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Mississippi’s Personhood Bill Makes God Look Bad

…. Mississippians, like most Americans, are religious, and here is the good news. All the world’s major religions have visited the question of the moral status of the embryo and fetus and there is broad agreement on what is called “delayed ensoulment.” That was code for saying that the fetus does not attain to personal status until it is well formed. Early miscarriages could not be named or given religious funerals. Saints Augustine and Thomas Aqui…

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The Demographic that Should Keep Rove Awake at Night

…n. They went 78 percent for Romney, up from 74 percent for McCain. The bad news for the Republicans is that, according to Pew, the evangelical share of the population continues to erode—from 21 percent in 2007 to 19 percent in 2012—while the number of the religiously unaffiliated is rising—from 16 percent to 20 percent over the same period. In other words, “nones” and evangelicals are equivalent in numbers. One explanation for this change in Ameri…

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‘Atheizing’ the Dead, Religious Doughnuts, & Tax-Free Witching

…God? Join the club” billboard provoking the ire of local Christians. One local pastor referred to the billboard as poking “a finger in your eye.” Federal prosecutors are suing the city of Walnut, California for refusing a zoning permit to a group building a new Zen center. In Rockland County, New York, authorities are expecting sanitation violations by Orthodox Jews who perform the ritual of kaparot—which involves slaughtering a chicken. The ultra…

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How Intelligent Design Advocates Helped Shape the Christian Right’s Texas Curriculum Standards

…ocument blueprint as it rewrites its textbook guidelines. The story in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday by Russell Shorto brilliantly laid out the history of members of TBOE and their attempt to hijack the education of America’s children with religious doctrine. It’s a must read for anyone who wants to understand the motivations of the Christian Right regarding the long-term goals for our education system, playing out now in Texas. As board m…

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Brits Get A Dose of Christian Nation Politicking

…other religious faiths, too.” (Like the Prime Minister using his office to promote his Christian faith.) But then Cameron reveals his politician’s circumspection, arguing on the one hand that advocates of “secular neutrality fail to grasp the consequences of that neutrality, or the role that faith can play in helping people to have a moral code.” That accusation is abruptly followed by the disclaimer that “[o]f course, faith is neither necessary n…

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Knighting Viktor Orbán for ‘Defending Christianity,’ Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Demonstrates That ‘Culture War’ is the Only Theology That Matters to the Global Right

…or his efforts in defending Christianity in Hungary and throughout Europe, promoting Christian values, as well as because of his personal contribution to the friendship between the Hungarian and Serbian peoples.” In the past, the idea that the Orthodox Patriarch of Belgrade would, without even a nod toward sectarian differences, honor Orbán for “defending Christianity,” would have struck many as odd. You see, Viktor Orbán is nominally a Protestant…

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Christianity and Condoms

…on risk reduction and condom use would reduce the annual incidence rate of new infections from 20% to 7%. This simple intervention would prevent between 35% and 60% of all new HIV infections in Lusaka. Kristin Dunkle and her colleagues have demonstrated the limits of “ABC” prevention and offer a simple, realistic model that could drastically impact HIV transmission rates in Zambia. The challenge—a challenge embedded in religious language and pract…

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Blasphemy and Betrayal: The Murder of Salman Taseer

…plications Salman Taseer was a businessman, publisher, and politician who knew full well how controversial and dangerous his position on the blasphemy laws was, indeed he tweeted about it on several occasions. Furthermore, he and his party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), were at odds with the regional government in Punjab, which is controlled by the Muslim League (Nawaz) run by former president, and former PPP coalition partner, Nawaz Sharif….

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Why White Women Are Leading Defenders of Kavanaugh

…e been buttressed by female voices. For the past 24 hours, the major cable news networks have pumped up air time of pro-Kavanaugh ads produced by the conservative Judicial Crisis Network (which is, coincidentally enough, run by Carrie Severino, a form clerk for Clarence Thomas). The most prominent ad features a respectable white woman waxing about how upstanding and morally unimpeachable Kavanaugh is. The not so subtle implication is that Kavanaug…

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Synod or Sin Oddly: Vatican Encourages Catholics to ‘Walk Together’ as Long as the Hierarchy Leads the Way and Decides the Route

…he US Catholic Bishops did not discuss the Synod at all, even though they knew it was scheduled to start four months later. They’ve set aside a full forty-five minutes on the agenda of their November 2021 meeting to discuss what’s promoted as the most life-changing process for the Catholic community worldwide since Vatican II. There is a deep disconnect here between rhetoric and reality. Many bishops, especially the most conservative, are simply i…

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