evangelical Author

By Joanna Brooks

…e on. As a minority faith in the U.S., Mormons (especially Mormons outside Utah) usually have no choice but to vote for people with whom we differ theologically. We tend to be pragmatic on that matter. Help me understand how evangelical Christians view their role in U.S. elections and in shaping public policy. WS: Evangelicals are actively involved and believe that active involvement in politics is an important part of the expression of our faith;…

Beware of Yoga, Taking the Jesus Out of AA, Atheist Billboard Wars—The Sequel

By Michael J. Altman

…e than OK in Oklahoma.” Take that. The Oklevueha Native American Church of Utah is suing to prevent state and federal authorities from arresting and prosecuting church members for peyote possession and use. Only members of federally recognized tribes are free from prosecution but the church includes members without tribal ancestry. An Irish judge ordered a man to climb the country’s holiest mountain as punishment for swearing at police officers. A…

The Pretzel Logic of Religion and Politics

By Joanna Brooks

…ord of theocratic ambition and action. Openly theocratic until the time of Utah’s admission to statehood in the late nineteenth century, Mormonism has maintained a shadow theocracy on the issues it deems “moral,” which with rare exception (in the case of the MX missile in the 1980s) it has defined as matters pertaining to gender and sexuality. The philosophy of “rendering to Caeser” did not pertain, it appears, to allowing civil society the prerog…

You Asked For It

By Amina Wadud

…More Muslims participate in the fast than any other ritual. Let’s get the numbers in our head then: of the 1.3 billion Muslims, if less than half are children and even children fast, then you could say almost a billion Muslims are fasting. I don’t think we can make a case about Ramadan and what ever number of incidents that might occur due to some individual Muslims. There is no statistical corollary between fasting, Islam, Muslims and the (still…

In This Week’s LGBT Recap: Are Gay Priests Overdue for a Stonewall Moment?

By Peter Montgomery

…ipated in World Congress of Families summits. Also listed as signers are a number of religious leaders, including Foley Beach, Archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America; Catholic Bishop Emmanuel Badejo of Ojo, Nigeria; Lawrence Khongy, pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church in Singapore; and Josiah Trenham, an Orthodox priest who has spoken repeatedly at World Congress of Families gatherings. Vatican: Commentary on gay priest ban; tim…

LDS Church to be Fined for Late Reports of Prop. 8 Funding

By Joanna Brooks

…cording to research by Mormonsfor8.com, at least half of this amount—about $20,000,000—was contributed by individual Mormons. Seven percent of the donations to the Yes on 8 campaign came from the state of Utah. More than 18 months after the passage of Proposition 8 in November 2008, the LDS Church’s role in the campaign continues to draw intense scrutiny and arouse significant emotion….

A Shame-Positive Case for Keeping the Heat on Trump

By Daniel Schultz

…see shaping up to re-elect Trump, classically depend on fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Being hyper-critical and unforgiving might be a minor sin, but backed with hard evidence, it would make it clearer than a cloudless day in Utah just who has political legitimacy and who has been bending, if not breaking, the law for their own benefit. “Judge not, lest ye be judged” might have to become “Judge, lest ye be subjected to another four years of this.”…

Civil Unions Battle Heats Up in Italy; Church Leaders in Malawi Defend Criminalization of Homosexuality; Report on LGBT Student Group Sparks Backlash in Indonesia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ah, which ranks in the top five of U.S. states in teen suicide, though the numbers have not been verified. In response to the Mama Dragons report, church officials mourned the deaths and called on churches and family members to make LGBT youth feel welcome. Tanzania: Activist Profiled The latest “world voices” feature from Alturi tells the story of James Ouma, an LGBTI activist who speaks “against a growing religious backlash in Tanzania while he…

Mitt Learns to Say “Y’all” as Primary Heads South

By Joanna Brooks

…ent. Of course, a lot of Southern converts picked up and moved westward to Utah in the late 1840s and 1850s. And the LDS missionary program shut down in the American South during the mid-nineteenth century due to the Civil War and political conflicts in the American West. What’s often lost to history is that Mormons in the mid-nineteenth century felt a deeper kinship with Southerners than Northerners. Northern Republicans were hellbent on getting…