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Seeing What They Wanna See: Religion Surveys Reflect Surveyors

By Nathan Schneider

…rom Templeton and carried out by the Gallup Organization, the Baylor study reports, contrary to ARIS, that religion is on the rise in America. “That is a clearly sectarian institution,” says Kosmin. “It’s not that I’m insinuating that they’re fiddling with the statistics. But there is a little bit of a skew there.” Backed by large, media-savvy foundations, studies like Baylor have public impact that, in the eyes of some experts, is out of tune wit…

Obama’s Pastor “Dream Team”

By Peter Laarman

…and tempers taking turns providing spiritual support, and mainly over the phone. Because Goodstein’s piece was essentially unsourced, some caution is in order as to even believing that Obama accepts rotating support and counsel from Jim Wallis, Joel Hunter, Otis Moss Jr., Kirbyjon Caldwell, and T.D. Jakes. This crew struck me as a little too Dream Teamy in respect to the political and cultural stances and demographic constituencies of the disting…

Bishop Minerva Carcaño Has a Nearly Impossible Job

By Mary E. Hunt

…f women’s leadership in mainline Christian denominations—and if our recent phone conversation is any indication, she has her work cut out for her. She must assume the bishop’s role of watcher or overseer; she must surpass her male colleagues in competence to show that a woman, in her case an Hispanic woman, can be a good bishop; and, she must find a way to live out her own unique commitments with integrity. As was said of the legendary Ginger Roge…

War on Christmas Affirmed by Southern Baptist Convention

By Mark Gstohl

…offensive resolutions. I’ve done this since 1997 when I was awakened by a phone call from a Lutheran friend that began, “What’s with you Southern Baptists and Mickey Mouse?” I was unaware that the messengers voted on a resolution to boycott Disney because of its policies toward homosexuals. One resolution approved by the messengers this year that may not be so widely publicized is a resolution “On Affirming the Use of the Term ‘Christmas’ in Publ…

Walking Dead and Zombie Ethics, or “Don’t Fight the Zombies. You Can’t Win”

By Kelly J. Baker

…terrorism, neoliberalism, or epidemics? And how did these monsters become representative of our current moment? Much of this ambiguity comes from the nature of the zombie itself. Zombies were once human, and then, they aren’t. They are both/and. They are dead, but not emorganntirely. They walk, they run, they bite, and they infect. Zombies are also alive, but not. They are, after all, shambling corpses. They fall apart. Their wounds remain. Yet,…

Emanuel’s Pulse: A Plea for Black Church–LGBTIQ Solidarity

By J. Kameron Carter

Early Sunday morning I woke up, my phone abuzz with news. Reading about the shooting in Orlando, worry and fright overcame me. Still in a semi-wake, semi-sleep, semi-dream state, I thought it was Charleston all over again. Emanuel AME redux. My partner saw my face and asked what had happened. We turned on the television to learn that a man named Omar Mateen had entered a popular gay nightclub on its “Latin Night.” Using an AR-15 assault rifle and…

The Wounded People of God

By Anthea Butler

…nd out what exactly has been done to children who were abused in most news reports, but once you have read personal accounts or read reports, it is very difficult to remain calm or unbiased. In my case, I have heard accounts of sexual abuse by priests either from friends, acquaintances, or those whom I have had occasion to assist, most notably in a parish I attended in Los Angeles. The parish had to deal with the arrest of a former priest who had…

Sean Feucht’s New Year’s Rockin’ Superspreader Revival is a ‘Tepid and Meager’ Effort at Racial Reconciliation

By Isaiah Murtaugh

…an alley in downtown Los Angeles, across the street from a bank and a cell phone store and a block away from a Little Tokyo walking mall. But up on a streetlight at the alley’s entrance, a city historical marker is tacked: Azusa St. Mission… Cradle of the Worldwide Pentecostal Movement. For some, this is sacred ground: the place where the Azusa Street Revival, the founding moment of the modern Pentecostal christian church, made its home in 1906, a…

Is Herman Cain’s Long-Running Minstrel Show Finally at an End?

By Anthea Butler

…ters and the party can’t stomach is the arrogance of a black man who won’t repent. Cain’s lack of repentance and consistent lying exposes the fact that he isn’t a real card carrying member of the religious right. His black Baptist upbringing has taught him otherwise. I will probably get in trouble for saying this, but the way that black Baptists deal with sexual sin and the way most conservative white evangelicals deal with sexual sin are very dif…

Vatican Instruction on Cremation Rankles Many, But Give it a Second Look

By Karen E. Park

…ument. CNN, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the National Catholic Reporter and others reported on the new teaching, and in the comments sections of these pieces, there was a great deal of outrage from Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Some complained that the Church just wanted more money and that the Church was looking for an angle to get people to pay up for pricey lots in Catholic cemeteries. Irish Independent columnist Liam Collins w…