Search for "where do i find cheap airline tickets phone number 1-800-299-7264"

Religious Opposition To LGBT Equality Softening

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…then they fight you, then you win.” If Gandhi’s words are true, then the vicious and vocal fighting over gay and lesbian people in both society and the church is actually very good news. The gay and lesbian community has long been ignored and ridiculed, and now our mere presence is causing fights among denominations, in courtrooms, and legislatures across the country. All this fighting, while it can become discouraging and dispiriting, should act…

Mormon Leaders Slam ‘Counterfeit’ Gay Families; Vatican Resists Gay Ambassador; ISIS Executes Man for Homosexuality; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…rules for federal contractors went into effect, forbidding workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. When the executive order was issued last year, conservatives complained that it lacked an exemption that conservative religious leaders had sought. Fox News’ Todd Starnes said the order “endangers religious liberty.” But, Christianity Today reported last July, “Many religious organizations, such as World Visi…

Updated: G-O-D Plays a Bit Part in First GOP Debate

By Daniel Schultz

…he Bloomberg Foundation’s board of directors, he knew about the charity’s giving to Planned Parenthood. That’s a little thumbs-on-the-scale, don’t you think? I admittedly did not watch the undercard of the Republican debates last night. I had more important things to do, namely preparing for the main event by creating a quick-paste shortcut for each of the candidates’ names and fixing a stiff gin and tonic. Apparently, it wasn’t stiff enough. Afte…

“That Guy In Rome”: A Catholic Town in Idaho Where The Pope is a Heretic

By Jason Wilson

…e full spectrum of lasting reactions to the modernizing reforms of Vatican II, including the new Mass. Father Gordon and his Fraternal Society of St. Peter (FSSP) are offering the area’s only Latin Masses that have the approval of the Bishop, but only a minority of the county’s Latin Massgoers are attending St. Joan of Arc. Most attend the Immaculate Conception in Post Falls and the other nearby chapels served by the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX),…

Who Would the Buddha Bomb?

By Danny Fisher

…ering offered the assembled a chance to explore ways to encourage greater civic engagement and political action on the part of the few-million Buddhists in America. Among the subjects addressed were climate change; social, economic, and racial justice—and peace, anti-violence, and disarmament. In just the few days since the meetings took place, this last topic has risen to the fore, thanks in large part to a widely-circulated photo. Immediately fo…

What’s So Troubling About Funding a Playground? How Trinity Lutheran Undermines the First Amendment

By Elizabeth Reiner Platt

…ndment, though you wouldn’t have known it from reading the brief, oversimplified opinion. In Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer the Court held that—at least in some circumstances—the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment requires governments to provide taxpayer funds to churches. This newfound requirement is something the dissent argued should, in fact, be prohibited under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. I have pr…

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

By Bradley Onishi

In 2018, I published an article here on Religion Dispatches about how abortion is a decisive issue for white evangelical voters. As a young evangelical, it became the single issue that determined my vote: The few times I garnered the courage to admit my uncertainty to other ministers they looked at me in disbelief. Despite my reasoning that the war in Afghanistan was leading to the deaths of innocent people and that more support for the poor, for…

Boo! Trump’s Lead With Religious Voters Not As Bigly As You Might Think

By Daniel Schultz

There’s been a lot of discussion (in my Twitter feed, anyway) about religious support for America’s Problem Child. The sentiments run in two general camps: that Trump leads with white religious voters is disgusting, and that it proves that he’s in a good position to win on November 8th. The first assertion—whatever you think of the value judgment—needs some qualification, and the second is pretty much wishful thinking at this point. Here’s what y…

Is Army’s New “Humanist” Designation Just Semantic Hooey?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…request from U.S. Army Major Ray Bradley to amend the approved list of religious preferences used on military records. Bradley and others may now identify as “Humanist” rather than “Agnostic,” “Atheist,” “no religious preference,” or “none”—the codes previously approved by the Army Chaplaincy for service members with non-religious beliefs and practices. The new faith code is significant in a number of ways. First, for Bradley and Humanist service…

Religious Kids Are More Selfish: The Stickers Don’t Lie

By Michael Schulson

Are kids from more religious families more or less altruistic than their peers from less-religious families? That’s what a high-profile new study from University of Chicago neuroscientist Jean Decety and a global crew of collaborators sought to determine. In the course of the study, published in the journal of Current Biology, the researchers use something called the “children’s dictator game,” a.k.a. stickerpalooza. Here’s how it worked: Step on…