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Sex, Race, and Religion: The Lessons of Proposition 8

By Kathleen Sands

…e that can’t be translated into the other. Opponents of gay rights use the language of their religion and morality, and they claim their right to free exercise under the First Amendment; LGBT people assert their sexual identities, point to the establishment clause, and insist on the separation of church and state. Many opponents of gay rights still insist that sexual orientation is a choice—and a bad choice; proponents generally insist that sexual…

Neither Radical Nor Secular: The West Struggles with the New Islamism

By Blain Auer

…But the Arab Spring did not begin as an Islamist movement. It began on 17 December 2010, when a Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, was harassed by local police who prohibited him from selling his merchandise and added insult to injury by slapping and spitting at him. Following that incident, he doused himself with gasoline and publicly set himself on fire. He died on 4 January 2011. It wasn’t the only event of this kind but it became a sym…

Why the Next Archbishop of Canterbury Should Be African

By Jesse Zink

…hop of York. Sentamu is Ugandan but has a long history in the Church of England that has left him enmeshed in the current politics of the national church. Moreover, his public opposition to same-sex marriage in England is controversial.) Anglicans have been consumed by sexuality-related issues for the last decade. The next archbishop’s past statements will be read closely for clues as to his views on the role of gay and lesbian people in the Churc…

History Matters: On the 400th Anniversary of Plymouth We’re Still Clinging to Destructive National Myths

By Ed Simon

…boulder sitting on the rocky beach of Plymouth Harbor, or of the pilgrims’ landing upon it on December 18th, four hundred years ago this week. The earliest mention of what would be called “Plymouth Rock” as the landing spot of the pilgrims isn’t until 1741, when an elderly resident of the town claimed that he’d been told in his youth that this exact stone was the landing spot for the Mayflower. Even discounting the physical impracticality of the e…

Talking With the “Religious Terrorist” that Turkey Wants Trump to Extradite

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…to meet. Recently, I had a chance to do just that. My visit with Gulen in December 2016 was arranged by people in the movement associated with his teachings—the Hizmet (“service”) movement—who knew that I was interested in meeting him. (Full disclosure: since I had already planned to be on the East Coast on that day, the movement did not provide for my airfare or any compensation for this visit, aside from an omelette at an I-Hop on the road from…

The End of Roe Comes Courtesy of the Catholic Church — But From ‘The Dorothy Day Abortion Fund’ to ‘St. Vincent de Paul Vasectomy Clinic,’ Here Are Some Ideas for Catholics Looking to Make a Difference

By Mary E. Hunt

…dure, not an ethical or political dilemma. Try to say it along with ‘transplant’ and ‘tracheotomy’ to get used to the fact that, like those medical procedures, it is necessary and helpful in terms of human health, not for everyone, but for those in need. Reluctance to use the term ‘abortion’ is a signal of how successfully it has been stigmatized. Catholic medical providers who support reproductive rights and who have structured their lives so as…

Not His House: Archbishop Oversteps, Opposes Repeal of DADT

By Eugene McMullan

On December 1, Catholic Archbishop for the Military Services Timothy Broglio contributed an essay to the Washington Post’s “On Faith” opposing the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell; the Clinton-era policy that prevents LGBT persons from serving openly in the military. He quotes at length from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, compares homosexuality to alcoholism, and makes the unconvincing, dishonest claim that lifting the ban would infringe up…

Jesus, Son of Allah: The Roots of the Riots in Malaysia

By Sheila Sheereen Akbar

…nflict in Malaysia: its referentiality. By convention, speakers of a given language agree that a certain configuration of sounds represents a thing or concept. The conventions of language are key to understanding; and those conventions are culturally determined. To take a simple example, in the Southern United States, any carbonated beverage may be called a “coke,” regardless of whether it is produced by Coca-Cola, while in other areas “coke” alwa…

The Surprising Catholic Roots of the War on Xmas

By Patricia Miller

…as taken pains to bolster the America-first white nationalism that has supplanted any meaningful religious principles for the vast majority of white evangelicals, from race-baiting to Muslim-baiting, from resurrected controversies over Confederate monuments to faux controversies over kneeling football players. Just last week his talent for stirring the culture-war pot was on display outside of St. Louis, where he went to ostensibly promote tax cut…

Newsweek Takes a Bullet On Gay Marriage

By Mary E. Hunt

…es wonder if anyone cares about what we write. But Newsweek’s cover story (December 15, 2008), “Our Mutual Joy,” set off a firestorm of responses so voluminous that it temporarily shut down the magazine’s comments function on their Web site. Time’s “Person of the Year” issue would be lucky to get as much attention as the enormous response to a religion editor’s pro-gay marriage piece. Apparently, religion still matters. What does it mean, though,…