Search for "cheap airline tickets to dominican republic from pittsburgh pa phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Where are the Clergy? A Report from Occupy DC

By Sarah Posner

…f our politics with big corporate money. But for Micah Bales, an Occupy DC participant known for his Quaker activism, the group is not so much occupying McPherson Square as “holding space for the 99% to come and gather.” There was, notably, no drum circle, which has become a symbol of both liberal and conservative scorn of the New York movement (conservatives scoff while some liberals cringe). Why Aren’t There 50 Clergy? But there was a tiny glimm…

Suicide Leads to Calls for Improved Treatment of LGBT Mormons

By Joanna Brooks

…erence talk shaming homosexuality. “I have a brother who said to me on the phone last Christmas, ‘Elder Packer says God does not make gays. This is your choice.’ And then he used some very hurtful language with me,” Jahn relates. “I had to hang up on him. But he feels he has been given permission to speak this way by the prophet.” “Even a simple phrase uttered by a General Authority can give Church members broad permission to look down on, discrim…

Even Tougher Questions to Ask Mormon Presidential Candidates

By Joanna Brooks

…ond? How would you respond in such a situation? 2. Mormonism is an openly patriarchal religious culture—one of the most patriarchal modern cultures on the face of the earth. Your own father is (or was) an extremely powerful and wealthy man with great influence within LDS culture and beyond. How have you personally benefitted from a patriarchal (and therefore exclusionary) religion and culture? How has patriarchy shaped your ability to exercise in…

Ralph Reed’s Group Goes after “Union Thugs” in Wisconsin

By Sarah Posner

…mple.” It’s 2012’s version of the Christian Coalition: melding evangelicals with the tea party issues they’re already comfortable with, but maintaining their distinct identity as a voting bloc that pre-dates the tea party, and is courted as a separate group by Republican candidates. Who does this “pro-family” opponent of “union thugs” think has the best shot at the GOP primary? Reed told the Christian Post, “I think Michele Bachman is the total pa…

Presbyterians, Change Hearts & Minds, Begin Ordaining Gays

By MaryAnn McKibben Dana

…left the denomination to help swing the vote. But advocates downplay the impact of their departure, since most reports estimate that only 100 of the denomination’s 11,000 congregations have been lost. “I don’t buy it,” says Dykers-Koenig. “Maybe in a couple of presbyteries [it made a difference].” Rev. Teri Peterson, a pastor who helped organize the pro-10A response in north-central Illinois’ Blackhawk Presbytery, acknowledged that while a handful…

Scott Roeder’s Religion

By Sarah Posner

…raphed a piece of paper on the dashboard of Roeder’s car: It contained the phone number of Cheryl Sullenger, Operation Rescue’s senior policy advisor, who served two years in prison for conspiring to bomb abortion clinics in 1988. Roeder also told me that Sullenger was present at the lunch with Newman where they discussed “justifiable” homicide, and that Newman had given Roeder the autographed copy of his book just three months before Roeder kille…

A Faith-Based Opportunity for Obama

By Sarah Posner

…ified the divide between professed Democratic concerns over church-state separation and the party’s anxieties about being perceived as hostile to religion. As a candidate, Obama promised strict constitutional protections, only to quietly relent in the face of protests from evangelical figures. Under DuBois’ leadership, the office has elevated the profile of religious leaders it saw as enmeshed in its mission, yet dismissed concerns over church-sta…

Why I Won’t Leave the Mormon Church Alone

By Holly Welker

…I studied its texts, learned its doctrines. I went through the temple and participated in the rituals there. I served a mission, learning Mandarin Chinese so that I could teach the Mormon gospel in Taiwan. Given the depth of my attachment to Mormonism, the decision to leave was correspondingly agonizing. As I know from discussing the topic with former Mormons from England, Belgium, Germany, and South Africa, the rupture can be harrowing even for…

How (and Why) A Determined Sit-In Worked

By Daniel Schultz

…delivered to lawmakers’ offices pretty much go directly in the trash. They pay more attention to phone calls and letters, but street protests don’t bother them at all, unless they’re on cable news, which they almost never are. Hashtags? Changing your Twitter avatar? Forget about it. Popular protest does play a supporting role in getting us to a point where something like the Congressional sit-in works. So do the organizations—including the religio…

Reporting from Paris: A Prayer for Polluters

By Donna Schaper

…many “brackets,” what COP21 calls the matters that are kept in that famous parking lot where we put the things we don’t know how to decide. The Synod amended our so-called radical proposal and unanimously passed 2017 as the final date. We were gobsmacked, bemused, amused by the fact that our people were readier to go cold turkey than we were. Something like that is happening around COP21. The people who know what it will take to do anything, much…