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NC’s Gay Marriage Ban: “It’s Going to Hurt the Church”

By Nicole Greenfield

…cal language that’s been used for decades. One need look no further than 93-year-old Billy Graham’s endorsement of Amendment 1 to realize that the terms of this debate are firmly rooted deeply in the past. “For me, it’s heartbreaking that we’re still having this conversation,” Bakker said, noting conservative Christianity’s continued insistence on law and regulation and divisiveness. “I wish people lived life on life’s terms instead of turning the…

Who’s to Blame for BP?

By David True

…ith guilt flowing in multiple directions for everything from apathy to self-righteousness. Near the center of that motley crew are those of us whose lifestyles are dependent upon a ‘religious’ devotion to cheap oil. The deepest irony of all is that BP, along with the other oil companies, has come to function as a god. The truth, buried beneath all the oil and punditry, is that our devotion to this false god has led to the suffering of innocents, i…

Celebrate Jesus with Weird Merchandise!

By Gwynne Watkins

…e, which is probably why there’s a such clean break between the bunnies-and-eggs version of Easter, and the church-service version. Merchandisers are wise to define Easter by marshmallow chicks and colorful baskets, rather than bring theology into it. But there are always exceptions. One is the Oriental Trading Company. Founded to create cheap plastic toys for carnivals, OTC is now a leading supplier of cheap plastic stuff for church groups and Ch…

Interview with Karen Armstrong

By Andrea Bistrich

…oval of the world symbolizes the impotence of Islam in the modern world vis-à-vis the West. The Qur’an teaches that if Muslims live justly and decently, their societies will prosper because they will be in tune with the fundamental laws of the universe. Islam was always a religion of success, going from one triumph to another, but Muslims have been able to make no headway against the secular West, and the plight of the Palestinians epitomizes this…

Are American Christians “Persecuted”?

By Eric C. Miller

…ing that both Dreher and Corey distinguish “real” persecution from its less-than-real varieties. To his credit, Dreher has always balked at claiming membership in a persecuted class, though his concerns about the loss of religious freedom often toe a blurry line. Therein may lie a problem, or at least a source of confusion. While Dreher often explicitly disavows the suggestion that Christians are “persecuted” in America, he also claims that they a…

The Economy is Racism: Ending Race-Based Economic Violence is the Real Challenge of This Moment

By Peter Laarman

…a country so thoroughly steeped in the poison of white supremacy. A winner-take-all economy won’t be changed without a power struggle that is, if anything, much more fierce, much more sustained, and (most of all) much more visionary than the 19th century struggle for Abolition. Today’s white allies would do well to recall how their predecessors in the Abolition cause, very much including the “decent” white Christians, completely abandoned African…

Updated: My Work on Confederate Monuments Leaves This Christian Ethicist Distrustful of Calls for Reconciliation and Healing

By Ryan Andrew Newson

…ould not be genuinely described as a painful but necessary process of truth-telling and the material righting of wrongs. Rather, a cheap reconciliation was rendered, which served—at the beginning of Jim Crow, no less—to hide our continued animosities from ourselves, rejecting one of the major opportunities this nation has had to face what Eddie Glaude, following James Baldwin, calls “the lie.” It is now relatively well-known that most Confederate…

Wall St., Main St., Religion, and the Bailout

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…will see reductions in their federal withholding taxes already in this end-of-month’s paycheck. But that only helps Main Streeters who have jobs, and more specifically, jobs with paychecks. Waiters and waitresses and bar staff are not assisted in this way; indeed, such service industries will continue to be among those hardest hit by lay-offs and worse. There is a deeper problem here, and it concerns the composition of the President’s economic te…

Modernity’s Fraternity: What Dan Brown Gets Right

By Samuel Biagetti

…ocery-store checkout aisle. Nevertheless, his ambition outstretches any run-of-the-mill author of cheap thrillers. For better or worse, after two runaway bestsellers that claim to upend the traditional story of Christianity, he has become America’s most important pop philosopher and historian. In the earlier books, he hatched a version of the faith that spoke to many people in ways that churches no longer seem able to. Now, by turning to Freemason…

Hookers for Jesus: Sex and Salvation on the Strip

By Nicole Greenfield

…d into the industry as a child. The point is not to trivialize prostitution-as-choice, or to ignore the effects of coercion, but rather to point out the realities indicated by the terms ‘slavery’ and ‘trafficking.’ Benjamin Skinner, author of A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face With Modern-Day Slavery, addressed the issue in a 2008 interview with Mother Jones. “For the record, I think prostitution is always degrading and exploitative and it is ofte…