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A Twisted Love Story: How American Evangelicals Helped Make Putin’s Russia and How Russia Became the Darling of the American Right

By Katherine Kelaidis

…n Curtain became a rallying cry for the American Right in general and American evangelicals in particular, who made it their mission to save “Godless Russia,” seemingly unaware that before 1917, it had, in fact, been “Holy Mother Russia.” In a pattern we’ve seen repeated again and again among American evangelicals before and since, they understood the persecution of the local indigenous Christian population and the suppression of a region’s histor…

The Story Behind the Catholic Church’s Stunning Reversal on Contraception

By Patricia Miller

…ce on the issue of family planning dated back to 1930 and the papal encyclical Casti Connubi (On Christian Marriage), which was written to address the growing acceptance of birth control throughout the Western world. The tipping point was reached in 1930, when the Anglican Church officially approved the use of birth control by married couples. Other Protestant denominations soon followed, signaling that contraceptives had gained moral and social l…

LGBT Christians Respond to Southern Baptists’ Call For Kindness, Understanding

By Mike Greer

…shun their gay children. Moore and other conference leaders appeared to be caught off guard by the number of LGBT Christians and supportive Christian advocates, some Baptists, who not only attended the entire conference, but also respectfully and publicly responded to Moore’s call to kindness and understanding and offered to meet with conference leaders at the venue. Although there were evidently no face-to-face meetings with Moore, about a dozen…

Punks vs. Monks: Rockers Speak Out Against Genocide in Myanmar

By M. Sophia Newman

…ent a fringe group, anti-Rohingya protests have drawn hundreds of monks in capital city Yangon in the past year. Burmese dissident Maung Zarni has called the movement “the most popular movement in the country” and has said, “There is a parallel between what we saw in Nazi Germany and what we are seeing today in Burma.” Punks in Yangon are speaking out against the monk-led genocide to international media. The outsider subculture contrasts with the…

As Pat Robertson Retires, Here Are 10 of His Most Cringeworthy Moments

By Chrissy Stroop

…angelicals, and his influence is reflected in our current post-truth political landscape, in which white evangelicals regularly collaborate with street-brawling fascists and are more likely than any other demographic to embrace anti-vax disinformation and the pernicious QAnon conspiracy theory. Over the course of his long career undermining democracy and human rights, Robertson founded an evangelical university, ran for president, and allegedly us…

The “Mormon Moment” Yields… Not So Much

By Joanna Brooks

…give a one-word descriptor of Mormonism, the number of respondents offering a positive word like “good,” or “honest,” increased from 18% in 2011 to 24% in 2012. All of these gains were concentrated among Republicans voting for Romney, naturally. Still, the number one word survey participants associated with Mormons? “Cult.” And fully 27% of survey respondents still have no idea what religion Mitt Romney is….

The Harlot Shall Be Burned with Fire: Biblical Literalism in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

By Sarah Sentilles

…d, fashion magazines are seldom known for their courageous stands, but the caption could have said any number of things. The Woman Against Rape or The Woman Who Kicks Ass or The Woman Who Fights Back—I’d even settle for A Girl Who Fights Back. But nipple piercing? Really? When there’s all that other material? Which sums up the problem with Dragon Tattoo, the movie: not only does it participate in the sexualization of the violence it seems to resis…

White Evangelical Leaders Already Distancing Themselves from the “81-Percenters”

By Neil J. Young

…’s poor showing among non-white evangelicals, particularly Latinos and African Americans, means that his total standing among all evangelicals likely came under 50 percent. But the whole weight of Carter’s argument depends on an inaccurate depiction of the media’s reporting on the election. News media did not report, as Carter asserts, that “an overwhelming number of evangelicals” voted for Trump. Instead, news media, including the The New York Ti…

Five Social Media Trends that are Reshaping Religion

By Elizabeth Drescher

…reating apps that support personal reflection and provide information that can be carried into face-to-face relationships. If the folks at Nielsen are correct, smartphones will continue to overtake, uh, dumb phones, making app-based connection and information-sharing a continuing growth area. Religiously-themed apps are certain to be an important part of that, but unless they grasp the digital trinity of social engagement, spiritual meaning, and i…

Pope and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Declare Shared View of Marriage & Family; Government & Muslim Officials Ramp Up Anti-LGBT Rhetoric in Indonesia; Australian Religious Leaders Ask Parliament to Act on Marriage Equality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…nology and Higher Education said such LGBT groups should not be allowed on campuses because they damage the country’s morality, part of what some activists called “a new outbreak of state homophobia.” This week the anti-LGBT campaign picked up steam on several fronts. On Monday, the government urged the United Nations Development Program to deny funding to programs regarding LGBT people. On Wednesday, the Indonesian Ulema Council and other Muslim…