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Historian: Evangelical Trump Fandom is No Deviation

By Neil J. Young

…from the same arguments used by segregationists arguing for the “religious freedom” to set up all-white segregation academies in the 1970s or defend a white-led Cold War for “religious freedom” and capitalism against Cold War communism. But discretion plus privilege is discrimination. And evangelicals have enjoyed a longstanding right to define the terms of “religious freedom” as it benefits their own cultural position, a position that has been fa…

Taking It to the Streets: Anonymous vs. Scientology

By Gabriel Mckee

…a litigious juggernaut that thrives on prior restraint. The group’s first free-speech martyr is a 15-year-old London boy known as “Epic Nose Guy” to whom police issued a summons for displaying a sign declaring the group “a dangerous cult” at a protest on May 10. (The charges were later dropped.) The real picture is more complex, however. There’s no doubt that the Church of Scientology has used litigation and intimidation to silence its critics. (…

Ebola and Us: The American Roots of Liberia’s Trauma

By Peter Laarman

…onization Society’s official name was “The Society for the Colonization of Free People of Color in America.” In the end the people who were transported to Liberia were English-speaking Protestant Christians who promptly recreated a Little America on Africa’s Atlantic coast. The “Americo-Liberians,” as they were called, formed their very own domination society, made in the image of a stratified United States. Although they never numbered more than…

Mad Men’s Matt Weiner, Warrior Against Woo

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…clichéd word turbulence, and free love, and things like that. But there’s free love in the 1920s; there’s free love in the 1930s; the beatnik movement in the 1950s. No one invented any of this. What was different in the 60s, according to Weiner, was that baby boomers were spoiled: plenty of education, money, entertainment; there was a war, but you could get out of it if you were lucky. This vision of unprecedented opportunity strikes me as fair;…

‘Restart the Economy’ is a Prayer to a Conservative God Who Demands Human Sacrifice

By Stephen Young

…s fill of human flesh. If the blood of human sacrifice was the seed of the free market, its god remains hungry as ever today. As historians such as Kim Phillips-Fein, Kevin Kruse, and Lawrence Glickman have shown, wealthy followers of this god have been successfully proclaiming their gospel as the exclusive path to freedom for generations. Their message now seems obvious and their god feels like the only option. These disciples are sick of losing…

Vatican Considers ‘Disordered’ Language; HBO Doc on LGBT Persecution in Russia; Nigerian Bishop Shifts on Anti-Gay Law; Arson at ‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…bbis and religious leaders” have spread. Scotland: Anti-gay Minister Named Free Church Moderator Rev. David Robertson, an opponent of marriage equality, has been named the next moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, which has welcomed some clergy and congregations that have left the Church of Scotland over the question of gay clergy.Robertson is also director of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity. Before the Scottish Parliament approved m…

Introducing ‘Draw Muhammad Day’

By Hussein Rashid

…uld see the hurt and pain in the eyes of another person and say it’s about free speech. Just because you have the right to do something does not mean that you have to do it. Our rights come with responsibilities. No religion should be above criticism. It is a mistake for groups like RM to threaten others. The response to speech should always be more speech. My issue here is that DMD does not address the key question raised by the South Park episod…

Yeshiva is Likely to Win Its Battle Against LGBTQ Group — But Do Jewish Orgs Really Want to Empower a Militant Christian Movement?

By Orit Avishai

…ist, and xenophobic political agenda that weaponizes religious (and other) freedoms. Historically, religious freedom wasn’t intended as a license to practice one’s beliefs unencumbered, free from state interference. Although secular institutions, including the Supreme Court, have long drawn on theology and religion to regulate sexual life in the United States, the general understanding was that the right to free exercise of religion was to be weig…

Will IRS Crack Down on Church Politicking?

By Sarah Posner

…ght legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom, claims “the future of religious freedom depends on a free pulpit to communicate fundamental, biblical principles to congregations across America” and urges pastors to “join a growing movement of bold pastors preaching Biblical Truth about candidates and elections from their pulpits.” In AU’s letter, executive director the Rev. Barry Lynn argues that “it would be detrimental for our country and the democra…

Rubio Is Confused About Christianity, Marriage Equality, and the Constitution

By Sarah Posner

…other religious teaching) at all, much less deeming it “hate speech.” The Free Exercise Clause protects religious practice and religious speech. Under the Free Speech Clause, the government cannot proscribe “hate speech” or even define it. Under the Establishment Clause, the government cannot endorse (or renounce) a particular religion. You can say gay people are intrinsically disordered. Or you can say they don’t have a constitutional right to g…