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From The Virgin Mary to a Housewife in Queens: Inside The Seer of Bayside

By Joseph Laycock

…“hermeneutics of suspicion” with a “hermeneutics of respect.” I faced a similar dilemma. Much of what has been written about the Baysiders has been either from the perspective of theologians representing the Catholic hierarchy or the anti-cult movement. No one has really tried to put a human face on this group. At the same time, I am not an apologist for the Baysiders. I do not endorse their truth claims or agree with their politics. So I am tryin…

“God Created You”: Bishop Supports Gay Ugandans, Defies Death Threats

By Jocelyn Edwards

…Uganda was at the head of the drive for the draconian anti-homosexuality bill still pending in Parliament. But 79-year-old Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, in his purple cassock and small wire-rim glasses, stood at the head of a huddle of Kato’s friends and supporters, many of them in black T-shirts bearing the image of their beloved leader. “I know that some [gays and lesbians] are discouraged and even not going to church because they are being abus…

Giving Up God—Not Just a Spiritual Stunt

By Becky Garrison

…t 15 years of my ministry. But the average Adventist will say that heaven will not be filled with just Adventists—but the doctrine remains that if you don’t adhere to Adventists teachings, you may not be saved. I dealt with this theology by just not preaching on it. You describe yourself on your website is an activist. How do you define this term? In addition to marriage equality, I was involved in issues like banking reform, health care reform, a…

Satanic FOIA Reveals Deep Confusion About 1st Amendment

By Joseph Laycock

…Temple’s organizer, sent me over a hundred letters, petitions, and audio files of voice mail messages addressed to the Oklahoma Capital Preservation Commission—an amazing archive for a historian of American religion.* One Oklahoma paralegal felt it would demonstrate the state’s religious diversity, while another accused the legislature of hypocrisy and threatened to take a sledgehammer to the Ten Commandments monument. Aother, referring to the Te…

Christian Atheism: The Only Response Worth its Salt to the Zimmerman Verdict

By J. Kameron Carter

…mplish within oneself. Understood in this way whiteness is a story of assimilation, a story that hails or calls out to us—especially to immigrant families. It awaits our answer to its call and through our answers (which can take the form of everyday practices like neighborhood watching, for example) we establish ourselves inside of or relate ourselves to the narrative of the proper citizen, to proper Americanness. Indeed, immigrant history in this…

“What Kind of Islam Is That?”: Talking With Refugees From ISIS

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…does pay in US dollars, interestingly, perhaps from money it receives from illicit oil sales. The Kurd said that all of his Kurdish neighbors in Dierzor were gone. They were told by ISIS they could stay but then killing began. Now all Kurds have either escaped and are refugees, or have been killed. My hosts in Erbil had found this fellow, the Syrian Kurd, encamped in a vacant lot, where they took me to meet him. Though most of the two million refu…

Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with Jesus: 1946-2011

By Lauri Lebo

…ong conflict his religious upbringing instilled in him. (My Bible school failing was my inability to memorize the 23rd Psalm.) Bageant is a kindred spirit for those of us who have turned from our religious upbringing, but still, for reasons he articulates so sweetly, are forever being drawn back to it on some level. After an appropriate period of trembling, which seemed like forever but was probably about five minutes, I emerged cautiously from th…

Qaddafi Dies; Should it Matter How?

By Haroon Moghul

…In this death brought by a man upon himself, I think rather of our own fragilities and failures, our weaknesses, our arrogance and its spectacular irrelevance. For here was a man who thought the world of himself, and was destroyed by himself. It is a good thing he is gone, but all the same a thing to reflect on. For those who rage at dictators should also tremble at any tendency in their direction. I felt uneasy by the way Saddam was executed, at…

Why I Won’t Leave the Mormon Church Alone

By Holly Welker

…sm on my own, and to avoid saying anything about it that would upset my family. But it was difficult, particularly since the church wouldn’t leave me alone. (I got repeated phone calls, letters, and visits to my home from missionaries and people in the congregation, despite formal requests that they stop.) Eventually I sought a community of people also striving to come to terms with what it meant to have been but no longer be a devout Mormon. Luck…

AAA: Like a Good Neighbor

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…r, stopped to help the man, fixed him up, and even got him a great discount at a hotel. In our modern day parable, AAA is the gay and lesbian community’s good Samaritan, while Don Wildmon and his ilk refuse to even glance in their rear view mirror as they speed away in the other direction….