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Why the King Hearings Should Matter to Mormons

By Joanna Brooks

…reover, LDS missionary efforts were resisted by law and by mobs in various sites of the nation at the turn of the century. European immigration by Mormon converts was enjoined, as well. Arguably, this was over more than the illegality of plural marriage. But LDS lawlessness in this one matter was always available to legitimize widespread legal and popular discrimination. This seems an essential distinction between the two groups; at least insofar…

“Mitt Romney Style”—A Virtually Religion Free 2012 Contest?

By Joanna Brooks

…r Mormon, and a low class Los Angeles Times advertisement feature for a website selling faux LDS temple garments. Could it be that as fewer Americans report religious affiliation and Protestants lose their American majority, the idea that an elected official may believe and practice differently than you matters less? Indeed, the Hartford Courant / Religion News Service reports that the “God gap” between religious and non-religious voters has shru…

5 Reasons We Shouldn’t Be Surprised that Catholics Support LGBT Rights

By Paul Gorrell

…driven by the advances in birth control—Catholics have largely ignored the official teaching of the Church on sexual relations within marriage and outside marriage. Teaching delivered by the celibate clergy on sexuality was seen as naïve, impractical and unresponsive to the experience of sexually-active Catholics. This was true in the early stages of the post-Humanae Vitae era and in later years when the Church refused to endorse condoms to help p…

There is No Religious Freedom: A Lesson from a ‘Pastafarian’ Stunt

By Austin Dacey

…; for instance, one of the monotheisms. The danger here is that government officials will be given the power and authority to determine how the tradition is to be understood and honored. As Winnifred Fallers Sullivan proposes in her 2007 book The Impossibility of Religious Freedom, such determinations will tend to favor official or “high” religion—practices linked to recognizable doctrine supported by canonical texts and clerical hierarchies—over…

“Ex-Gay” NPR Report Closets Mormon Side of the Story

By Joanna Brooks

…conferences is understood within the Mormon community as something like an official seal of approval. Matheson wrote the official workbook for Evergreen and has received grants from Evergreen to develop his own research on root causes of homosexuality. Wyler has keynoted Evergreen conferences. According to sources in the gay Mormon community, both Matheson and Wyler are all-stars in the world of Evergreen. And both Journey into Manhood and Evergre…

Romney’s Christian Nation Conundrum

By Sarah Posner

…en it comes to his own candidacy, Romney is willing to confront this quasi-official religious test by defending the free exercise clause and the prohibition on religious tests for office. But he was silent on the establishment clause. Last night he said nothing about the citizenry’s religious freedom, the separation of church and state, and where the line between public expression of religion by elected officials and state endorsement of religion…

Time for Mormons to Come to Terms with Church History

By Joanna Brooks

…e of African descent. Controversial issues like these are not addressed in official church materials, and in many congregations, Sunday meetings reflect a highly orthodox, literal approach to Church doctrine and scripture. Even mentions of Smith’s polygamy have been scrubbed from Church lesson manuals, returning only in a newly released book on Mormon women’s history. The culture of shame and silence that surrounds these subjects within Mormon cul…

Amid Horrors, Muslim ‘John Hancocks’ Forge Secular Sudan

By Frederick Clarkson

…… sharia and Islam will be the main source for the Constitution, Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language.” Such statements have provided opportunities for those seeking to impose a Manichaean narrative on the conflict of Muslim persecution of Christians. But even as Khartoum does in fact target Christians, the broad struggle is more accurately seen as one between rising state-sponsored Arabist Islamic nationalism, against raci…

Santorum and the New Catholic-Evangelical Alliance

By Sarah Posner

…ent and control of environment,” and “alienation from families.” ODAN’s website describes Opus Dei’s aggressive recruitment tactics and lists Opus Dei’s “index of forbidden books,” based on a list maintained by the Vatican until 1948, and which has been updated to tellingly include those by writers such as Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale. (Opus Dei denies that there is an official list of forbidden books, but rather that it maintain…

Escorted Off House Floor for Reading Scripture in a Hoodie

By Sarah Posner

…hoodlums in this nation, particularly those who tread on our laws wearing official or quasi-official clothes.” At this point in his remarks, Rush took off his jacket to reveal that he was wearing a hoodie underneath it. He covered his head with the hood, violating a rule in Congress that prohibits wearing hats on the House floor. “Racial profiling has to stop, Mr. Speaker. Just because someone wears a hoodie does not make them a hoodlum,” Rush ad…