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A Queer Atheist In the Heart of Mormon Country

By Chris Stedman

…Utah Pride in preparation for my remarks this upcoming weekend as the 2013 Boston Pride interfaith speaker, I couldn’t help but reflect on what I learned during a recent visit to Utah. It was late in the evening when I arrived, and I knew I would be there for only 24 hours. I was met by Alasdair Ekpenyong, a college sophomore who stands at the crossroads of intersecting identities and convictions: black, LGBTQ-affirming, feminist, progressive, a l…

Cruz Backs Bishops on Religious Liberty Claims

By Patricia Miller

…ic schools. But in an indication of how the religious liberty issue crosses the political lines of the Francis papacy, the letter was also signed by two noted moderates: DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl, whose DC offices would fall under the law, and Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley, who is considered Francis’ closest US ally. Of course, with Ted Cruz’s anti-immigrant language and disregard for the poor, it’s hard to see how Francis could approve of the…

You Gotta Have Faith-Based Politics

By Winnifred Fallers Sullivan

…artnerships to be led by Joshua Dubois, a 26 year-old poli-sci graduate of Boston University and Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School who has also served as a part-time pastor at a Pentecostal Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. According to the press release on the White House Web site, the new Office will have four priorities: * The Office’s top priority will be making community groups an integral part of our economic recovery and povert…

Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife

By Lisa Miller

…houris, dark-eyed women. We all know that Mohammad Atta, who flew American Airlines flight 11 into the Twin Towers on 9/11, was inspired by this promise. But among progressives, the sex promised to the righteous in the Qur’an isn’t sex as we know it, but something mysterious and sublime for which sex is a poetic stand-in. Second, what happens to our bodies in heaven? This is my favorite part of the heaven conversation. For if you believe in heaven…

Why Don’t Churches Have to Disclose Lobbying Activities?

By Sarah Posner

…ble in fear at the very thought of being seen as anti-religious,” says Rob Boston of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Given the outcry about the USCCB’s role in the Stupak-Pitts amendment, though, the public might very well begin asking more questions about the special privileges granted to houses of worship. The USCCB was complaining about taxpayer dollars being used for something it finds morally objectionable. Yet taxpay…

Religious Differences Are Real (and Tolerance Can Be an Empty Virtue)

By Stephen Prothero

…nything you had to leave out? I am the adviser for the Sikh Association at Boston University, so I regretted not dedicating a chapter to Sikhism. I regretted it even more after I heard that the Republican gubernatorial hopeful Nikki Haley (who was raised a Sikh) was denounced recently as a “raghead.” There are likely 25 million or so Sikhs in the world, and from the start they have been engaged in a fascinating conversation with both Hinduism and…

OK Woman Politely Declines to Thank the Lord; Atheists Unite

By Becky Garrison

…he wasn’t a sheep. Vitsmun will be remembered—at least in the atheist moment—as the moment when the world has to face the fact we’re not this tiny percentage of people. I don’t think the numbers are growing. I think the numbers are now being counted right. Atheists aren’t afraid anymore to speak out.” But what will Wolf do next time?…

God Needs No Passport

By Peggy Levitt

…rs, I wrote about the cross-border ties connecting Dominicans who moved to Boston and their friends and relatives who stayed home. When I finished that project, I realized that religion played a central role in making transnational lives possible, and that the religious landscape changed dramatically in the process. This was something that migration scholarship had not really explored. What’s the most important take-home message for readers? God N…

When Churches Do Business

By Sarah Posner

…of a real estate transaction because of their sexual orientation. Via the Boston Globe: Coakley’s office weighed in on a case pending in Worcester Superior Court in which a married gay couple, James Fairbanks and Alain Beret, contend that the diocese refused to sell them a historic mansion in Northbridge, which had been used for years by a church-affiliated nonprofit retreat center, because the couple might host same-sex weddings there. Fairbanks…

Bush’s Favorite Catholic Departs The Scene

By Peter Laarman

…they gave us Iran-Contra (they all lionized Ollie North, and one of their number—the execrable Elliott Abrams—is still running our disastrous Middle East policy as Assistant Secretary of State). They also tried, unsuccessfully in this case, to discredit the anti-apartheid forces in South Africa and their allies here in the United States. They orchestrated a pretty effective pushback against affirmative action programs at every level and against E…