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What’s in a Name? Religious Nones and the American Religious Landscape

By Richard Flory

…uccess in the religious marketplace is the goal, and it is measured by the number of people who identify with your particular brand of religion (or irreligion as the case may be). Further, individuals are thought of as either being religious (or spiritual) or not; there are no other options. Thus the basic gist of the majority of writing and hand-wringing about the “rise of the Nones” is that secularism is on the rise, and religion and spiritualit…

Pope’s US Visit Provokes Intense Attention; New Vatican Book on Man-Woman Complementarity & New Int’l Report on Christian Role Models for LGBT Equality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ecades of ministry to the LGBT community have frequently been marked by conflict with and harassment from the church hierarchy, told National Catholic Reporter “that she doesn’t think the pope cares much about doctrine. ‘The bishops are preaching the old law, which is doctrine and teaching. It’s the old law that binds people, while Pope Francis is preaching the Gospel of love.” BuzzFeed’s Lester Feder profiles Gramick as “the nun who battled one p…

Workers Once Forced the Social Gospel Into Churches—Can It Happen Again?

By Eric C. Miller

…of progressive reform. Clergy of nearly every denomination eyed the era’s fledgling working-class movements with deep suspicion and, in many cases, outright alarm. There were a number of reasons for this. Protestant ministers enjoyed close ties—social, political, financial, and more—to Chicago’s industrial elite, which predisposed them to be skeptical of trade unionism. In the turbulent 1870s and 1880s, as the rank and file, increasingly predomin…

Rome Has Spoken and Rome Is Finished: The Vatican’s Sexual Abuse Summit ‘Failed Miserably’

By Mary E. Hunt

…Catholic Church, but you must understand that we have to be more rigorous with you than with others, by virtue of your moral role.” She recommended that the clerics turn over a new leaf with the new onslaught of information about the abuse of women in the church. This time, she counseled the institution to “play offense and not defense, as has happened in the case of the abuse of minors. It could be a great opportunity for the Church to take the…

RD News Round-Up—Oct.14, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…uesday, October 14. Charities in crisis: The disastrous economic situation with its record number of housing foreclosures and rapidly rising unemployment rates will undoubtedly leave many families in need of assistance. Over the past eight years, the Bush Administration has been dedicated to demolishing the government’s responsibility for maintaining a social safety net and turning those responsibilities over to charities—both faith-based and secu…

How Not To Defend Atheism

By Vlad Chituc

…tingly worse, other atheists have been calling Silverman out for falsely inflating the number of atheists for more than four years. And last year, I specifically asked Silverman if he would stop reporting the stats on “nones” as being representative of atheism, and he told me he would. Yet here we are. There’s a philosopher at the UC Riverside I admire named Eric Schwitzgebel. One of his more popular theories is his theory of jerks, which he defin…

Religion Round-Up: What’s Going on in Religion Around the World

By Diane Winston

…the Summer Games. But the Pew Forum’s findings are worth remembering: A growing number of urban, educated, 20-something Chinese men and women are increasingly interested in the topic. More on religion: a story last week from the Columbus Dispatch reported that United Methodist congregations “could share pastors and combine churches with a Lutheran denomination under a partnership approved by the denomination last week.” (The Evangelical Lutheran C…

What Fidel Castro’s Death Means for LGBT Rights in Cuba and More, in This Week’s Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ent in our fight for the human rights of key populations and people living with HIV within the U.S. and in countries where the U.S. has hitherto provided important leadership,” according to a November 22 statement from the Global Network of People Living with HIV. A federal judge ordered the U.S. Passport Agency to reconsider its refusal to issue Dana Zzyym, an intersex Navy veteran because Zzyym “could not accurately choose either male or female…

Belize Overturns Sodomy Law Defended by Religious Right, Ugandan Officials Will Continue to Suppress Gay Groups, And More on the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…tions to living a celibate life. He says Australian Christian groups have twice flown Pennsylvania-based seminary professor Wesley Hill, who says he is a celibate gay man, to the country to speak. Recordings of at least two of the talks are available online and reveal a softer approach to the topic that has haunted some Christian evangelicals, as society has moved towards a growing acceptance of LGBTI people. Hill talks of not slandering same-sex…

How a Powerful ‘Ex-Gay’ Pastor is Chasing the Latino Vote

By Katherine Stewart

…es are gathered around the alfresco buffet, filling paper plates and bowls with fruit salad, ceviche, and ham and roast beef sandwiches. There are a few Anglos in the crowd, but most of the attendees are Latino, and they chat quietly in small groups as they enjoy the evening breezes. The women are dressed in modest yet stylish fashions. The men, most of them pastors, are wearing guayaberas or sport jackets. The conversations around me are all in S…