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The Forgotten Struggle Over Gender and Bigotry in Christianity

By Stephen J. Patterson

…n any given Sunday, but more likely you will hear “blessed are the poor in spirit.” The words of Jesus are assumed to be about your spiritual life, not your finances—unless, of course, you attend one of the larger, far more successful churches where the “prosperity gospel” is preached, where the word is always about your finances. If you believe, keep the right company, straighten out your life, and tithe, you will prosper. The millionaire preachi…

Sex and Civilization: The Body as Battleground

By Jay Michaelson

…ural) is that which curbs what we today might call “nature” in the name of spiritual discipline. Yes, Paul replaces physical circumcision with spiritual, but in doing so he creates a far more insidious apparatus of control. This is a nature of anti-nature. Ironic, then, that many of today’s anti-gay voices call homosexuality “unnatural” in a pseudo-scientific sense. They are wrong; Paul is right. Homosexuality is entirely too natural, found in ove…

Leading UK Evangelical Comes Out for Gay Acceptance

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ce and forgiveness and Christ commits himself through the work of the Holy Spirit to bring transformation to our lives—a life-long process.” Clifford goes on to talk about how Chalke’s concession will harm the testimony of “ex-gays,” like one Baptist minister who rejected his homosexuality. “This pastor is just one of tens of thousands of Christians who have come to the conclusion that sex was designed by God to be expressed within a committed rel…

A Nazi, a Jewish Prisoner, and a “Magic” Bible, Or, Christian Romance Fiction Gone Very, Very Wrong

By Julia Seymour

…e that romance between a Jewish prisoner and a Nazi commander violates any spirit of consent. In the portions of the book when Stella/Hadassah wrestles with her feelings about Aric, I was reminded of the guilt rape survivors sometimes feel when their bodies responded to the act of violation in a different way than their heads and spirits were. No matter how humane the Nazi in question was made to seem—he had the power to kill her or those she love…

Trump Gives Davos Press Credentials to Racist Conspiracy Outlet. Again.

By Gordon Haber

…d, a “kosher cover-up”; that fellow pseudo-journalist Ben Shapiro has “the spirit of anti-Christ”; that Mark Zuckerberg is of “the synagogue of Satan”; and that abortion in America is the fault of “powerful, rich Jews.” Yet the White House still let TruNews “cover” this week’s World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland. TruNews’s “reporting” from Davos won’t disappoint its critics: hard-hitting segments include, among other things, the details of…

Common Ground on Gays? Like Hell

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…re with their own penchant for verbally harassing, beating and killing the spirit of any gay or lesbian within earshot. Former Navy Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt of PrayInJesusName.com read from Romans: “And they that commit such things are worthy of death.” No common ground there, I fear. Even evangelical prince-of-a-guy Rick Warren will call abortion a “holocaust” but will decline to speak out against a proposed Ugandan law that will imprison a…

Meet The Liberal Tea Partiers

By Abby Scher

…tes that raised taxes last year targeted the wealthy, and the conservative spirit in the land means that sometimes liberal religious activists take what they can get. The North Carolina Council of Churches is a member of the NC Together coalition that convinced the state legislature last year to raise sales taxes rather than just try to fill the budget hole with service cuts. “It was better to have a regressive tax shared by everyone than lose ser…

The Morning After

By Amina Wadud

…s right now. For one thing, I really did take this as a good thing, in the spirit of the early warning system. Since the time my friend said, you have to be invited by Allah to make the hajj; I have been in various states of preparation. I’ve been preparing to receive the invitation, preparing to recognize it when it is given, and preparing to accept it. I considered it a mandate to do whatever was necessary to put me in the right place for it all…

Seventh-Day Smackdown!

By Daniel Schultz

…people try to step around real conflict with mushy criticism “offered in a spirit of reconciliation and dialogue.” It’s healthier and more efficient sometimes to spell out simply and directly what it is that you think people have done wrong, and why. That way it can be discussed openly and honestly and without a lot of passive-aggressive nonsense. Extra points for marshaling scriptural evidence, while we’re at it. Yes, there are many ways to read…

Why Christians Should Not Host Their Own Passover Seders

By Rebecca Cynamon-Murphy

…r year. It is possible to study the celebration of Passover as a Christian spiritual group if it is done with respect and knowledge. My own church hosts a Mediterranean potluck with hummus, pitas, falafel, and we read the Passover story from the Bible, look at haggadot of all types and discuss the elements—but do not actually go through the ritual of the seder. We leave speculation of which prophecies Jesus fulfilled for a different time and focus…