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A Pair of Christian Colleges Quietly Cracking Down on LGBTQ Acceptance

By Chrissy Stroop

…le I exposed in my recent reporting. Green took it as a good sign when, in December, two of the board of trustees’ most conservative members resigned, indicating that it might be possible to again press for a more inclusive policy, but this now appears not to be the case. According to the anonymous faculty source, APU’s board members are motivated by dominionist politics, and “they are especially focused on queer people as a threat to their govern…

American Nuns and the Vatican: More Pain than Promise

By Mary E. Hunt

…ting us to continue our open and honest dialogue with one another….” What planet was she visiting when thousands of lay Catholics, including a lot of nuns, called foul on this whole process? Willingness to collaborate obviously got her the job and prompted her to take it in the first place. Her words had a plaintive quality; she was, after all, thanking the churchmen for things that any human being should do. Could they have pulled off the Visitat…

Intolerance in Indonesia Extends to Religious Minorities; Lutheran Church in Norway OK’s Same-Sex Marriage, But Not in Finland; Catholic Church Warns Australian CEOs to Back Off Marriage Equality Support; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e has learned of Lutheran pastors in the capital city region who say they plan to marry same-sex couples in church ceremonies after the gender-neutral marriage act comes into effect in March 2017. Kari Mäkinen, Archbishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, took a stand on the issue on Yle’s morning show on Saturday. Mäkinen says that the gender-neutral marriage amendment is a case of society challenging the authority of the church. The…

The New Normaal: “Black Pete,” Muslims and Whiteness in the Netherlands

By Suzanne van Geuns

…ialized difference. The letter opens by stating that even though the Netherlands are doing so well, some people insist on behaving poorly, i.e. not normaal. They ‘want to throw over everything Dutch people stand for,’ he writes, giving examples that are associated with Muslims in the Netherlands (i.e. not shaking hands, ‘harassing gay people’) to argue that some people ‘abuse the freedoms and tolerance they came here for.’ Also not normaal: ‘accus…

Debate Over Mother Earth’s ‘Rights’ Stirs Fears of Pagan Socialism

By Bron Taylor

…time, peruse the “Summary of a Declaration on the rights of Mother Earth,” language below proposed by Evo Morales on the occasion of the first International Day for Mother Earth on April 22, 2009. Most people who care about their planet and its inhabitants will discover that this indigenous and socialist leader from Bolivia makes more sense than the voices expressed on Fox. And in any case, it is a good idea when observing Earth Day in 2011 to be…

Labor Day Reading: An Innocent Man Sent “To Dust” by the State

By Diane Winston

…Fire” in the current issue of the New Yorker. (Yes, that’s for all of you planning to pounce on Levi Johnston’s Vanity Fair tell-all.) David Grann’s story about the trial and execution of a potentially innocent man is exemplary journalism. Thoroughly reported and gracefully written, the article recounts how “expert testimony” sent Cameron Todd Willingham to prison for a crime he most likely did not commit. Willingham’s house burned down on Decembe…

“LGBT People Have a Lot to Teach Christians”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…s Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine during an evensong service in December 2014. Photo by Cathleen Falsani. It’s not about trying to come up with some new, hip way (like fog machines) to get the young kids to come to church. It’s not about trying to make Christianity hip or put coffee shops in the lobby. That’s fine but I don’t think that’s what makes a church a church or what will ultimately make people disciples of Jesus. It’s that stuf…

Bill Mill-ennialism: Arkansas’ End Times Politics May Be Coming to a State Near You

By Frederick Clarkson

…unsel and John Hagee of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). They had big plans. Rapert and Staver planned to form an “institute” on land owned by Rapert’s charity, Holy Ghost Ministries, on the Arkansas River near the Conway Municipal Airport. It would seek to train state legislators from across the country “to become men and women of God who will not compromise Biblical principles.” But the project appears to have fizzled out when Project Blitz…

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Mitt Romney, the Public Face of Mormonism, Reckons with His Alienation From a Radicalized GOP and His Role in Enabling it

By Benjamin E. Park

…ry Falwell pressed him on Latter-day Saint beliefs concerning God. Richard Land wondered why Mormons had rejected the Nicene Creed. And Franklin Graham critiqued him for appointing two judges who were gay. In the end, Romney’s team felt the meeting, which dragged on with substantial back-and-forth, went as well as could be expected. They felt that the two sides had found at least some common ground. But Romney felt bewildered by the zealous ideolo…

A Letter to the Pope in Advance of the Synod: Why Must I Get My (Lutheran) Marriage Annulled?

By Randall Wedin

…al community. We became engaged four months ago and I believe it is God’s plan for us to be married. (What I mean by that is that my heart/mind/body “knows,” at a profound and ineffable level, that it is right and good for us to be together.) But the Catholic teachings on divorce/annulment/remarriage present a problem for me—and for millions of others. I am divorced (since 1999), and the woman I love is also divorced (also since 1999). In fact, we…