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Texas’ Anti-LGBT Adoption Bill Is Unconstitutional and Unnecessary, Say Texas Law Professors

…ircumstances of domestic violence. H.B. 3859 violates the Establishment Clause by allowing state funds to be used to compel minors into religious education, without providing ample opportunities for comparable secular instruction or support. Where private individuals have no or insufficient choice in selecting a religious program, government support for a religious organization violates the Establishment Clause. Courts are particularly sensitive t…

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Leave Your Stereotypes at the Door: 10Q on “Keeping it Halal”

…? Why? In addition to Mitch Duneier’s Sidewalk, I would say Eli Anderson’s Code of the Street. It’s such a wonderful example of using the ethnographic method to dig beneath common stereotypes and reveal the social dynamics underlying a supposedly well-understood phenomenon. In his case, he’s looking at the situation of inner-city violence among young African American men. By carefully observing, listening, documenting, and then analyzing, he is ab…

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I’m Too Sexy for My Church: Will a Thriving Singles Scene Renew American Catholicism?

…of St. Monica’s morning Masses, whose more somber style turns out to be a better fit anyway. “Even if you’re completely over it and with somebody else, it’s not conducive to quiet prayer,” Sarah says. In this sense, dating through church might be riskier for the more devout. Of course, as Cynthia Kron, who runs the L.A.-based singles ministry Catholics Click, points out: this is the very group that cares most about dating fellow Catholics. One wo…

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Democratic Hopeful Pete Buttigieg Makes Faith 101 Misstep

…s) that the religious left exists, and explains away the religious right’s use of power on a personal level, he diminishes how they’ve actually used that power, against people like him, among many others. That’s actually selling out his own team. I sincerely wish that I could get Buttigieg (and all the other candidates) to read Niebuhr’s Moral Man and Immoral Society, and internalize its lessons. Social leaders who want to effect meaningful change…

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Dear White Evangelicals: A Black Square Ain’t Gonna Cut It

…es not equal passivity. Choose a side. White churches such as Hillsong and Bethel Music would do well to incorporate the Black contribution of gospel music to their worship services instead of segregating the art forms. How do your Black parishioners feel? Included? Celebrated? Appreciated? Probably not. Until white evangelicals are willing to rework the entire framework of their teachings, they can ‘Blackout Day’ till they’re blue in the face, bu…

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The Facts About ‘Sharia’ May Surprise You

…because shariah requires the defense of synagogues. It’s in all our interests to stop mindlessly buying into the notion of shariah as draconian and violent, a view supported by Muslim terrorists and Islamophobes alike; a view capitalized upon by repressive Muslim governments and used as an excuse for war by Western ones. No legal system could have survived a thousand years without being flexible and adaptable. Understanding at least the basics of…

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Does ‘Criss-Cross Apple Sauce’ Make Yoga Secular? Opponents of Yoga in Public Schools Have a Point

…oday that semantic changes are superficial, since yoga practice itself will “go within, shift consciousness and alter beliefs.” Thus, getting yoga into schools, albeit without Sanskrit terminology, amounted to a “Vedic Victory.” Even if the Alabama Senate refuses to pass the House bill, the state’s school children will not be deprived of exercise or even stretching. The required and elective classes included in Alabama’s current physical education…

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There’s Nothing Wrong with ‘Prayer’; But There’s Every Reason to be Skeptical of Pence’s Coronavirus Prayer Circle

…orge are clear proponents of a “Christian nation,” but Merritt should know better. Did he pause to consider the broader context, one wonders, before tweeting that “mocking [Pence] for praying—like 79% of Americans have done in the past 3 months—is why so many regular Americans despise wine-and-cheese liberals”? For starters, the Coronavirus Task Force is a U.S. government effort. Unless the prayer was entirely without reference to any specific rel…

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Is the Satanic Temple Just an Elaborate Prank? 10 Questions for the Author of ‘Speak of the Devil’

…rbed to read some of TST’s Christian opponents openly renouncing religious freedom if it meant respecting the freedoms of Satanists. I also think TST is forcing the public to think more critically about what “religion” is. They are directly challenging the popular notion that religion is really about supernaturalism. I met several Satanists who had been hostile to the idea of “religion,” until they discovered TST and re-imagined what a religion co…

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Whistleblower Alleges $100B Hoarding Scandal by LDS Church; But There’s An Easy Fix

…ements as well. In short, we knew nothing about this shady arrangement because Congress has refused to ask. Churches are financial and informational black holes. They file no financial information with the government. Nothing. The same is true for many church auxiliary organizations, like Ensign. Other charities, those that are not church-affiliated, file annual disclosures (a Form 990 or the like) with the IRS that track every penny in and out of…

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