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They’re Not Coming Back: The Religiously Unaffiliated and the Post-Religious Era

By Kaya Oakes

…tion instead of a church, mosque or schul, the links between understanding spirituality as the work of the spirit, or of the soul, become less and less meaningful. So what’s behind this newest set of numbers? Reasons people list for leaving religion remain about the same as they were in the Pew survey, but with some striking differences. Those who have “stopped believing” in a tradition’s teachings are now at 60 percent, those from families that w…

Donald Trump Scares LGBT People Worldwide and More, in This Week’s Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…advocacy for LGBT Human Rights continues on a number of fronts. On November 18, an effort by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation moved an amendment that would strip language regarding sexual orientation and gender identity from a resolution regarding “extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.” More from OutRight Action International: Today [November 18], the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has voted to maint…

Jesus Has Left the Building: Celebrating the Next Reformation

By Donna Schaper

…eran or Presbyterian was. Now most people who still believe with a gracing Spirit don’t really care what they are in the first place. That applies unless you are the type of conservative Christian who has a theology of blame and shame or what I call “punishmentalism.” Then you still want to “get it right.” The mainlines are the old lines, and the evangelicals’ dogmatism will soon be there as well. Gratia always escapes religious tendrils and chain…

Running Against the Devil: Trump’s Conspiracy-Laden Fight Against Powers of Darkness

By Carmen Celestini

…ecipice of the ultimate battle between good and evil came with Wikileaks’ “Spirit Dinner” tweet alleging that Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta was invited to a satanic “Spirit Dinner” where human blood, breast milk and semen would be included in the meal. Wikileaks, and the media response to this accusation, brought forward the conspiratorial link to Hillary Clinton working for Evil, and Donald Trump as the hero for Good. The linking of cons…

Why So Many American Christians Don’t Understand Protest

By Leah Pannell

…ord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). I’m thankful for the men and women trying to bring order and an end to the violence and unrest. Graham had much to say about the Charlotte protesters and the violence reported, but he didn’t seem to prioritize the violence the protesters were responding to. Graham and Swinney’s responses are representative of the sentiment I encountered from many in my Christian c…

Reports of the Black Church’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated: A Review of Walter Fluker’s Latest Book

By Joseph Winters

…panied by a passage from the proverbial frying pan to the fire of the Holy Spirit. Here Fluker plays on the ambivalence of fire in the context of black strivings. While it can refer to racialized violence and destruction (lynching, the burning of black churches), it also alludes to the experience of being overwhelmed, and consumed, by the Spirit. Fire here signifies passion and life. Fire is that energy that takes an individual beyond herself, ope…

Religion and Gender Trouble in the Black Arts: Remembering Toni Cade Bambara’s The Black Woman

By Josef Sorett

…the scores of other clergy who took up the topic of Black Power during the 1960s. Father Divine was certainly different from most of the models of spiritual integrity (i.e., Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X) celebrated during the 1960s. It must have been odd for readers to find Father Divine on the pages of The Black Woman in 1970, the same year that Toni Cade took the additional name Bambara as an homage to her African heritage. He was not, by any measu…

“My Scientology Movie” Pokes the Hornet’s Nest

By Gordon Haber

…get anyone from the church to talk to him, he decides to investigate “the spirit of Scientology” by hiring actors to re-enact moments from church history, most notably the violent tirades of its current leader, David Miscavige. To make his fake movie, Theroux elicits the help of Marty Rathbun, a former high-ranking official in the Church of Scientology. Rathbun, for good reason, gets a lot of screen time. He’s an articulate, charismatic presence,…

#SorryNotSorry: What U.S. Christian Denominations Teach About Homosexuality

By Stephanie Russell-Kraft

… American Baptist Churches USA (Mainline Protestant) Members (as of 2009): 1,310,505 In 1992, the American Baptist Churches USA General Board affirmed a one-sentence resolution on homosexuality: “American Baptist Resolution on Homosexuality”: “We affirm that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” In 2005, the board added the same language to its official identity statement. 54% of members believe homosexuality sho…

What Did the Puritans Have Against Christmas?

By Bruce David Forbes

…o religion and says nothing about a baby in a manger—but it does promote a spirit of giving and care for others that can be embraced by almost anyone. The point here is that the Puritan suppression of Christmas created a vacuum, and when Christmas re-emerged and flourished in the 1800s its new form had less of a religious emphasis and was centered more on family and generosity. Christians could embrace those themes gladly, as very consistent with…