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Please Bless His Eyes: Praying At The Hospital

By Wendy Cadge

…d about what everyone else thinks instead of what I think and feel. Please help me to make the right decision Dear Lord. Two weeks after the initial prayer, she asked the Lord for courage to deal with her decision, offered thanks for yet another chance at motherhood, and asked the Lord to help a man, identified by his initials, to come to terms with the pregnancy and except [sic] what he has to do. In deciding what to do about her pregnancy, this…

Women, Girls, and HIV/AIDS: Does Awareness Help?

By Susan Henking

People around me are endlessly trying to “raise awareness” whenever they get engaged in a social justice concern. They want ribbons: pink ribbons around Breast Cancer Awareness, yellow ribbons for deployed troops, and red ribbons for AIDS/HIV awareness. They want them on their lapels at award ceremonies and on their cars as they move through their day. They buy them, they make them, they imagine them. They want people to “get educated” and attrib…

Did Jesus Help Ghanaian Women with Birth Control?

By Allie Carter

…e most important tools we have. Was it Jesus listening to these women that helped them transform their lives? Or was it “forming committees, making speeches and organizing outings, fund-raisers and other activities”? Are the women actually being heard in their communities and their intimate relationships? Or are they choosing family planning tools they don’t have to negotiate with partners, like IUDs or Depo-Provera? Are their increased use of fam…

RDPulpit: Excommunicating the Victims

By Mary E. Hunt

…are plenty of people who will welcome this family with open arms, both to help them move forward and to be part of a community of faith if they so choose. In fact, the deeply respected Brazilian feminist theologian Ivone Gebara, a Roman Catholic nun, lives there. She was silenced by the Vatican in 1995 for suggesting, in an interview with the Brazilian weekly VEJA, that abortion should be decriminalized. As punishment she was packed off to Belgiu…

Mormon-Baiting Pastor’s New Fame Should Help Him Sell His New Book

By Joanna Brooks

…ublicity for the book describes Jeffress as a media personality, listing a number of appearances he made in the wake of controversy that followed the Values Voter Summit. But guess who Jeffress cites in chapter one, paragraph one as the inspiration for the book? Glenn Beck. Who is, of course, Mormon. Jeffress recalls watching Beck’s 2010 Restoring Honor rally on the National Mall and wanting to follow Beck’s example. (Jeffress also uses chapter on…

Does Jeffress Help Romney?

By Sarah Posner

…’s pastor-endorser, the self-styled anti-cultist Robert Jeffress, actually helps Mitt Romney. Dave thinks so—he says Jeffress is the outlandish demagogue sent via central casting that will turn off even evangelical opponents of a Mormon candidacy, but I’m not so sure. I think evangelicals will turn not on Jeffress, but rather on his critics, for reacting too harshly to what they believe is his truth-telling. Via Erik Eckholm at the New York Times…

Useless and Useful: A True Sage Reviews The Tao of Happiness

By Alan Levinovitz

…s, because the idea of a sage, like a saint, is inherently ridiculous—self-help heroes unfairly dignified by the protective effects of age and distance. For sages, however, the existence of sages is true in a self-evident, I-think-therefore-I-am sort of way. I should say “some sages,” actually, because I’m pretty sure that believing in sages is not a prerequisite for being a sage. It’s extremely likely that the majority of sages aren’t even aware…

Raelians’ “Clitoraid” Met With Suspicion in Burkina Faso

By Joseph Laycock

…rci Bowers has worked with the program extensively. Clitoraid engaged in a number of fund raising projects, including an “Adopt a Clitoris” campaign and a number of partnerships with companies that make vibrators. This funding was used to recruit and fund a team of surgeons (who are not Raelians) and to establish a “pleasure hospital” in Burkina Faso. There is some controversy as to what percentage of women who undergo the surgery will be able to…

Spinning Ft. Hood

By Hussein Rashid

…this happened and really searching for ways that the Muslim community can help. This anger is not about the damage to the Muslim community, but the damage to America, and how can Muslims, as Americans, help repair that damage. Eboo Patel, a member of the president’s Faith-Based Advisory Council has a suggestion on how to channel that rage: “What is even more important [than condemnation] is to state clearly what Islam stands for. In Islam, as in…

Exclusive: Religious Leaders for Immigration Equality for Gay and Lesbian Couples

By Sarah Posner

…ssage of UAFA would provide an “immediate non-judicial solution that would help the most number of families.” Ralls acknowledged that “this Congress presents a steeper hill to climb,” but that “we’re hopeful that other coalitions like the faith coalition will help us deepen support among lawmakers to built the support for the votes we need to go forward.” I think that’s optimistic for the current Congress, but the public, faithy statements of supp…