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Undercover-ed Religion: 13 Stories That Went Missing in 2012

By Peter Laarman

…e pro-queer side. Pollster/strategy consultant Amy Simon went before large numbers of liberal Christian leaders in battleground states to say, in effect, “Please don’t duck what your own religion has to say about this. Try behaving like Jesus for once.” And Simon was only one of many out there, working hard and bringing in sheaves of religious voters for equal rights. It seems to have worked. 8. Body of this Death It wasn’t just gay bodies that go…

Disgruntled Former Head of Bush Faith-Based Office Praises Obama’s

By Sarah Posner

…ices to the community,” but “if faith-based organizations receive taxpayer dollars, they should be required to follow the same rules as every other non-profit organizations who receive such funds.” Gaddy is referring to Obama’s decision to permit federally-funded religious organizations to hire only candidates that suit their religious preferences, and fire ones who don’t. Civil liberties and religious organizations opposed to the rule have spent…

Protesting Yoga in Schools, But Welcoming Bible Study

By Katherine Stewart

…by Focus on the Family. These groups have received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal and state funding to introduce their curriculum to public schools, and their faith-based programs are supported and defended by the ADF and their affiliates. Apparently the separation of church and school is a big deal for the ADF only when it involves the wrong kind of church. Another example is “Character Education.” Public schools have taken it upon th…

Church-State Separation Advocates Praise New Obama Pick for Faith-Based Office Director

By Sarah Posner

…ave felt before that the office will pay close attention to the religious liberty clauses in the Constitution. Much work is yet to be done on the proper relationship between federal money and sectarian organizations, including resolving whether these organizations can continue to accept taxpayer dollars while discriminating in hiring based on religion—which I do not believe they should be allowed to do. I know of no individual better suited to ove…

Marriage Equality: A Civil Religious Moment

By Jay Michaelson

…ndsor’s case, the denial of those rights cost her hundreds of thousands of dollars. And, as I was interviewed by two local television stations this week, I was asked both times about how much my partner and I are affected in material terms: income tax, social security, hospital visitation rights, that sort of thing. Media trained as I was, I tried to steer the conversation toward deeper issues, but both reporters ended up using the details. Tell m…

The H Word

By Shalom Goldman

…don’t want any other point of view. They don’t even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda.” The most recent public invocation of Holocaust terminology was in the fracas over the award of an honorary degree to playwright Tony Kushner by City University of New York. On May 2, the CUNY board rescinded its offer of a degree to Kushner in the wake of CUNY trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld’s accusation that Kushner was “anti-Israeli.” A medi…

Are You Doing Your Part in the Baby War?

By Katherine Stewart

…fessor estimates that religious entities receive approximately $71 billion dollars per year in tax benefits and exemptions from the government, thus tilting the economic equation in favor of churchgoing families with the effect that they will eventually produce more voters. The more babies a congregation can produce, the more a religious entity can, over the long haul, move government policy in one direction. Founder of Seattle’s Mars Hill megach…

Christian Colleges, Gay Faculty—and the Boy Scouts

By L Marston

…ion at another institution, thus saying, “We will gladly take your tuition dollars and welcome your alumni contributions, but do not expect to be employed if you share life with someone you love.” Please understand me. I am not disputing the right of private, faith-based institutions to exclude persons based on the institution’s theological principles; but I do dispute the assertion that Scripture is clear and univocal on the subject. Even within…

How To Win $20,000 From Sam Harris

By Rob Shryock

…10 book The Moral Landscape, has decided to hold an essay contest: $20,000 dollars to the one who persuades him that the central thesis of his book is wrong (or $2000 to the overall best essay). So how do you, dear reader, craft an argument that will make the famously stubborn Sam Harris change his mind? Just follow these three suggestions and you’ll stand a very good chance of winning enough money for a mid-sized sedan.* 1) Don’t try to prove Go…

Why Did So Many Black Women Die? Jonestown at 35

By Sikivu Hutchinson

…and her sister tithed 20% of their income to Peoples Temple. Thousands of dollars in property sales, Social Security, disability, and welfare benefits from Temple members were funneled into the church’s empire. Despite being elderly and infirm, Thrash and her sister followed Jones from Indiana to Ukiah, San Francisco and Guyana before Thrash became disgruntled with the divide between Jones’ rhetoric of racial equality and the white-people-first r…