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Religious Right: God Should Kill Health Care Reform to Save America from Herod

By Sarah Posner

…n Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (the former governor of Kansas, the site of some of the most violent anti-abortion extremism) “the most pro-abortion governor in America.” Wright followed FRC’s Perkins, who claimed health care reform efforts are not about the well-being of Americans, but a “Planned Parenthood bailout.” Americans United for Life’s Charmaine Yoest portrayed Planned Parenthood as an evil giant motivated by profit (even though i…

This is not a Religion Column: Sarah Palin, American

By Jeff Sharlet

…ecomes the spirit, an imaginary municipality, Smalltown, U.S.A., becomes a site of rhetorical pilgrimage, an invocation of place as faith. The only time Pegler ever lived in a small town were his last years, when he moved into the desert outside of Tucson. Much of what he wrote was no longer publishable, but he sat in his empty, pure, American landscape pounding out more and more of it, trying to get at the monster he couldn’t name. Nearly 40 year…

Come Out From Among Them

By Douglas Harrison

…lley with indiscreet photos the singer had posted of himself on a gay chat site. In 2006, a photo of the songwriter and gospel music impresario Bill Gaither embracing the lesbian songwriter Marsha Stevens and her partner generated such blowback from Gaither fans that Gaither issued a public statement denouncing homosexuality and lamenting Stevens’ “sad” life as a lesbian. A few years later in 2008, the soloist Ray Boltz came out after a long and s…

Hawaii Governor Vetoes Civil Unions

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…majority religious) resistance? The courts and legislatures have been the site of all the other civil rights decisions over the years. Why are they not now—over this one issue of fairness for gays and lesbians? Imagine for a moment if the Supreme Court had said, “No, we believe the people should decide if separate but equal should be the law of the land. Such a big decision should not be left to a small panel of nine justices.” Perhaps, this coun…

The Ethics of Everest

By Michael Schulson

…erous. It’s also iconic—the world’s preeminent adventure sports pilgrimage site. And that iconic status somehow makes it easier for us to overlook that danger. The results are ethically fraught. Is the risk worth the reward? Are affluent climbers culpable for Sherpa deaths? Is $2,000-$6,000, the going salary for Sherpas, fair pay for one of the most dangerous jobs on earth? The power imbalance between locals and foreigners is especially apparent t…

Is Darwin Responsible for the Chimp Attack?

By Gretchen Koch

…very much alive. As Sean McDowell writes on the Christian news commentary site Worldview Times, the blame for Travis’ attack can be placed squarely on Darwin: Ideas do not exist in a vacuum. In fact, there is one culprit for the idea that human beings and chimps are really not that different and should be treated that way: Darwinism. The Judeo-Christian tradition has always taught that humans and chimps are different in terms of kind (Genesis 1-2…

RD News Round-Up—September 29, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…r interesting takes on the battle over gay marriage include: “Anti-Gay Nup Site Goes For Youth, But Keeps Old Tactics”, “Lynne Cheney speaks on same-sex marriage equality”, and The Floundering Yes on 8 Campaign: “One Million Missing Lawn Signs Found in China.” ++++++++++ Lagniappe: The Matthew 25 Network “is asking Christian radio stations in the key battleground state of Ohio to air an ad that suggests Barack Obama would bring an end to the econo…

After Mumbai: Winning the Global War on Terror

By Mark Woodward

…esident Pratibha Patil was visiting Bali—Indonesia’s only Hindu island and site of an earlier terrorist attack—when the Mumbai attack occurred. On Saturday she prayed at a local Hindu temple and called on all people to “come together for the peace and happiness of mankind.” She continued, saying that “terrorism is high on the agenda of the international community, and we must jointly and relentlessly fight it.” These were brave but hollow words. T…

New Theory for Tucson Tragedy: Blame the Atheists

By Lauri Lebo

…t on some of the spins Special Guest is promoting here. Today, the booking site is promoting Ted Shoebat, who says that being an atheist leads one to commit mass murder. “It’s actually very simple,” Shoebat was quoted in Special Guest’s promotion, “When God is not in your life, evil will seek to fill the void.” And who is Shoebat? As Sarah wrote in a post in August: …(He) is the son of “ex-terrorist” Walid Shoebat, an over-exposed figure in Christ…

A Lone Blogger vs. the McCain-Hagee Alliance

By Bruce Wilson

…ry 28, 2008, nationally-televised press event at which Senator John McCain officially received the political endorsement of a rising new lion of the American Christian right, pastor John Hagee. McCain sought his support, it is fair to assume, as Hagee had constructed a national political lobbying group, Christians United For Israel [CUFI], (which in its own way approximates the vote-getting heft of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority of the late 1970s…