…e radical nature of Mayor Annise Parker’s commitment to imposing the full “San Francisco Style” Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, etc. agenda. … We have a sin-sick city and we need the power of God through Jesus Christ changing lives and changing City Hall! Conservatives have jumped on the issue as evidence of their long-standing claims of government overreach, government hostility to Christians, and the ultimate result of LGBT rights: infrin…
…de. If you recall the scene, Nazi ally Julian Glover and professor-with-flexible-leave-time Harrison Ford make their way to the sanctuary of an ancient temple, where they’re given a test: choose the real Grail from a collection of fancy cups. Glover chooses the fanciest one, drinks from it, and is disintegrated, like so: Then our pal Indy selects the smallest, dustiest vessel, saying, “This is the cup of a carpenter.” He uses his cup to save Sean…
…as the Director of Ministry at Saint Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco—has roamed the streets giving ashes to anyone who wants them. Not only are strangers on the sidewalk happy to be smeared with ashes and told they are going to die, but some chased Miles down to get their ashes. In an interview, Miles invokes the term “lived religion” to describe the appeal of Ash Wednesday. Historians of religion know that in practice, religio…
…hemous poses or otherwise used to offend religious sensibilities, so what exactly about the exhibit is upsetting? The answer may be that Barbie is herself profane. An editorial backed by the Italian bishops conference objected to depictions of the Virgin Mary, Joan of Arc, and other Catholic saints and virgins, asking “What is the difference between provocation and bad taste?” Commenting on the Barbie dressed as Kali, Times of India noted a long p…
…t, with this kind of thinking about marriage, are the ones obsessed with sex. They say that heterosexuality is the only way to get to God! I want Jim Garlow to know this about my 12-year marriage: Sex may have been at the center of your “authentic, biblical, natural, historic, God-defined marriage,” but is not at the center of ours. If there ever came a time, God forbid, that my partner had cancer or some other illness that ended, or severely curt…
…E, GARY WEXLER _____________ Advisory Board: Rachel Barenblat Congregation Beth Israel, North Adams MA Joanna Brooks San Diego State University Sharon Brous IKAR Linell Cady Arizona State University John Caputo Syracuse University Rachel Cowan George Mason University, Gary Dorrien Union Theological Seminary Eddie Glaude Princeton University Harry Knox Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Ira Lapidus University of California at Berkeley Khal…
…hey would never provide estimates of crowd sizes, lest they be accused of exaggeration; they would take extraordinary precautions to avoid sexual impropriety, or even the appearance of such. Cliff Barrows, Graham’s choirmaster and one of the team members present, referred to this set of principles as the Modesto Manifesto, although he insisted there was nothing official about that designation. Graham maintained that he and the team had been abidin…
…it is working. The Pope’s latest statement, Evangelii Gaudium, is a papal exhortation designed to promote evangelism in the Catholic Church. Most media outlets are not emphasizing the evangelism element, but are paying close attention to the pope’s criticism of the current economic system as “unjust at its very root,” and the Social Darwinism that pervades our societies. Even President Obama found occasion to quote Pope Francis in his speech on…
…of organized Christianity, Mormonism is theologically hardwired around the sanctity of heterosexual marriage. The Mormon concept of God is that of a married heterosexual couple: a Heavenly Mother and a Heavenly Father. Heterosexual marriage solemnized in LDS temples is viewed as a religious rite necessary to full salvation, and the heterosexual family is understood as a reflection of the essential nature of godliness and God’s creation and an eter…
…unk,” as she calls it—in favor of nuanced and self-consciously incomplete explanations. Aggression, for example, has no single gene or neuron, but is rather a complex cocktail of hormones, neurotransmitters, and evolved behaviors. Churchland issues patience and nuance to differing degrees, delivering particularly sharp critiques of the transcendent soul and the possibility of heavenly visits during near death experiences. To debunk the latter, Chu…
