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Finding Love—and Dogma—in Unexpected Places: Jeff Chu’s Gay Christian Odyssey

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…Church, a predominantly LGBT church founded in 1968. Savage writes in the New York Times: Chu goes easy on Exodus International, the largest “ex-gay” ministry in the country, despite the harm the group does to vulnerable gays and lesbians, particularly gay children. He gives an approving nod to the sneakily homophobic Marin Foundation, an evangelical group that shows up at gay pride parades holding signs that say, “We’re sorry!” and offering hugs…

Polygamy Bus Tour, ‘Spiritual’ Healthcare for Christian Scientists, Baptizing an Alien…

By Michael J. Altman

…alls the Park51 project a “victory mosque” and compares it to mosques in Jerusalem and Constantinople. Disneyland designed its own headscarf for a Muslim employee. Religious groups have entered both sides of the debate over whether the state of Virginia should privatize its alcohol sales and dissolve the ABC. Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, is for it but the Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists and the Virgina Interfaith C…

Good News Bad News

By Amina Wadud

…han the idea of gender as an arena of discourse, or part of identity, is a new. Sure, lots of people want to return us to the old patriarchal constructions of the past—but then that is not progress, is it? How far we can progress and at the same time claim Islam, respect its traditions, is really the nuts and bolts of the discourse about progressive Islam. It is important for my sanity to have places where this conversation can go on at a somewhat…

Praying to the Zombie Jesus: The Spirituality of Horror

By W. Scott Poole

…ck of faith that pre-dates the zombie pandemic. Both ask for miracles in a world ruled by monsters. This Is My Body Some horror newbies, drawn in by the excellent storytelling and character development that AMC is justly famous for, might be surprised to see religious symbolism and themes making an appearance in a gruesome tale of rotting, flesh-eating zombies. They shouldn’t be. In fact, the undying and undead popularity of the zombie genre has c…

Religious Kids Are More Selfish: The Stickers Don’t Lie

By Michael Schulson

…eas with “The Negative Association between Religiousness and Children’s Altruism across the World.” Basically, these problems have to do with the definition of religiousness, the metric for altruism, and the concept of world. Let’s take them one by one. Problem 1: “The Negative Association between Religiousness….” Scholars of religion are fond of explaining all the reasons that religion is really, really difficult to define. The more cynical among…

Biden’s New ‘Restore the Soul of a Nation’ Ad Aimed at Black Voters Wary of the Frontrunner’s Dodgy History

By Peter Laarman

…ng, to say the least. If our “soul” were fully intact, would we even have Trump running things right now? The new ad is clearly intended to shut down any actual reflection on this point and to associate voting for Biden with making your worries go away. Replace a scary old white man with a (more) benign one. What could be simpler? 2. Treating Trump and Trumpism under the “aberration” category is dangerously misleading (also something else that man…

Sean Feucht’s New Year’s Rockin’ Superspreader Revival is a ‘Tepid and Meager’ Effort at Racial Reconciliation

By Isaiah Murtaugh

…d-induced restrictions on worship, a move critics say is to excuse blatant rule-breaking and obscure the real purpose of the events. And while courts have given credibility to aspects of Feucht’s argument—most notably in a series of recent Supreme Court decisions in favor of houses of worship opposed to local restrictions—Feucht himself seems to have a higher calling in mind: religious revival. His personal website sells “Revival or Bust” T-shirts…

What To Do When Fred Phelps Arrives in Your Neighborhood

By Susan Henking

…mall town, with a population in 2009 of about 800 people. It is in upstate New York. It is not my small town, nor is it likely yours; and yet each of these places is someone’s neighborhood. This time, it is only an hour away for me. Picketing as “The Workingman’s Means of Communication” On March 2, 2011, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in response to a series of prior decisions around Westboro Baptist Church’s picketing of a Marine’s funeral….

What if Israel Were in Germany? An Alternate History

By Haroon Moghul

…mes superfluous. In The Mirage, 9/11 is actually 11/9, the day when Texan Crusaders slammed airliners into Baghdad skyscrapers, sparking a war on terror that rages across a nearly unrecognizable North America, where LBJ has run the U.S. since Kennedy died, the Mormons rule an independent Missouri monarchy, the heartland is another country altogether, and the Rockies are better left alone, a series of war-torn tribal homelands producing fierce warr…

Mubarak Steps Down; The Birth of a New Egyptian State

By Zaid Hassan

…n a new Egypt look like? Is it possible to start looking for signs of the truly new? Can we protect these seeds and then start to nurture and grow them in the coming months and years? Can Egypt forge an evolutionary leap when it comes to the tired old nation-state? Is there a role for Islam in the formation of a new state? As we continue to fight, to heal, to celebrate and head back to our homes, let us carry a simple question with us: What do we…