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The Rise and Fall of an American Gang: Religion as Camouflage?

…ous criminal enterprises. The Black P Stone Nation has always recognized a use for religion. Whether this use ever went beyond mere camouflage, like a clerical collar worn for the purposes of a scam, remains an open question, and it’s not a question that gets answered in this fascinating but frustrating book, a chronicle of the shifting organization that, helmed by Jeff Fort (later Prince Malik) cornered a sizeable chunk of the Chicago heroin mark…

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Family Planning is Vatican’s Blind Spot on Environment

…d center would be significant. And let’s be clear, most of those Catholics use or want to use family planning. The continued blind spot of the Vatican on contraception is tragic. The papal commission on birth control reported to Pope Paul VI in 1966 that there was no impediment to permitting the use of contraceptives. The Pope rejected the report fearing loss of authority. Almost 50 years later, the loss of papal authority is seen not only in Cath…

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Baring Their Testimonies: Mormon Women Get Naked for the Camera

…become distorted within the wider culture, like all the cultural restrictions put on us, the ways we’re told to cover up and the way that our bodies are controlled and regulated by patriarchy and the ways we’re told we can and can’t use them.  I would hope that this project pushes against that and focuses more on the positive. Like this story? Your tax-deductible $5 or $10 will help us pay writers, coders, interns, and editors. And will earn you o…

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Evangelicals Call Christian Zionist Uncritical “Support” for Israel “Appalling” and “Intolerable”

…lestinians: This Christian version of Zionism matters deeply, not just because theology intrinsically matters, but because it is overwhelmingly clear that American evangelical-fundamentalist Christian Zionism affects US policy toward Israel and the Palestinians in distressing ways. It is one reason why the United States stands almost alone in the world community in supporting Israeli policies which our international friends generally find intolera…

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Bob McDonnell’s Christian Reconstructionist Thesis

…hile taxation not explicitly endorsed in the Bible is seen as “theft,” the use of tax support and tax supported institutions to promote “biblical families” (among—and at the expense of—those of us who don’t believe in their God, their Bible, or their views of family) is based solely in this circular argument that God has ordained it thus. I am sympathetic to the fact that people’s views change over time (in fact suspicious of people whose views se…

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Biden’s New ‘Restore the Soul of a Nation’ Ad Aimed at Black Voters Wary of the Frontrunner’s Dodgy History

…ing that a Biden Administration would represent a “return to normalcy” (to use the dreadful phrase coined by Warren G. Harding’s campaign). Just two (or maybe three) points worth noting about Biden’s use of “soul of a nation” rhetoric: 1. We don’t know the current condition of the nation’s “soul,” but we do have many hints regarding this matter that are unsettling, to say the least. If our “soul” were fully intact, would we even have Trump running…

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The Far-Right Embrace of the Knights Templar isn’t Just About Faith, Tradition or History — It’s About Hate

…so-called culture wars.” And this is where we can return to the far-right use of Templar imagery, because taken out of their Catholic context, the Templars have become a totem for the far-right and a way to vice-signal their anti-Muslim beliefs and conspiracies. In the United States, the imagery is rooted in the American reaction to 9/11, and especially in our 2003 invasion of Iraq, a war in which Christian supremacist rhetoric—including the infa…

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Fear of a Catholic Ghetto

…y minority opinion. Michael Peroutka didn’t miss out on the presidency because his supporters were ghettoized. He lost because a whole lot of people wanted someone else to be president instead of Peroutka.  And having a minority opinion can be, you know, fine!  I’ve been told I hold many such opinions myself.  But it’s a little bit disingenuous to then say, “What’s this? My uncompromising belief in something almost nobody else believes or comprehe…

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The Evangelical Sex Disconnect

…lanned Parenthood is one of the primary providers of abortion services because the intimidation of and restrictive legislation promoted by anti-choice activists have driven other providers out of business?) But the Republicans refuse to admit the clear evidence: that not a single dollar of federal money pays for anyone’s abortion, and that all the federal money that pays for family planning services is spent with the aim of preventing unintended p…

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Rent-Free Religion in New York’s Public Schools

…d access under the injunction tend to dominate the schools on the day they use them.” A Small Victory The Bronx Household of Faith, backed up by the massive legal firepower of the Alliance Defense Fund, promptly appealed to the Supreme Court. But just this Monday, the US Supreme Court declined to review the appellate court’s ruling. This decision represents a small victory for those who wish to get public schools out of the business of promoting p…

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