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Gay-Hating Church Burns “Idols”: A Report

By Rebecca Barrett-Fox

…ce. Such is the awkward bedfellows that Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, loves to make. When Terry Jones, pastor of Dove World Christian Outreach in Gainesville, Florida, reneged on his promise to burn a Qur’an on September 11, 2010—the last day of Ramadan and the ninth anniversary of the attacks of radical Muslims on American soil—Westboro Baptist Church was quick to pick up the torch. Though members of the two churches had stood side b…

Virtual Book Burning and Its Consequences

By Laurie Patton

…Qur’an burning actually never happened, but was only threatened (although Kansas pastor Fred Phelps did burn a Qur’an in its place). Perhaps the idea of book burning is so ensconced in both our political and our religious imaginations, that the mere imagining of it is enough to change the global political landscape. But others, in communities as small as Dove World Outreach, have burned books with very little fanfare. How could a simulacrum of an…

Political Consequences of a Judging God: A Yom Kippur Reflection

By Jay Michaelson

…uilt keep us honest, check the ego, and remind us that we all have the capacity to be selfish and cruel. The judging God, in this light, is simply the superego projected toward the heavens. As a form of social control, it is an effective story that doubtless keeps many of us from acting on our baser instincts. It just needs periodic updating from time to time. But the essential part of this image, particularly as it’s expressed on Yom Kippur, is t…

From Empire to Shire: Rod Dreher’s Nostalgia for Middle-Earth

By Gustavo Maya

…s. Take for instance the story of Lance Kinzer, a Republican legislator in Kansas. Kinzer attempted to pass religious liberty legislation that would protect wedding vendors, wedding cake makers, and the like from anti-discrimination laws. In a deeply red state, Kinzer thought it would be a cake walk (pardon the pun). To his shock, it wasn’t. Kinzer observed that the “social conservative-Big Business coalition politics was frayed to the breaking po…

Mexico’s Religious Conservatives Seek Anti-LGBT Constitutional Amendment, LGBT Activists Defend Secular Government; Cash From Qatar Funds ‘Traditional’ Family Activism Worldwide; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…topped,” he added. …In the release he said it could not be ignored that “a number of individuals, international groups and governments are exerting pressure on our communities to accept sexual practices that have not been previously accepted in most Caribbean communities”. … Although the PPM government has made it very clear it has no policy plans to introduce gay marriage or any kind of legal protection for same-sex couples, the fear that it migh…

Art(ful) History in Texas

By Lauri Lebo

…nservatives and moderates in elections every four years, much as it did in Kansas during its educational battles over evolution. “I’m afraid this could create a sort of educational schizophrenia where teachers aren’t sure what they’re supposed to teach,” he said. Spirit of America One of the new amendments places slavery as the third cause of the Civil War, behind states’ rights and sectionalism. Additionally, students must study the inaugural add…

The Ex-KKK Priest and the Subtle Terrorism of the Anti-Abortion Movement

By Patricia Miller

…p John O’Connor led a high-profile march on an abortion clinic in New York City. Previously he had expressed support for Operation Rescue, which would go on to lead a series of confrontational abortion clinic blockades in Kansas in the summer of 1991. It’s also instructive that about the time that Aitcheson was burning crosses in southern Maryland and plotting to bomb the NAACP, a Catholic anti-war and anti-abortion activist named John Cavanaugh-O…

Christmas Candy Jesus, Black Magi, Jewish Xmas

By Michael J. Altman

…ank in Oklahoma. Payne County Bank in Perkins, Oklahoma ran afoul a Kansas City Fed examiner who said the bank’s Christmas displays and Christian symbols could be regarded as discriminatory. A county in Indiana is fighting to keep its nativity scene up: “If we let them do this, let them take Christmas away, what’s next?… If you ruffle the feathers of the people of Franklin County, you better be ready to fight because they know how to counter punch…

“Project Blitz” Seeks to Do for Christian Nationalism What ALEC Does for Big Business

By Frederick Clarkson

…s, and anti-gay adoption bills that are being considered by both houses in Kansas, as well as in Oklahoma. Both houses of the Georgia legislature considered this kind of bill during its legislative session this year and they’re expected to be carried over into the 2019 session. These bills don’t seem to be based on the Project Blitz model, but are similar in intent.Whatever their current legislative fate, Project Blitz clearly envisions them as pa…

Brexit Boosters: Why the Religious Right Hates the European Union

By Peter Montgomery

…horse” of the sexual revolution. At last year’s WCF gathering in Salt Lake City, Okafor denounced “the West” for pressuring African nations to legalize abortion and “yield to sexual orientation and gender identity and what-have-you.” Conservative Catholic and Orthodox church officials and activists find common ground in their opposition to international agreements that support a woman’s right to abortion or legal equality for LGBT people and famil…