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Christian ‘Purity’ Guru’s Loss of Faith May Signal a Coming Reckoning For Conservative Christianity

By Elizabeth Shively

…ical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the United Church of Christ. These stances have not been without opposition, and inclusive policies at one time threatened to fracture the Episcopal Church (and may yet split the United Methodist Church). There are also evangelicals who have left the fold but remained under the wider umbrella of Christianity in these more progressive denominations. The late Rachel Held Evans, b…

Vatican’s ‘Dumbed Down Version of an Old Argument’ on Gender Can’t Stop Changes in Catholicism

By Mary E. Hunt

…ped to counter them. Motivated by legal developments in Germany and at the United Nations and by the theoretical work of feminists in Germany and in the United States to conjure up an opposition more coherent and formidable than any he actually faced, Ratzinger was the first to declare war on ‘gender.’ Francis provided powerful tactics and strategies for this war, with his rhetoric of anticolonialism and his combination of warm receptivity to indi…

Godless Oaths of Office

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…(or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. That’s all. No mention of God, no mention of anything more than the individual conscience. The power of such conscience, and the virtues this presupposes, were believed to be enough. In short, the Founders were as vigilant about keeping invocations of “God”…

Don’t Misread Russell Moore’s Disavowal of “Christian Nation” and Anti-Trump Stance

By Daniel Schultz

…Christian nation,” said Moore. “The idea that God was in covenant with the United States of America in order to bless the United States as a special people, as a New Israel, as a group of people covenanted under Christianity — the answer to that is clearly no.” This no doubt raised some eyebrows. The Christian Post carefully noted its resemblance to the position of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, often an evangelical bête noir…

God Needs No Passport

By Peggy Levitt

…k outside the Christian box. When we talk about religious pluralism in the United States, we often mean diverse manifestations of Christianity. Many immigrants, though, are introducing new faith traditions and Asianizing and Latinoizing old ones. They bring very different ideas about what religion is and where to find it. If we care about preserving and deepening religious pluralism in this country, we need to make room for a wider variety of reli…

Bad Karma: Life Lessons From Earl

By Anthony B. Pinn

…time, projects a different posture: actions have consequences. Perhaps the United States, like Earl, must examine its conduct, recognize the web-like nature of human interactions, and acknowledge at least the possibility that the United States as a nation has not lived up to the best of its democratic ideals, has not represented in its internal practices and foreign policies the commitment to freedom that fuels its rhetoric. And, while we’re at it…

Do Stormy Daniels’ Beliefs in the Paranormal Make Her Unfit to Testify in Lawsuit Against Her Former Attorney?

By Daniel Wise

…of spirituality as goofy, metaphysical religion has a long history in the United States, reaching back beyond Mesmerism in the eighteenth century and moving forward through Spiritualism, New Thought, Theosophy and New Age spirituality. This type of spirituality, which is often concerned with the movement of energy, therapeutic practices, and the power of mind, seems to be rising in popularity in the United States as traditional religious affiliat…

Among the Problems with Trump’s Proposed Ban: Who is a Muslim?

By Michael Schulson

…t Judaism is a religion (instead, it’s an ideology, or a legal code, or an international cabal), and emphasizing definitions of Judaism rooted in physical heritage. This nudge toward biology makes sense. For one thing, it’s easier to judge somebody’s identity based on ancestry than on beliefs and cultural traditions. The latter is pretty nebulous. The former is quantifiable. Also, bigots haven’t historically cared much about the personal feelings…

‘Only Christopher They Acknowledge is Columbus’: The ‘Biblical’ Reason why Replacing Columbus Day is an Uphill Battle

By A. E. Brooks-Key

…“to observe October 12, the day of so-called ‘discovery’ of America, as an International Day of Solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.” Within the United States, the Colorado branch of the American Indian Movement (AIM) would, in the 1980s, propose Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and Berkley, California would celebrate its first Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 1992, (the 500th anniversary of the Columbian voyage). Versions of Native American…

Religious Freedom Historian John Ragosta on “Religious Freedom”

By Frederick Clarkson

…d upon it to for 140 years to define religious freedom [since Reynolds vs. United States, 1879], but it played a critical role in development of the First Amendment and in the way the states defined religious freedom. It was far better known in the nineteenth century when historians, students, newspaper editors and politicians regularly turned to the Statute to understand religious liberty. Jefferson was very clear that you can’t use religion or r…