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Suicide Leads to Calls for Improved Treatment of LGBT Mormons

By Joanna Brooks

…Mormonism has a lay clergy, and the administration of the Church depends almo*]}*st entirely on local volunteers who vary widely in their knowledge, experience base, and dispositions. For every local leader who acts out of love and inspiration, there is a local leader who sometimes acts out of a lack of knowledge, repulsion, or fear. Compounding the situation are the many stories Mormons have been told and told ourselves about what it means to be gay.…

Refusing Religion, Claiming the Future: A Roundtable Discussion on “The Nones Are Alright”

By Peter Laarman

…s: hierarchy, patriarchy, dogma, and homophobia. On the other hand, they almo*]}*st all cite the huge “experiential” problem of worship services that are insipid and lifeless, along with a social justice witness that is equally insipid. Can either of these push-out factors be “fixed” without also fixing the other? What is your own reading of the relative importance of the different repellents? Kaya Oakes: I would argue that these things have to be “fi…

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

By Kelly J. Baker

…ts. Zekes scale walls, cling onto jets, and take down helicopters. Yet the most compelling scenes of World War Z focus on the Lane family, who start the day eating pancakes together and get caught up in the outbreak. Karin Lane (Mirielle Enos) anxiously awaits word from her husband, Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), as he jets around the world seeking the cause of the epidemic. Of course, Lane, a former United Nations investigator becomes the key to global…

“Even the Rich Suffer”: An Interview with Google’s Jolly Good Fellow Chade-Meng Tan

By Max Zahn

…any’s in-house meditation program and became one of corporate mindfulness’ most visible advocates. Though Tan left Google six months ago, his final official job title at the company still doubles as his nickname: Jolly Good Fellow. Over the course of two phone conversations, RD asked Tan—who was, in fact, quite jolly—if mindfulness is a watering-down of Buddhism, whether meditation can truly save the world, and why he specializes in teaching rich…

Mitt, the Marriotts, and Porn

By Joanna Brooks

…o understands the traction of evangelical anti-Mormon sentiment knows that most evangelical voters will never vote for Mitt Romney, especially if they have a choice in someone like Mike Huckabee. Marriott dropping porn won’t begin to make a dent in Romney’s (or even Huntsman’s) evangelical problem. And everybody should also know that—believe it or not—the presidential ambitions of Mitt Romney do not drive the agendas of Mormon-owned multinationa…

Departure of the Queen

By Amina Wadud

…g. I don’t use the tiny mp3 player anymore because this last juz’ includes most of the Qur’an that I have memorized myself, and this is more a review than a simple reflective read. Coming to the end of the Qur’an reading is also melancholy, and I forget why I felt I should rush just a few days ago. How will I put my friend down, except for the many occasions I use it in my work, after this? Oh, I know. In my next entry I will tell you the story of…

This Narrative of Death that is So Powerful Among Us

By Daniel Schultz

…ern those scripts, and how did you come to decide that those four were the most relevant? Walter: That thesis was a very long time germinating for me. I began to think about the connections between those things. I think the two that I would really accent are the military and consumer, and what became clear to me was that the reason we need the absurd military we have—absurdly large and expansive—is we have to protect our consumer advantage in the…

Why We Can’t Afford to “Wait And See” How Trump Dismantles LGBT Rights

By Sunnivie Brydum

…uality, nondiscrimination protections, equal access for trans people, and, most frequently, supporting “religious liberty” laws that grant a wide-ranging “license to discriminate.” Even his transition team is stocked with right-wing activists already deeply familiar to those of us who have been covering the fight for LGBT equality over the past decade. That fact, combined with the increasingly apparent influence of Vice President-elect Mike Pence…

What’s Islamophobia, and Do I Have It?

By Haroon Moghul

…s claim that “jihad” killed 270 million people—fanciful, hyperbolic, and almo*]}*st endearingly fictitious? Not only is Islamophobia ridiculous, it has violent consequences. I. It’s (Always) the 1950s Islamophobes often argue they’re just criticizing Islam. But simply by prefacing an argument with “I have black friends,” or concluding with it, doesn’t mean you’re not a racist. We have to look deeper to see if “Islamophobia” applies; I’ll use the hijab…

A Sacred Encounter with Erykah Badu’s Controversial Nude Video

By Tamura Lomax

…r album sales spike adding to her personal bottom line, she is nonetheless steadfastly “evolving” towards personal “liberation,” a “self” unhindered by social meanings, homogeneous stereotypes, social demands and cultural policing. With every garment removed, Badu symbolically rid herself of the mythical layers of “black womanhood” that have tormented black female subjects for centuries. In addition, she re-appropriated the material markers of the…