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American Sin: Why Pope Francis’ Mercy is Not Our Mercy

By Kaya Oakes

…These can be awkward and painful to witness, but they offer some sense of participatory release. We are no longer forgiven by God, but by one another. The majority of Americans do not get their ideas about mercy from churches. They get it from television and films. And in our entertainment, mercy is not something given by God, but given from one person to another. In the new Star Wars film, Finn’s merciful act toward the imprisoned Poe ends up li…

The Demographic that Should Keep Rove Awake at Night

By Katherine Stewart

…uctive freedom without apology or hesitation; and this season also saw the passage of a number of same-sex marriage ballot initiatives, as well as the election of the nation’s first openly lesbian senator. Some on the right could scarcely believe that this is what America really wants. “Millions of Americans looked evil in the eye and adopted it,” wrote Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver in his post-election commentary. He has a point—except that, for t…

Scott Walker Loves Jesus. That’s Nice

By Peter Laarman

…h as old man Kohler, poured still more resources into the fight—ultimately paying a relatively small number of strikers the then-unheard-of sum of $12 million in union strike benefits. The union had won an overwhelming victory. But within a decade Kohler was shipping the work to new non-union facilities in the South. Just last year the current magnate—yet another Herbert Kohler—pushed through a greatly weakened contract for the small number of Loc…

‘It’s a Gay Problem,’ and Other Myths From the Catholic Church’s Sexual Abuse Crisis

By Joelle Casteix

…l abuse and cover-up flourished in the Catholic Church during conservative papacies, just as it is continuing now. I’ve worked with victims pre-and post-Vatican II and their stories are similar. The cover-up has nothing to do with politics. It’s about saving face, protecting priestly friends, and saving the Church from scandal. The political leanings of the pope or the predator have nothing to do with it. As John Gehring recently noted on Religion…

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

By Sarah Posner

…legislation is reintroduced, probably in April. Ralls said the group anticipates that Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) will introduce it in the House and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) in the Senate. Nadler told me last year he considered the current state of the law “cruelty.“ The letter reads, in part: Of the many great injustices in this broken immigration system, family separation is one of the most egregious. Family is the bedrock of any society and is…

Fox News Controversy on Yoga and White Supremacy Reveals Problem of Yoga Discussion

By Andrea R. Jain

…and Wolff’s arguments. Instead, like a butcher shaving fat from a carcass, Parke carefully cuts and pastes quotes on cultural appropriation to present for his readers a very simple, and misleading, picture: professors call yoga practitioners white supremacists. A careful and thorough reading of Gandhi and Wolff’s arguments, however, leaves the responsible reader reflecting on the suggestion that white Americans practicing yoga should continue to d…

Pope Francis Has Painted Himself into a Corner on Women Deacons

By Mary E. Hunt

…ate, is a direct route to the presbyterate, episcopacy, and, de facto, the papacy. The other, naming women as deaconesses but giving them no authority or jurisdiction, is the ladder that goes nowhere. My expectation—and I have longed to be proven wrong by the kyriarchal church but it has not happened—is that Pope Francis will steer women up the ladder that goes nowhere in terms of decision-making or jurisdiction. That would be consistent with his…

YOU Are Spiritual But Not Religious: The Secret Spiritual History of the Choose Your Own Adventure Books

By Daniel Silliman

…sibility. This core belief made him exactly the right person to hear about Packard’s idea for a new kind of kids’ book. Packard, a lawyer from New York City, spent the end of the 1970s trying to get publishers to show some interest in his book. By his account, he had grown lazy while making up a rambling, multi-part bedtime story for his children. When he began to ask them what they wanted the character, a shipwrecked boy named Pete, to do, it occ…

Reactionary White Buddhists Have Joined The Fight Against Critical Race Theory

By Ann Gleig

…ace Theory but adds a unique twist by comparing the current “police racism panic” to the “ritual panic abuses” of the 1980s. Another compares responses to structural racism, climate change, and Covid-19 to mental illness that are “wreaking havoc in Western society.” Just like Campus Reform, he turns to James Lindsay’s anti-woke polemics for support. While Buddhist reactionary centrists seek to naturalize their own conservative political positions…

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

…tion the punishment for homosexuality may be death. Nigeria: Police arrest participants at same-sex couple’s wedding ceremony The Daily Trust reported on Wednesday that a male couple’s wedding ceremony was interrupted by police who arrested the couple and other participants. Under Nigeria’s anti-gay law a person who enters into a same-sex marriage or civil union is punishable by 14 years in prison. Church of England: Bishop says marriage doctrine…