Search for "Alaska Airlines 800-299-7264 Customer Service Toll-Free Number"

Openly Gay Mormon Appointed to LDS Church Leadership Position

By Joanna Brooks

…o reaching out to the many LGBT Mormons who live within his congregation’s service area. “We have so many people on the Church records who are inactive, whose families are still members. Many of them served honorably as Mormon missionaries. Many identify as LGBT. I want them to understand that like me they do have a home here,” Mayne says. “As an openly gay priesthood leader, I hope my example also shows that not only do they have a home here but…

Georgia Gov Vetoes Right-To-Discriminate Bill

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

…services—such as musicians, florists, or caterers—to discriminate against customers based on religious beliefs, since providing these services may require attending a wedding. This section of the bill contained no ban against invidious discrimination otherwise prohibited by state or federal law, and therefore may have empowered government officials and wedding-related service providers to refuse to attend interfaith or interracial weddings. Allow…

Illinois Bishop Greets Marriage Equality with Exorcism

By Peter Montgomery

…f God and sift them like wheat,” he continued. In an unusual use of public services, the exorcism included two armed Springfield police officers stationed inside the church vestibule where parishioners entered from the street. At one point during the service, one of the officers strode to the front of the church, though his purpose was unclear. There were no disruptions during the hourlong event. “Be gone Satan, father of lies, enemy of human salv…

Ponzi Schemes and Prophecy

By Sarah Posner

…d hit 36,000) opined that Social Security was like a “Ponzi scheme” in the service of his argument that it should be privatized. (His failed prognostications on the robustness of the stock market should’ve put a big pin in that trial balloon.) And if you read the Austrian school economists and bloggers at the Von Mises Institute, you will find the inapt analogy deployed frequently as well. While not comparing Social Security to a Ponzi scheme, Bac…

Goliath the Israel Slayer: Why Max Blumenthal’s New Book is a Painful Read

By Shaul Magid

…IDF; or the New Profile movement of Israeli youth who, after refusing army service, were subject to KGB-like abuse by the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret service. Most Israelis know all this. Most American Jews do not, even though a film like The Gatekeepers has been around for almost two years. But Blumenthal’s medium, a combination of myopic perspective, selective focus, and a limited understanding of context and history subverts a valuable opportunit…

Why the Women’s Ordination Question Will Shape the Future of Mormonism

By Joanna Brooks

…rdination and a more equitable role for women in LDS Church leadership and service. Today, the global operations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are governed and directed by an all-male organizational chain of command. Mormon women may participate in some decision-making at the congregational level. But at all levels most forms of institutional power—from the power to shape the church’s global policies and finances to the powe…

What’s Eating Mitt Romney?

By Joanna Brooks

…lls, as a full human being: someone who gave his time generously to church service but had trouble remembering names; he couldn’t tell a joke, but he did attempt a Michael Jackson-style moonwalk. On issues of gender, Romney made some mistakes, but also took steps to improve his relationship with Boston’s strong Mormon feminist community. In watching Romney make two runs at the presidency, I’ve seen many similarities between him and the Mormon me…

A Catholic House Divided Over Reproductive Health Care: Bishops Launch a New Campaign

By Frances Kissling

…ows full well that opposition to providing contraceptive and sterilization services is not the same as insuring those services, has joined the bishops in this fight. More importantly, it remains to be seen whether the Obama administration will understand that it is quite possible that many Catholic hospitals would have no moral problem covering their employees for contraceptive services should the administration stand firm. Some may in fact ferven…

Rev. Smith Goes to Washington

By Frederick Clarkson

…needed. But our community desperately needs tax reform to stabilize human service and health care programs. Oftentimes such discussions are uncomfortable in a church atmosphere and so I’ve decided to [enter] this race because without such reforms we’ll have to continue cutting vital programs for the poorest of the poor, and I’m not willing to allow that to happen without trying to use government as a vehicle for social change. That is not to say…

Rolling the Stone Away: LGBTQI Elders Meet the Next Generation of Christian Activists at a Watershed Conference

By Mary E. Hunt

…n 1972, beamed broadly at this gathering. He is retired from distinguished service both in congregational and denominational leadership in a church that now has countless queer ministers, many of whom were not born when he was ordained. Welcoming churches opened their doors, some more reluctantly than others, in the 1980s and 90s. Courageous people and groups stepped up to challenge denominations on their policies, to be test cases for ordination…