…not saying I know the truth, but I do reach for it with all my might. The latest distortion of the truth about Planned Parenthood is mean. Its target is an iconic organization founded in 1916 to disseminate birth control. (Thank God for Maggie Sanger.) It is an organization that one out of five American women have visited and which focuses on reproductive health as well as breast exams and excellent sexual education for girls. It also provides sa…
…express religious or political viewpoints.” Kentucky’s new law is just the latest salvo in a growing trend that uses weaponized “religious freedom” legislation to target specific state functions or agencies, effectively gutting existing LGBT protections in those areas. South Dakota led the way, followed by Alabama, and Texas’ SB 156. The avalanche of anti-LGBT legislation already passing necessitates a sobering reminder: It’s only March. “Several…
…onately affect people of color. The infernal business beneath the garb The promotion of corporate investment in space exploration is only the latest instance of the Trump administration cloaking neoliberal initiatives in the garb of Christian nationalism. And it won’t be the last. When an administration that questions climate change and mocks public health officials during a lethal pandemic appears committed to “scientific discovery,” we can trust…
…and how he’s used the papal throne to enforce the reforming spirit of the latest council. It’s a curious piece, making sweeping (and often untrue) claims to support its points while channeling generations-old talking points to advance a political agenda. The program of such reactionary Catholics is to erase tradition and adaptation, and to ultimately—and ironically—make the Church more “Protestant.” Dougherty’s argument is that desire for the so-…
…jectory of The Book of Mormon from America’s Broadway darling to America’s latest problem traces an inverted path Mormonism itself took in this country. Born in 1830 in upstate New York, Mormonism spent much of the nineteenth century retreating further and further into America’s middle spaces in the face of rejection and violence. Mormons practiced polygamy and built communities of shared resources—qualities that historian Paul Reeve has shown dis…
…sm, Christian Nationalism, and even straightforward racism. In short, they promote exactly the same teachings highlighted in We The People when the pastor of the homeschooling families goes on a rant about the United States’ allegedly Christian heritage. Another accurate point the film makes is that secular and other non-Christian homeschoolers are generally supportive of evangelicals’ libertarian approach to homeschool policy. In the movie, a div…
…y through the legal thicket. Two weeks ago, following oral argument in the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraceptive mandate, the Supreme Court issued an unusual order. Acting more like a mediator than the nation’s highest court, it asked the parties to try and find a compromise solution that would ensure employees and their families receive cost-free contraceptive coverage without a burdening the employers’ religious belie…
…ia, human rights attorney Wahid Ferchichi says Article 230 of the Criminal Code, which criminalizes homosexuality, is in conflict with the January 2014 Constitution’s protections for freedom and individual rights. Israel: Editorial says Israelis ‘ready to follow Ireland’s lead’ An editorial in Haaretz this week declared, “Israelis are ready to follow Ireland’s lead and legalize gay marriage.” The result of the Irish referendum is the best illustra…
By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston
…But the center is an assertion, not a fact; an etiquette, not a place. Its code, its theology, is most fully embodied in Americanized Arminianism—a Protestant tradition of good works and propriety, “distinguished liberals” and polite realpolitik. “Arminian moralism,” notes historian Charles Sellers in his study of Finney’s age, The Market Revolution, “sanctioned competitive individualism and the market’s rewards of wealth and status.” It did not e…
…, the “replacement” is part of a larger plan by a shadowy Jewish or Jewish-coded “global elite” trying to rule the world.) The origins of this myth in France have to be seen against the backdrop of French colonial history, especially the fear of white slave owners of slave uprisings when it comes to the construction of the social in- and out-group. The “Great Replacement” became more widely known after Jean Raspail published his novel Le Camp des…
