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“Ex-Gay” Crusader John Smid “Apologizes” to Gays and Lesbians

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…of “redemption,” even though Smid claims to be out of the “ex-gay” making business. The new ministry also comes with an apology from Smid for his past actions: I really wanted to help the young men in our program but in some cases the design of our program caused more harm for some of these kids that it did good. I am very sorry for the ways that Refuge further wounded teens that were already in a very delicate place in life. I am grateful for th…

What Does the Catholic Church’s Patriarchal Structure Have to Do with the Failure of the Amazon Synod?

By Mary E. Hunt

…ed in helping small farmers maintain their land rights and in opposing big business. She was murdered for her efforts. Another factor for the choice of the Amazon was that the Catholic Church is rapidly losing market share to evangelical Protestants there. Given that it hasn’t respected the local culture when it comes to church matters, this is not unexpected. Many parishes in the millions of square kilometers see a priest for Eucharist and Confes…

Romney: “A Life Balanced Between Fear and Greed”?

By Joanna Brooks

…Post, the New York Times, and the Boston Globe about how Mitt Romney does business. The picture they paint is not entirely new, but it is consistent: Romney extracted value while, and sometimes by, outsourcing and destroying jobs, at times financing deals through “leveraged buyouts” that added substantially to the debts of companies trying to stay afloat. One source close to the GOP candidate told the Globe that Romney’s was “a life balanced betw…

Why America’s Handmaid’s Tale Doesn’t Look Like Hulu’s

By Christopher Douglas

…pose Roosevelt’s New Deal policies in the 1930s. That alliance between big business and conservative Christian leaders culminated in the 1950s Cold War, as exemplified in the anti-Communist development of slogans such as “One Nation Under God” and “In God We Trust.” At first bipartisan, Christian patriotism crystalized as a particularly Republican virtue during the Nixon, Carter, and Reagan administrations. Part of the recasting of the US as a uni…

What’s Missing From Popular Discussions of Today’s Christian Nationalism?

By Katherine Stewart

…f society, which by their reckoning included government, media, education, business, entertainment, religion, and family. According to the late C. Peter Wagner, a key proponent of the ideology, the responsibility of Christians to take over “whatever molder of culture or subdivision God has placed them in” is really a matter of “taking dominion back from Satan.” That last bit about Satan gets to the throbbing heart of this political ideology. In Ki…

Sexperiment: One Week Later

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…s in contemporary American life. Marriage is a very big and very expensive business. It is a foundational personal aspiration for many, from adolescence on. It is a rite of passage. It is the stuff of popular music, film, and more. The same may be said of sex, intriguingly enough. Sex, too, is a very big business. It too has become an adolescent aspiration, a rite of passage, the source of much that is most popular in our popular culture. The two…

Dispatches from the Workplace: Is that Shari’a?

By Kim Bobo

…lf is clean.) Islamic or Shari’a-compliant investing, therefore, prohibits business activities—like gambling, alcohol, and usury—that result in undignified moral behavior. In the Muslim world, more and more companies and financial institutions are aiming toward Shari’a-compliance, with millions of dollars at stake. Huge conferences are organized among business leaders to discuss and review Shari’a compliance, while in the U.S., Harvard University…

Are Kosher Delis Like Catholic Hospitals?

By Sarah Posner

…e of the Kosher Deli. Once upon a time, a new law was proposed so that any business that serves food must serve pork. There is a narrow exception for kosher catering halls attached to synagogues since they serve mostly members of that synagogue, but kosher delicatessens are still subject to the mandate. The Orthodox Jewish community, whose members run kosher delis and many other restaurants and groceries besides expresses its outrage at the new go…

Karger Says He’s Anti-Homophobia, Not Anti-Mormon

By Joanna Brooks

…faith can use his influence to get his church out of the anti-gay marriage business. When he did his book tour at [LDS Church-owned] Deseret Bookstores a year ago, I ran advertisements: “Please get your church out of the marriage equality business.” If it’s between stopping gay marriage and getting a president, I think the church would rather have a president. There’s so many wonderful things the LDS Church does. Why focus on gay marriage? JB: …

Will Ralph Reed’s New Venture Wed Religious Right to Tea Partiers?

By Sarah Posner

…sproportionately on issues such as abortion and homosexuality.” Now—as his business partner Tim Phillips heads up tea party astroturf group Americans for Prosperity—he’s burrowing for an opening to convince activists that social and economic issues are linked. He recently described an overlap between tea party activists and his organization on the Christian Broadcasting Network. Religious right activists see that overlap too, but not yet a marriag…