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Church and State in Mexico: A Political Party Wavers on Women’s Rights

By Ruth Samuelson

…nce 2008, 17 states have passed similar measures—most recently in Baja and San Luis Potosi just last month. The wave of legislation began in reaction to a groundbreaking 2007 Mexico City law allowing abortions in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. But it swelled as PRI leaders, seeking to gain conservative support in the 2009 elections, began forming alliances with local church leaders. Undoubtedly, Mexican politics has become more religiously conse…

Ponzi Schemes and Prophecy

By Sarah Posner

…onomic Armageddon: What Bible Prophecy Warns about the New Global Economy, San Diego megachurch pastor, radio host, and Tim LaHaye protégé David Jeremiah likens Social Security to a Ponzi scheme and adds that “financing massive entitlement programs, wars, and runaway big government” were “predicted twenty centuries ago in the New Testament letters of James” and figure “prominently as a sign of the coming economic Armageddon.” The book is a favorit…

Does Conservative Watchdog Actually “Get Religion”?

By Joanna Brooks

…story on a recently-installed, openly-gay Mormon congregational leader in San Francisco. Get Religion insisted that this story on Mitch Mayne wasn’t really news, and that it was bad journalism to claim that Mayne’s call to serve indicated “evolving” views of homosexuality in Mormonism, because only orthodox institutional statements from high-ranking Church leaders count as evidence. But as someone who’s been writing about Mormonism and homosexual…

A Catholic Turnabout on Abortion or More Sympathy for the Bishops?

By Daniel C. Maguire

…ns where there are differences, which is the hallmark of clear thought and sanity, you can judge different issues differently. Thomas Aquinas put it simply: “Human actions are right or wrong according to the circumstances.” If the circumstances are different, your moral judgment can be different. And the circumstances of all the cases Steinfels hauls out from his store of non sequiturs are really and crucially different. A judgment on one does not…

LGBT Mormons Ask in Historic Temple: “If they could just see us, don’t you think they would change their minds?”

By Joanna Brooks

…Tears flowed freely when the Affirmation choir of gay and lesbian Mormons sang the stirring Mormon classic “The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning”—the very hymn our ancestors sang to dedicate the Kirtland temple 175 years ago, in 1836, on a day when, as the folklore goes, neighboring villages reported seeing a cloud of fire hovering over Kirtland. Standing in the sunlit white interiors of the temple, Liam, a young gay LDS man who had travelled…

In Praise of Gay Republicans

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…alled,” in Mormon parlance) to serve as a leader in an LDS congregation in San Francisco.” All of these changes have been made because LGBT people were faithful to an institution that has historically despised and rejected them. Progress comes from making changes within, not protesting outside the doors. I completely understand the mindset of those who would question my membership in a club where many of its members wish to eliminate me altogether…

Nuns Pray, Rangers Lose

By Lisa Webster

San Francisco was bedlam last night after the Giants broke a 53-year drought to win the World Series; you could hear the sound of the streets from way up in the hills over the Mission district. And near the ball park? Forget it. But amid the din, and my own rarely-elicited hometown pride, I found myself wondering about those elderly nuns who have been praying for so many years for the Texas Rangers. They’ve had a few minutes of fame this season,…

Favorite Places, Favorite Prayers

By Amina Wadud

…tentionally took a detour. I was south of Santa Cruz heading north towards San Francisco and I just had a craving for that ride along the coast, the famous Highway One. Earlier this year when I spent a month in Australia, including a stint at University of Melbourne, I took a day tour along the Great Ocean Road. I learned that its architect of it had been inspired by our own Highway One. Both are stunning testaments to the majesty of God’s creatio…

Love Jesus, Hate Religion

By Nicole Greenfield

…on’ thing,” says Juliana Anderson, a member of IKON Christian Community in San Francisco. “The meaning of religion and religious is so messed up these days. It’s got a bad rap.” For many young Christians, identifying as such bears the risk of being characterized as judgmental, as discriminatory, as politically conservative, as anything like their unhip counterparts. By repudiating religion, they establish themselves as subversive, as anti-establis…

RDBook: Feminist Theologian Defies the Vatican Agenda

By Rosemary Ganley

…Ruether being on the board of Catholics for Choice in Washington. Two thousand letters flooded the provost’s office upbraiding the university for its decision. “It signals,” Ruether says mildly, “something very disturbing about the state of intellectual freedom at Catholic universities. Where, if not in Catholic universities, can controversial issues be discussed?” One must pose this question to leaders of our many Catholic colleges aud universit…