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Swimming Against the Tide: Religious (Non) Affiliation Might Not Mean What You Think It Means

By Timothy King

…llowing such a line of reasoning might mean we are seeing an uptick in the number of American’s who will report a life-changing Christian experience while simultaneously being less likely to identify with any particular Christian institution. This raises questions about the complicated relationship between Americans and their willingness to affiliate with large institutions (religious and otherwise) in general. The rate of decline in affiliation f…

2017 Around the World: Progress and Persecution For LGBT People

By Peter Montgomery

…c university in Johannesburg. From a press release: “GIN-SSOGIE is an extraordinary organisation, with an extraordinary vision,” says Toni, “and it is both an enormous pleasure and a great challenge to be tasked with moving it forward. I believe that the role that faith can play in challenging the oppression of LGBTI people is an area of work which is ripe for expansion. As people of faith of all SOGI we know that our faith traditions speak to who…

Obama Caves on (Another) Contraception Exemption

By Patricia Miller

…heir own brother bishops who thumb their noses at the Dallas Charter for the protection of minors with impunity. Winters says that the USCCB is in a “meltdown,” with seasoned staff abandoning ship in record numbers. It appears that even the bishops’ biggest loyalists can no longer stomach the dissonance between the church’s mission and the bishops’ obsession with the pelvic zone….

Dieting, Sex, Jesus: The Body as Moral Battleground

By Lynne Gerber

…evelop and maintain a critical perspective on this issue, especially when words like “health,” “morbidity,” and “death” are raised; words that are often halt critical thinking about fat in its tracks. So I was in search of a case or an issue that would be a productive conversation partner with fatness. Another inspiration for the project was some reading I was doing in social theory and specifically the work of Pierre Bourdieu. In writing about so…

Morality and Marriage Vigilantes and More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…nd allies gathered for a pride celebration in Podgorica on December 17. According to Pink News, “The Balkan country is known for having highly conservative attitudes towards the gay community, with one survey finding that 71% of people there consider homosexuality to be a disease and 58% believe it to be ‘very dangerous for society.’” Hundreds of police officers were deployed to protect them from the possibility of an attack by conservative extrem…

Two Women and a Mosque: A Convert Community Grows in Panama City

By Aliyya Swaby

…ion. Panama City’s Jama Mosque is the oldest mosque in Central America, according to Ahmad Bhattay, one of its leaders. More than 500 people attend Friday prayer services every week, most of them Indian. But the number of Panamanian converts is rapidly growing. Bhattay said about two or three new converts come to Jama Mosque every week. Six months ago, the mosque began offering classes in Spanish — instead of just in Urdu — to accommodate the grow…

Rick Warren Busts a Gut Over Cultural Revolution

By Rob Shryock

…r PC society etc.” The number of supportive and sometimes racist posts outnumber those who advice caution. I can’t suspect such hideous posts are all from Saddleback membership. I’m sure quite a number are. It’s as disturbing as it is disgusting. Warren commented on Tsang’s article, “Thanks so much for teaching us! It was removed instantly.” However, Warren did not get around to posting a formal, public apology until the next day, once again,…

‘Cult’ Is an Inaccurate, Unhelpful and Dangerous Label for Followers of Trump, QAnon, and 1/6

By Catherine Wessinger

…entury the word “cult” (originally meaning “worship”) became a pejorative word that people apply to a group or movement that they do not like and perhaps fear. The word “cult” implies a stereotype that involves what sociologist James T. Richardson has termed the “myth of the omnipotent leader” and a corresponding “myth of the passive, brainwashed follower.” These are just that: myths. They’re inaccurate assumptions about groups and movements with…

Ministries of Presence: A Report from Nepal

By Cathleen Falsani

…aid. Yes, but what we can do we must do, I told Casey, recalling the wise words a friend told me years ago, words that eventually changed transformed my own life and family. “Exactly,” she said, explaining how since that first trip in 2003 she spends five months a year in Nepal (the most allowed by her tourist visa) and the other seven months in California fundraising for Chhahari, the organization she founded that runs a home for about two dozen…

Religious Practices on Trial in Arizona: The Problem With “Experts”

By Johnny P. Flynn

…s. In following the Ray story over the past few months, I am amazed at the number of non-Indian sweat lodge experts the media has been able to locate. Few Indians if any have been interviewed; and even decidedly liberal MSNBC featured Court TV anchor Ashleigh Banfield as their expert on the sweat lodge. Banfield’s expertise, admitted on air, was one sweat experience with her stepbrother or brother-in-law (she wasn’t sure how he was related), “step…