…. But who is to decide what constitutes a “vice against nature”? The Portuguese legislators had been too coy to mention gay sex explicitly, and so a meaningless clause entered the statute books, which no court could act upon. This year, the Penal Code was rewritten. The new Penal Code sweeps away a great deal of the musty colonial legacy, including the mention of “vices against nature”. Now not even the most contorted of arguments could claim that…
…Over time, the churches that have tried to lighten up the Christian moral code and put forth sort of a kindler, gentler version of Christianity as they see it, have not done well. They have not done well demographically and they haven’t done well financially. Churches that stick to orthodoxy do better over time because in part it’s only those churches that tend to create families that can be of size and carry on the Christian tradition. This hark…
By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston
…But the center is an assertion, not a fact; an etiquette, not a place. Its code, its theology, is most fully embodied in Americanized Arminianism—a Protestant tradition of good works and propriety, “distinguished liberals” and polite realpolitik. “Arminian moralism,” notes historian Charles Sellers in his study of Finney’s age, The Market Revolution, “sanctioned competitive individualism and the market’s rewards of wealth and status.” It did not e…
…inked efforts of NAR networks, it’s become a potent far-right symbol and a coded emblem for an extensive spiritual warfare campaign, all of which became entwined with the Trump Administration and Trump 2020 Campaign. […] In the helter-skelter season between the 2020 election and the January 6 attempt to forcibly interfere with the result, the Appeal to Heaven flag had become a ubiquitous symbol adopted by charismatic Christians to exhibit their fa…
…with free will (though this may still be an illusion of free will, as the code for the game is likely to be quite deterministic). Since she is the only one in the game that suffers pain but no death, it will be interesting to see the evolution of her ethical code within the virtual world. The transformation of Tamara from a helpless lost soul to a gun-toting avenger sets up the stage for her probable showdown with Zoe—a continuation of Adama-Gray…
…en.” In the military, the answer is quite clear: they are to obey military code, period. Otherwise, they won’t remain military chaplains for long. If President Obama makes good on his promise to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a group of conservative Christian chaplains expressed their fear in a letter to the president and Defense Secretary Robert Gates that they’ll “face a reduction in the free exercise of their faith.” The chaplains use the letter…
…s basic. That part of the myth abides, and, while not pretty, is a kind of code of right masculinity. The note draws on a shorthand “WE SEE” regarding how Ennis is “exemplary.” You, we, can judge a man by how he treats “his animals” and, in this case, the animals he’s paid to keep alive. Ennis’s father had forced Ennis at age 9 to look at the body of a man dismembered alive, and he made sure Ennis knew why. Ennis and Jack each marry women not only…
…exas’s H.B. 45 (codified at § 22.0041 and § 22.022 of the Texas Government Code), states that “litigants in actions under the Family Code involving a marriage relationship… are protected against violations of constitutional rights and public policy in the application of foreign law.” The bill doesn’t explicitly reference sharia or Islamic law (likely because a similar bill in Oklahoma that did specifically mention sharia was struck down as discrim…
…f their leadership and their church offices is a hefty understatement, and promotes critical misunderstandings of their roles. It’s like referring to Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan as a Catholic priest. He is certainly that, but he’s no ordinary priest. One article named the prominent Apostle Abby Abildness as a pastor, but according to her book bio on Amazon, she “was commissioned as an apostle by John Benefiel in 2011.” The bio on her org…
…ons with tax exempt status under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. Those changes were set in motion after record amounts of campaign spending by (c)(4) groups in 2012, and tea party complaints that their applications for (c)(4) status were improperly denied for partisan reasons. Although Congressional Republicans tried to make a scandal of the application process, further congressional investigation showed both conservative and progr…
