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Why is Liberty Institute Still Defending Phillip Monk?

By Rob Shryock

…d lied) but did not punish him, I figured Monk’s defenders would just stop caring, since the story no longer fit their worldview. I was very, very wrong. The Liberty Institute, which represents Monk legally, is doubling down. After the release of the Air Force investigation, they produced two documents which show that Monk’s transfer date was moved from September 30th to August 14th. The Liberty Institute believes that, This documentation shows th…

Giving Up God—Not Just a Spiritual Stunt

By Becky Garrison

…Theology that influenced me. I came to the point at the end of my pastoral career where the issue of ontology, or the “beingness” of God really didn’t matter much to me. I didn’t really care if God was a person per se—athough I’m very much interested in the sociology of religion and the way we have created God in our image. People like Alain de Botton and Ronald Dworkin have been influential in my thinking about so-called atheistic religion. I’d l…

Missouri Pastor Goes Viral on Gawker: ‘Separation of Church and Hate’

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…ome of my favorite progressive church leaders, including Nadia Bolz-Weber, Carol Howard Merritt, Stephanie Spellers, and several others. Toward a Hopeful Future offers progressives an introduction to emergence Christianity and highlights the ways emergents are increasingly drawn to progressive communities of faith. What do you plan to work on next? I’m in the process of collaborating with Tony Jones and Doug Pagitt on an exciting new book that wil…

Global LGBT Recap: Culture War Claims More Victims

By Peter Montgomery

…his marriage in an open letter to the pope. Grimaldi’s letter also defends Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López Ródriguez, who had referred to Brewster as a maricón (roughly equivalent to faggot) but more recently urged churchgoers to respect the ambassador. Blabbeando also reports that Grimaldi sent a letter to the press complaining that Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs José Manuel Trullols had rebuked Grimaldi for his letter to the pope. Grimaldi re…

Confessions of a Hater

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…n when he said, “Y’know, I didn’t want to take this class, because I don’t care about religion. But, when I came in here on that first day, I thought, ‘Great, a damn religion class taught by dyke.’” I laughed out loud —and a new, if still uneasy, friendship began to take root. After that, he stayed more often after class, one day whipping out his phone to show me a photo of a white supremacist leader standing up in a convertible during what was ob…

Bad News for LGBT Anglicans, Mormons, Adventists, Norwegians, Russians, Georgians, Egyptians, Kuwaitis, Saudis…

By Peter Montgomery

…work of human rights of LGBT people, which for us is a basic human right.” Caribbean: Dennis and Judy Shepard Meet with Officials and LGBT Activists The Washington Blade reports that the parents of Mathew Shepard are meeting with LGBT rights activists and others in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica this week. “We’re going again to talk about human rights and equal rights throughout these countries at the behest of organizations and human rights acti…

The Real Mormon Moment

By Joanna Brooks

…courts for more than a decade. We used the internet to regroup and grow in numbers. The Church even developed its own web-based resources to acknowledge and address its own controversies—historic and contemporary. This, we thought, was a good sign. A sign that might not need to fear losing our membership, our place, in a cherished tradition, just for having and voicing questions, doubts, and differences. We told ourselves to not to be afraid. And…

Black Masses Continue to Titillate Conservative Catholics

By Joseph Laycock

…cedented attention. Mayor Mick Cornett has already received 450 emails and phone calls opposing the event. Archbishop Paul Coakley has also condemned the event and called on Catholics to protest if it moves forward. Daniels, naturally, has expressed delight that his antics are finally provoking Church officials. This newfound energy has nothing to do with Daniels and everything to do with the events of last May. An online petition features footage…

James Foley Prayed, But He Was Not a Martyr

By Alana Massey

…ose who pray of narcissism to believe that a god of any significance would care to listen to them, prayer is one of the primary targets of those who dismiss the religious. And while I’ve admittedly rolled my eyes at proclamations of, “Prayer works!” when people experience what looks like arbitrary good luck, a letter from slain photojournalist James Foley to his alma mater, Marquette University, on the power of prayer made me reconsider my silent…

Satanic FOIA Reveals Deep Confusion About 1st Amendment

By Joseph Laycock

…The only data concerning what the monument committee thought about the Satanic monument are hinted at in e-mails to and from an executive assistant. In fact, reading through the files, I felt sympathy for this assistant, who dutifully relayed all phone messages from constituents to the legislature. This resulted in e-mails like: [John Doe] at [555-555-5555] from Durant, OK. is opposed to the statue being erected. He will personally come up, rope…