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War on Christmas Affirmed by Southern Baptist Convention

By Mark Gstohl

…ukah or Happy Kwanzaa or Happy Ramadan to their customers? What if non-Christian customers don’t wish to be to be greeted with “Merry Christmas?” Should Christians care about their feelings? It’s my contention that they should. Loving one’s neighbor involves respecting and being sensitive to their feelings. My suggestion is that if Southern Baptists feel the need to de-secularize Christmas they should practice the teachings of Christ and reflect o…

Fear, Guns, and the (Unwinnable) War Against Death: A Letter to My Fellow Americans

By Beatrice Marovich

…at travels like a virus. Maybe you’re afraid that it’s already spread to almo*]}*st everyone else here in America. And you believe that you’re still pure, or clean: you haven’t caught it. And you’ll do anything you can not to catch it, not to let your family catch it. Maybe you believe that those who’ve caught the evil have been marked as enemies of your god. And maybe you believe that any enemy of God is a friend of evil and death; one who is already…

Mormons Prepare for WA Marriage Equality Fight

By Joanna Brooks

…ame out to me, and in terms of love and connectedness these were among the most spiritual experiences I’ve had since [serving a proselytizing mission for the Church]. Every time I have one of those conversations, I want to get on Facebook and add another 30 members to Washington Mormons for Marriage Equality. SL: Yes, when my children grow up I want them to look back and know that I did something during this civil rights effort. I want to make it…

We Declare You Restored: How Christian ‘Forgiveness’ is Deployed to Enable Abuse and Corruption

By Greg Carey

…a report on sexual abuse in the Southern Baptist Convention. The report’s most prominent charge pointed to former SBC president Johnny Hunt, who resigned his Georgia megachurch pastorate. Then, in late November, Hunt was declared restored to ministry by four colleagues after what they described as an “intentional and an intense season of transparency, reflection and restoration.” Also last month, Auburn University hired Hugh Freeze as head coach…

Scott Roeder’s Religion

By Sarah Posner

…-abortion zealot in 1998, has a new investigative report in Ms. magazine demonstrating how Scott Roeder, who killed Dr. George Tiller at church last year, did not act alone. It’s crucial to read the whole thing, but in a nutshell, through jailhouse interviews and other sources Robb documents how Roeder crossed paths and received help from groups like Army of God (which explicitly supports killing abortion providers) and Operation Rescue, which is…

Shukr: Gratitude

By Amina Wadud

…st came to California, sister Nicole. The one whose loss still hits me the most and almo*]}*st every day was my youngest sibling: my only sister, Carol. Because Carol made me a beneficiary, I have the means to make hajj this year. So in a way, this hajj is not only because of her death, it is for her. I want to stand on Arafat in gratitude to Allah for having been her sister and for those last four years of her life which we shared so intimately like…

Anti-LGBT Culture Warriors On The March; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…art of the world will tend to speak for the traditions with which they are most familiar, which might well differ considerably from other regions. We saw early signs of this when the family synod was held in Rome in 2015, when the Church’s (mainly European) liberals proposed adopting a more welcoming attitude to gay Catholics and possibly allowing divorced and remarried believers to receive Communion. Those proposals met fierce resistance from Afr…

These Are the New Battlegrounds for LGBT Rights Under Trump

By Sunnivie Brydum

…eriment. Prepare to Oppose the First Amendment (Defense Act) First and foremo*]}*st, the so-called First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) is all but certain to become law. Although the precise language has yet to be seen in this year’s Congress, the text of the bill introduced in the 114th Congress sought to prohibit the federal government from taking “any discriminatory action” against a person (defined to include for-profit and nonprofit corporations) w…

A Faith-Based Opportunity for Obama

By Sarah Posner

…year, DuBois told a gathering in Colorado, “If your focus is first and foremo*]}*st serving people in need, then there’s not a tremendous amount of time left to debate the finer points of the church-state relationship.” That focus on government partnering with faith-based groups and dismissal of church-state separation concerns has earned DuBois praise from his admirers. As I wrote just last week, John DiIulio, the first director of the previous itera…

Kendrick Lamar’s Hip-Hop Jeremiad

By Josiah Daniels

…crushed under foot, when human rights are perverted in the presence of the Most High, when one’s case is subverted —does the Lord not see it? (Lam. 3:34-36) Why does the way of the guilty proposer? Why do all who are treacherous thrive? … Their course has been evil, and their might is not right. (Jer. 12:1b & 23:10b) The all-encompassing, oppressive ideology of Jeremiah’s day was lauded by the urban elite, the religious, the imperial superpowers a…