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Conservative Christian Teenagers Prepare for Politics

By Robert Kunzman

…d over 100 volunteers who walked precincts in a driving rain, and made thousands of phone calls throughout the weekend to every targeted voter in the district,” McClintock remarked. “I can confidently say that those 2,000 votes were Generation Joshua votes.” Such praise is heady stuff for teenagers who want to feel they can make a difference in their world, who yearn for a sense of efficacy and belonging. More specifically, it assures them that th…

Much-Married Newt Gingrich Converts to Catholicism

By Bill Berkowitz

…n reacquaint yourself and your family with the winning ways to a better America.” The Gingrich “winning ways to a better America?” Two Gingrich produced DVDs; “Rediscovering God in America” and “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny,” and joining with Gingrich’s American Solutions “at the great TEA Party Day on April 15th.” “I’ve known Newt Gingrich for about 20 years now and I’ve always enjoyed him intellectually, but detested him politically,”…

Obama to Cave on Bush Tax Cuts: Letter to the Washingtonians, Chapter 1

By Daniel Schultz

…ooks no dissension or difference. My son and daughter—we all—live in an America that is perilously close to all against all, where only the strong and the well-connected can look ahead with some measure of security. Those who cannot—the young, the sick, the victims of layoffs and mergers and jobs leaving the nation—lose their houses, their savings, their opportunities, their futures. We drown in a sea of personal debt, live in fear of an accident…

Scolding Those Who Choose Pets But No Children Pope Misses the Rainforest for the Trees

By Sarah A. Bowen

…ghlighted the irony of a childless man scolding those without children. My phone went wild with calls from animal lovers, queer friends and childless Catholic couples as well. An estimated 1.1 billion people belong to the Roman Catholic church. But even many of those who aren’t Catholic consider the pope’s words influential or have concerns about how his words can affect cultures, laws, and policies. I understood why they were dismayed. As an inte…

High Ark: A Geologist on the True Meaning of Noah’s Flood

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…escribed Noah’s flood. Their floods came from the sea in giant waves. In Africa, flood myths are somewhat more scarce, because floods themselves are rare, and they can be life-giving events. The Chinese flood stories are more about control of nature… the point is not “which one of these stories is true.” The point is to connect the stories to actual facts on the ground. One of my favorite places is the Valley of the Tsangpo River in China, where I…

Vatican Instruction on Cremation Rankles Many, But Give it a Second Look

By Karen E. Park

…night dancing with, someone who I had spoken to just a week before on the phone, her laughter weakened but still familiar. When I thought about her ashes being scattered around Boston I felt a momentary panic. Where could I ever go to find her again? Last week, just in time for the Feast of All Soul’s Day, celebrated each year on November 2, the Catholic Church’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a new Instruction regarding the…

Is Herman Cain’s Long-Running Minstrel Show Finally at an End?

By Anthea Butler

…d to hide his failings. Ginger White’s claims, backed up with receipts and phone records, are compelling. Besides, who would willingly admit that they had sex with THEHermanCain, besides Gloria, his wife, unless it was true. I sincerely hope that Cain gets a clue this week and drops out of the race for the sake of his family. I could care less who he decides to 999. Allowing his private dalliances to become a public spectacle while pretending to t…

Suicide Leads to Calls for Improved Treatment of LGBT Mormons

By Joanna Brooks

…itute a threat to our religious freedom. But do any of these serve the thousands upon thousands of young Mormons who are coming to terms with their attraction to people of the same sex? Do any of these prepare non-gay Mormons to respond to gay sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, or fellow Latter-day Saints? How does it feel to be the LDS parents of a gay child in a culture where unthinking people feel they have divine sanc…

“Reason to Worry”: An Anti-Semitism Scholar Opens Up on Trump, Misogyny and the Future of Anti-Judaism

By Michael Schulson

…s a dean and a professor of history at the University of Chicago. Over the phone, he spoke with RD about Twitter, Trump, and the parallels between anti-Judaism and misogyny. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. When you see American Jews acting surprised about the recent surge in anti-Jewish rhetoric, do you think “Oh, how hopelessly short-sighted of them”? Quite the contrary. I am myself surprised. I’ve had discussions with peop…

Terror In South Carolina

By Sarah Posner

…e than a church.” It is “a place of worship that was founded by African Americans seeking liberty” and “a sacred place in the history of Charleston and in the history of America.” Yet, as Obama noted, Emanuel, like other black churches, has been the target of violence, not just last night, but throughout its history. In an excellent essay at TPM, Benjamin Park writes about how black churches have long “served as a flashpoint for hatred from those…