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Despite Reversal on Hillary and Hellen Keller, ‘Christian Americanist’ Bias Remains in Texas Curriculum

By David R. Brockman

…ulture war street fighting encouraged by her predecessors. And other board members have generally gone along with Bahorich’s more moderate approach. This shows in the streamlining process. Whereas in 2009 and 2010 board members often “passed over credentialed field specialists in favor of ideological allies with little or no [academic] credentials,” this year’s streamlining work groups were composed principally of classroom teachers and education…

‘Culting’: From Waco to Fundamentalist Mormons

By Catherine Wessinger

…a religious group—especially a very unconventional one with practices that members of mainstream society find abhorrent—is a “cult” can prompt law enforcement agents and other authorities to take excessive actions that can have adverse effects on the children the government is obliged to protect. When the “cult” stereotype is perpetuated in the media about a religious group, its members are stigmatized and dehumanized and citizens may fail to ques…

Inside InterVarsity’s Purge: Trauma and Termination at the Premier Evangelical Student Org

By Deborah Jian Lee

…reporting I discovered that InterVarsity’s neglect of its LGBTQ staff and membership was worse than I’d imagined. In my call with Jao, I asked whether InterVarsity endorses the various examples of how staff members advised LGBTQ students. While he made clear that recommending pornography is “a violation of our beliefs,” when asked whether the organization supports reparative therapy, Jao said, “We don’t have any official position on that.” When a…

Satanist Religious Freedom Rally Successful Despite Neo-Nazis and Christian Heckler

By Joseph Laycock

…post, Roper boasted that his group had been at the rally photographing TST members and their vehicles. Sen. Rapert has made much of the fact that TST members use pseudonyms, responding to the rally, “They’re not serious, and they’re not even real.” But with neo-Nazis attempting to intimidate TST members by collecting information about them and their loved ones, the use of pseudonyms seems more like common sense than evidence of illegitimacy. Cases…

LGBT Victories at Olympics, Struggles in Brazil; Catholic Bishops Organizing Anti-Marriage Equality Protests in Mexico; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…borhood of Sadr City, a Mahdi Army stronghold, and were then replicated by members of militia groups in many cities across Iraq. Mahdi Army spokesmen promoted fear about the “third sex” and the “feminization” of Iraqi men, as well as suggesting that militia action was the remedy. In 2012, militia members opened a second wave of attacks on people categorized as part of the “emo” subculture, styles that critics associated with heavy metal music, and…

Challenge to ‘un-Africanness’ of homosexuality; LGBT Catholics in Africa face church cooperation with persecution; lesbian cartoon project debuts in bangladesh under shadow of violence; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…omosexuality is punishable with a maximum of life imprisonment. Spain: Two members of national police in first public same-sex marriage, one hopes for church wedding From a report by Patricia Ortega Dolz in El Paiz: Two members of Spain’s National Police force got married on Saturday, marking the first same-sex union within the Spanish law enforcement agency – or at least, the first to be publicized openly. Chema, a native of Jerez de la Frontera,…

Mitt Romney: Wooden Pastor or Real Boy?

By Mary Barker

…graph up. The strategy was to go name by name through the list of inactive members and research their particular interests. Active members would then be assigned to become their “friend,” calling them up and feigning interest in their hobbies. Eventually, the “friend” was to guide them back to church. That’s not a bad objective, from a Mormon point of view, so the cynicism didn’t hit me until the name of my own inactive brother arose, and Bishop W…

Are Kosher Delis Like Catholic Hospitals?

By Sarah Posner

…not to be religiously coerced. Precisely for this reason, chaplains in the military who certainly act in a religious capacity are prohibited from evangelizing those of other faiths, even when their religion otherwise requires them to do so. Where members of different religions dwell together (even when they do so under religious auspices), securing them all the right to the “free exercise” of their faith is much more conducive to social harmony th…

Paranoia and the Progressive Press: A Response to WaPo’s Religion Columnist

By Peter Montgomery

…s Governor Rick Perry’s prayer-rally-cum-presidential launch and dozens of members of the New Apostolic Reformation were involved in organizing and speaking at the event. Shouting “Harlot” in a Crowded Theater? In an online conversation about her article, Miller criticizes coverage of the movement’s excesses, saying “that clips in which ministers shout ‘harlot’ over and over are likely to inflame more than they are to elucidate,” saying that “the…

Rick Santorum, Muslim Theologian and GOP Candidate, Would Bomb Iran

By Hussein Rashid

…om. Of course, he fails to realize that one of the prime reasons given for military research into nuclear capabilities is to avoid being bombed by the U.S. There is also the pesky little fact the IAEA, the CIA, and the State Dept. have all said that there is no evidence of Iran developing military nuclear capabilities in Qom. But his argument is actually nuanced. He says that the Shi’ah Muslims that dominate in Iran are waiting for the return of t…