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Religious Leaders Need ‘Empty the Pews’ Which Chronicles the Darker Side of the ‘Nones’ Phenomenon

By Kaya Oakes

…what can churches do to get them back? or, if it’s an election year, how will this religious disaffiliation affect their vote? Rarely do those who study religious disaffiliation ask the more difficult kinds of questions that are likely to yield more complex answers: Why did you leave? What did this do to your family? Where did it lead you, spiritually and psychologically? As researcher Andreea Nica noted here on RD in 2018: Leaving fundamentalist…

Bonnaroo 3: With a Buzz in Our Ears

By E. David Morgen

…the band’s vocalist, Jón Birgisson, who sings the lyrics with a keening wail: Bakvio sk´yjaból vaknar sól úr dvala Svalar sér vio kalda dropa regnsins leikur sér vio heita loga eldsins Byr til regnboga A rough translation reads: Behind a vessel of clouds, A sun wakes up from its lethargy Refreshes itself with some little raindrops Plays with the hot flames of the fire Makes rainbows But we don’t know that at the time. In fact, it is unlikely that…

Bonnaroo Dispatches: Stages

By E. David Morgen

…ou are today. No one is going to judge you.” Recent studies suggest that while the number of young Americans who consider themselves religious or spiritual remains roughly constant, their spiritual practices are changing. They are more likely than their parents to consider themselves unaffiliated with any particular practice, or the version of the religion they practice boils down to injunctions to a vague sense of morality, fairness, and happines…

A Match Made in Hell: Demons Have Become a Serious Force in US Politics — But We’ve Seen This Show Before

By Michael E. Heyes

…ns believed that Satanic cults directed by real demons were preying upon children. While this imagined evil could be worked through an individual—say, in a daycare setting—it could also manifest as illegal drugs, pornography, or other hotly contested political issues. Ronald Reagan rose to the presidency on the votes of just such Americans, and obligingly encoded their fears into political movements such as the “War on Drugs” and the Meese Report….

The War Within: Religion and Our Tangled Relationship with Our Bodies

By Michelle Lelwica

…does it really mean to be healthy? Can a person who is living with a disability still be healthy? (I would say, of course!—though disabled bodies are not typically associated with good health in dominant commercial, medical, and self-help discourses). What about a woman with cancer? Can she be healthy on some level as well? Or a man suffering from ALS? I think our answers to such questions need to be more nuanced and complex than current definiti…

The Messiah is Not Coming

By Peter Laarman

…and even thrive in the new apocalyptic landscape. And those preachers who have the guts and the clarity to explain how the old forms and verities are rapidly passing away—and why—will be worthy heirs of a still-vital prophetic tradition: albeit one that has been chastened and stripped of all messianic expectations….

The Fourth of July Is Not America’s Birthday

By Peter Laarman

…e Roundhead” as a young lawyer. Much later, in 1786, Adams made a special pilgrimage to key English Civil War battlefields, referring to them as “holy ground.” Looking back at the American Revolution during that same period, Adams recalled that “if Parliament could tax us, they could establish the Church of England with all of its creeds, articles, tests, ceremonies, and titles, and prevent all other churches as conventicles and schism shops.” In…

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

By Mike Greer

…erence, which brought some 1,300 Southern Baptist clergy and laity to Nashville, with a defiant declaration that Southern Baptists and their churches will never recognize or tolerate same-sex relationships, another more pastoral and conciliatory theme was later championed by the conference convener, Russell Moore. Mohler later gave a brief nod to Moore’s tone when he acknowledged that he had been wrong years ago when he said that same sex attracti…

Global Religious Right Asks ‘How Far Can We Get?’; And More in the Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…have called a growing blight on its readiness to fight North Korea’s 1.2 million-strong military. But in the past week, evidence has emerged to support the allegations by gay soldiers that investigators flouted the army’s own regulations on how to treat gay service members by preying upon the soldiers’ fear of shame and abuse if they are outed in the military. Analysts and veterans said bullying, hazing and sexual violence were chronic problems….

Infanticide Still Not a Growing Movement: 30 Years of Pro-Life Fudging

By Daniel Silliman

…act was taken to be evidence of the growing acceptance of the morality of killing small children. “People thought a new effort was underway to legalize infanticide,” Saletan writes. “This is how the echo chamber works.” It’s not just the echo chamber of ideologically aligned media, though. And it’s not just social media. The propensity to believe and pass on the flimsiest evidence of a pro-infanticide movement as fact pre-dates Facebook. It predat…