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Debunking the Myth That Democracy Is “Incompatible” With Islam

By Asma Afsaruddin

…hics based upon the Qur’an that are conducive to the development of modern participatory forms of government: human dignity, human vice-regency on earth, accountability that is ultimately linked to a fundamental commitment to justice and mercy, an emphasis on consultative decision-making and the rule of law. Above all, the principle of shura or consultation, endorsed in the Qur’an as the basis for collective decision-making and administration of p…

Is Abortion No Longer Significant for Evangelicals — or Has it Just Become Like Water?

By Bradley Onishi

…en more effective at turning out the base in the future.” I agree that the number of single-issue voters seems to have dissipated. It’s also true that over the last five years race and immigration have become expressed priorities for white evangelical voters. But, there’s more than one way to interpret the data. It doesn’t have to be either/or. It is not simply that abortion has been replaced. A more nuanced conclusion is that Trump’s presidency u…

Growing Up Cult: A Memoir of Life with Sri Chinmoy

By Brittany Shoot

…ies risks; for the soul of the teacher as much as for the student. It is apparently all too easy to succumb to a particularly virulent form of narcissistic disorder when people are throwing rose petals at you all day. And when a teacher loses his bearings, the signs are hard to miss. As Tamm grew up and witnessed the guru’s increasingly erratic posturing (elaborate weightlifting hoaxes and an underground zoo of exotic animals were among his most b…

My Womb for His Purposes: The Perils of Unassisted Childbirth in the Quiverfull Movement

By Kathryn Joyce

…ling, home healing, often even home churching, and other things which accompany a separation from the world and a return to the God-centered reality of the kingdom. Balizet goes on to describe home births as taking place in Zion rather than Egypt—language which echoes the rhetoric of conservative Christian homeschooling group Exodus Mandate, which calls for the removal of God’s children from “Pharaoh’s schools.” Chief among the lessons of the book…

The Dirty Little Secret of Every Ponzi Scheme, or: Bernie Madoff’s 150 Year Sentence

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ay off the staggering returns to his previous investors. And when it came apart, it came apart as dramatically and as quickly as Madoff’s scheme did. With equally disastrous consequences. The John Law saga was described in the first chapter of a wonderful book first published in London in 1841 by Charles MacKay called Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. In the preface to this remarkable book, MacKay interpreted su…

The 50 Shades of Evangelicalism

By Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

…ns, perhaps we will come to see that religious beliefs deserve legitimate space in the public square. For my part, I found it was easier to simply stop identifying as evangelical rather than to try to convince others of what shade of evangelical I was. But for so many of my friends and family members who hold tightly to both evangelical theology and some variety of evangelical culture, this is too great an acquiescence. For current evangelicals,…

Competing Visions of Family & Freedom at UN; Methodists Try to Avoid Schism on Sexuality; Catholic Cardinal Denounces LGBT ‘Demonic Ideology’; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…“most of which work explicitly with gay and transgender communities,” from participating in an upcoming High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS. The United States, European Union, and Canada have protested the exclusion, which is apparently allowed under UN rules. Michelle Nichols reported for Reuters on Tuesday: Samantha Power, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, wrote to General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft and said the groups appeared to ha…

Mexico moves toward national marriage equality; Greek govt announces civil partnership legislation; Pope warns against ‘secularism and relativism’; Global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…rs this week reported on LGBT pride events around the world, including the participation of U.S. diplomats in some pride celebrations: U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus John Koenig on June 7 marched in the second annual Pride parade in Nicosia, the capital of the island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, alongside his counterparts from Australia, Austria and the U.K. The U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, and othe…

The Resurgence of Right-Wing Anti-Semitic Conspiracism Endangers All Justice Movements

By Ben Lorber

…Marxism theory was enshrined upon the hearth of far-right conservatism by paleoconservatives like Pat Buchanan, conservative operatives like Andrew Breitbart, and movements like the Tea Party. Today, the cultural Marxism theory is featured regularly on outlets like Breitbart, The Daily Caller, and Infowars, and championed by the right’s favorite pop philosopher Jordan Peterson, libertarian figurehead Ron Paul, and even Brazil’s far-right Presiden…

In the Papal Pocket: Benedict XVI and the Press

By Mary E. Hunt

…the people who work in Catholic schools for low wages. We see T-shirts for papal teddy bears, but no hint of the impact of the Vatican’s policy banning the use of condoms, even for those who are HIV-infected. Whether it is a Sunday morning talk show, the front page of a newspaper, or the evening news, I continue to be amazed at how little the Vatican press office has to do to assure softball questions, few dissident voices, and reverent talk about…