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Pussy Riot Members Sentenced to 2 Years for Offending Russian Orthodox Church

…all those who, free themselves, speak out in our support. There are a vast number, I know. I know that a huge number of Orthodox people are standing up for us. They are praying for us outside the courtroom, for the members of Pussy Riot who are incarcerated. We’ve seen the little booklets Orthodox people are handing out with prayers for those in prison. This shows that there isn’t a unified social group of Orthodox believers as the prosecution is…

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Will Pope’s African Tour Change Attitudes on Divorce and LGBTQ Among African Catholics?

…rican countries, but it also reflects the church’s success in missionary efforts. And where there are a decreasing number of vocations to the priesthood in Europe, where vocations have declined by 23%, African vocations have increased by 131%. In African countries where birth rates are much higher than they are in Europe and North America, family issues often come to the forefront of Catholic lives. The recent synod in Rome was convened by the Pop…

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New Poll Reveals Jews May Be Open to Change in Israel Policy

…, has been best described by observers as “enigmatic”? How well will these numbers hold up if Israel’s “most favored nation” status is truly challenged by an American administration? Despite some American Jewish alienation from Israeli policy, backing for a bold new direction in the peace process is not entirely solid, a fact reflected in the same survey. 40% of respondents continue to support West Bank settlements, which, no matter how J Street c…

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A Reforming Tradition Struggles With Change

…ertainly some in the ELCA who continue to oppose women’s ordination, those numbers are small and grow smaller with each passing year. The same, I suspect, will be the case for the issue of gay and lesbian ordination forty years from now. Ironically, these two issues are closely related and contribute to the perceived need for a new Lutheran church body in North America. The ELCA is the only major Lutheran body in the United States to ordain women,…

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Bill Gates’ Comments on Covid-19 Vaccine Enflame ‘Mark of the Beast’ Worries in Some Christian Circles

…lessen the overall sentiment that he has something to do with a Last Days numbering scenario. After all, an effort to provide a global ID is an effort to track world populations even if its intentions are benevolent. While the spread of a vaccine-linked conspiracy theory has been spearheaded via social media and YouTube, there are also proponents among local church leaders and national Christian figures. Ronnie Hampton, cited above, warned his co…

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Pious White Reformers and Race, Then and Now

…secondary problem was the likely horrified white response to having a huge number of newly-freed blacks living among them in both the North and the South. The alleged “degradation” of black people ruled out normal social intercourse—widespread emancipation without separation of the races was unthinkable Although “degradation” was first used to describe the condition of enslaved Africans, by 1810 the term was also being applied to Native Americans….

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RDPulpit: Israel in Gaza: Right but not Smart

…lestinian refugees back into Israel each year for the next thirty years, a number that would not seriously endanger the population balance, apologize for its role in the 1948 expulsions of Palestinians (known as al Naqba), and offer to coordinate a worldwide effort to raise funds to compensate Palestinians for all that they lost during the Occupation; 4. Recognize a Palestinian state within borders already defined by the Geneva Accord of 2003. Thi…

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Trump’s Pathological Devotion to Border Walls Isn’t Political, It’s Theological

…ave only carried so many bullets with him. Americans knew how to watch the number of reported casualties go up, but we lost our collective minds when we watched the number of confirmed active shooters in Paris go up. The images coming out of Paris in the immediate term were of a city devoured by chaos and fear rather than the stillness of carnage, more terrifying for their uncertainty. There was a brief lull in the digital noise when an official g…

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Atheists Ignore Islamophobia at their Peril

…ee another’s freedom and value as connected to their own. Beyond Tribalism Fortunately, there are indications of progress in this direction. A number of atheists did speak out against the shooting, and the conversation about positive engagement with the religious and the intersections of oppression is advancing. I was fortunate to witness cooperation between atheists and religious individuals in the week following the shooting when 25 atheists, ag…

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Record Numbers Voted for More Death and More Racism; Can We Really Just Come Together as a Nation?

…this time—after all of the atrocious and dangerous behavior—a significant number would turn away and vote for a return to conventional presidential leadership. Where are these defectors? As I write this, election boards around the country have already counted the votes of over 67 million people who want more death, more deception, and more openly racist and exclusionary public policies. And a huge number of these voters identify as Christian. And…

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