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Obamunism? The Traditional Values Coalition Coins a Term

By Bill Berkowitz

…cash prize—was The Widow’s Might, a 101-minute film written and directed by 19-year-old John Moore of Kaufman, Texas, with David Heustis and Jeff Moreland serving as producers. The film is “a feature length comedy-adventure that tells the fictional story of how aspiring filmmakers came to the aid of an elderly widow who faced losing her home due to rising property taxes.” According to a Festival Press Release, Fireproof, a film starring Kirk Camer…

Jerusalem Countdown: Christian Zionists and the New Israeli Government

By Bill Berkowitz

…senberg—all of whom have had long-term associations with the prime minister-to-be—may feel like they’re about to be handed the keys to the Promised Land. All three have had bestselling books related to the Middle East and apocalyptic theology, have raised significant amounts of money for Israeli charities (although how much of that money reaches the poor and needy has been questioned), lobbied heavily in support of policies advanced by Israel’s ri…

Australians Vote Overwhelmingly For Marriage Equality; and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…alians participated in the survey, including more than 78 percent of voters 18 or 19 years old, a “large cohort who had probably never sent a letter in their lives,” one marriage equality supporter noted. The official results: Should the law be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry? Of the eligible Australians who expressed a view on this question, the majority indicated that the law should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry, with…

What Did ISIS Have to Do With Nice?

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…hostility (and it is almost invariably a “he”) in a violent way. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel joins the sad list of crazed attackers that includes the killers at the Columbine and Sandy Hook schools. On the other hand, he was ethnically a Muslim, which automatically convicts him in some simplistic minds. And he is said to have shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”) before the police opened fire on him at the end of his murderous rampage. This phrase, howev…

Hungarian Mayor Wants to Import White Christians, Ban Muslims & LGBT People; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…de In the Washington Post, Emma-Kate Symons published an op ed with the not-so-subtle title, “How Pope Francis can cleanse the far-right rot from the Catholic Church.” In the column, she urges Pope Francis to “take tougher action against the United States’ most influential Catholic in Rome, Cardinal Raymond ‘Breitbart’ Burke.” A sampling: The renegade cleric is not only undermining Francis’s reformist, compassionate papacy, and gospel teaching as…

How Merle Haggard Saved My Soul

By Daniel Schultz

…kground, or an unpopular opinion. He made it possible to embrace the artist-as-crank, and for that I will always be grateful. Everybody talks about Haggard’s integrity. He called it like he saw it—even when he later came to regret it, as with 1969’s anti-hippie anthem, “Okie From Muskogee,” a song that got him pigeonholed as a reactionary for the better part of 30 years. But then he opposed both Gulf Wars, telling Time in 2007: I supported George…

Perhaps Islam isn’t the Only Reason Donald Trump Didn’t Recall Muhammad Ali

By Sean O'Neil

…gh his prolific pulp fiction of the late nineteenth century, featuring rags-to-riches tales of boys with few economic resources securing bright futures through a mix of courage, morals, and unflappable determination. No one, though, is more determined than the underdog protagonists of twentieth and twenty-first century sports films, which narrate events Trump could champion. Undefeated, the 2011 Academy Award winner for best documentary, tells the…

Will California Outlaw Divorce?

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…n 8 site.’ And he’s counting on support from groups who bankrolled the anti-gay-marriage initiative.” Sadly, the head of the California Family Coalition did not comment to Mercury News, but its president, Ron Prentice, had previously called the idea “impractical.” So, despite the religious right’s dedication to preserving marriage and family, its leadership seems loathe to do it by actually forbidding divorce, which Jesus had said makes those who…

White Rockers in Search of Soul Salvation

By Paul Harvey

…Neon Bible. Rather, Mellencamp follows the easy, just-sittin-around-playing-some-music style, favored by his producer T-Bone Burnett. The aim is for relaxed roots chic. What does it mean when a place like First African comes to serve as a stand-in for authenticity? The answer lies in the myth that undergirds much of the Americana revival. On The Tavis Smiley Show, Mellencamp discussed his experiences while recording at the church: Tavis: What was…

Texas History: Ignoring the Experts, Round 2

By Lauri Lebo

…be live blogging the events, which begin at 11 a.m. In the meantime, the San Antonio Express News has a piece Does State Board Need a History Test, that provides a nice highlight list of ignorance exhibited in the last round of deliberations in January. Conservative board members have been trying to rewrite the curriculum to portray the United States as a Christian nation. In January, the board also voted to change curriculum wording about Sen….