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Conservative Hardliners at Synod Prompt Question: “What Are We Doing Here?”

By Patricia Miller

…nd the family.” As John Allen reports in Crux, Erdő’s remarks prompted Italian Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli to ask “what are we doing here?” if any changes in even pastoral practice were off the table. What are the bishops doing there indeed? As Ross Douthat observed in the New York Times, there is only one likely outcome to this synod. It’s unlikely, given his preference for consensus, that Francis will override the bishops and go “full Kasper,…

Exclusion is Causing Great Harm: A Conversation With Suspended UMC Pastor Rev. Cynthia Meyer

By Joel Pitney

…nd across the more conservative factions of all the denominations of Christianity? There’s a real hang-up around sexuality. Variance in sexuality is hard. It’s one of those things that folks have a real hard time grasping. Culturally, there have been taboos for a long time, and some folks have trouble letting that go. I also think folks that have various kinds of privilege and power often feel strengthened if there is some group that is excluded….

Islamic Intellectual Leadership at a Crossroads

By Amina Wadud

…faith, for both are part of my devotion to Allah). They do have a substantial number of women included, so I would not complain on that count. But, here’s the thing: there are no women under the category of Muslim intellectuals. Apparently women don’t think. So it is even harder to adjust to the loss of these three men whose intellectual contributions helped to shape the ways we think about and in fact live Islam today; both for women and for men…

How Religion Shapes (or Doesn’t) Our Views on Public Issues

By Daniel Schultz

…or most cases cite their faith. But just 26% say religion is most influential, despite nearly two-thirds of respondents saying that they’d heard their leaders speak on the subject. So apparently they’re getting the message—-and ignoring it. Which brings us to the political implications. They’re pretty simple. First: multiply .18 by .26. That should give you (digging for iTouch calculator) 4%. That’s the number of people who can be persuaded on re…

For Conservatives, the Future Looks Dim… and Gay

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…iation, are writing op-eds calling for America to return to being a “Christian nation.” Christians must be retrained to war for the Soul of America and quit believing the fabricated whopper of the “Separation of Church and State,” the lie repeated ad nauseum by the left and liberals to keep Christian America – the moral majority – from imposing moral government on pagan public schools, pagan higher learning and pagan media. But it’s just that kind…

Religion and Resistance at the New National Museum of African American History and Culture

By Anita Little

…hat is present. We strive to tell the story from Islam to Judaism to Christianity to a number of other smaller movements. What does the center’s existence say about the continued relevance of black religion, Christianity especially, in a cultural milieu that’s becoming more secular and averse to institutions? It reminds us of what Pew and other studies have showed us, which is that within the African American context, there isn’t the downward shif…

New Report: Angels & Aliens in Texas Schools

By Mark A. Chancey

…ry Ancient Aliens,” which presents “a new interpretation of angelic beings described as extraterrestrials,” and then asked students to write a paper on it. Or the one where students watched multiple episodes of Hanna-Barbera’s The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible. The number of Bible courses in Texas has gone up since 2007, when Texas passed a law encouraging schools to offer them. Texas is not alone in having such a statute; in recent y…

“Real” Evangelicals Don’t Support Trump? Not So Fast…

By Neil J. Young

…e larger point: Trump is still the one candidate who coalesces the largest number of evangelicals—even the weekly churchgoers—around him. Those numbers would likely shift should Trump face a two-man race with Ted Cruz. But if survey data still show what they have revealed so far—that Trump will continue to win at least a third of the most frequent church-attending evangelicals—it undermines anti-Trump evangelicals’ main argument about the suspect…

Distant Churches and the Isolated Poor: Lessons from Katrina, Ten Years Later

By R. Drew Smith

…ic environment. For contemporary churches to meaningfully respond to urban desperation and desolation, (certainly in any way prefiguring the strategic role envisioned within oft-noted endtimes scenarios), it will necessitate a willingness on the part of churches to be present, engaged, and steadfast in contexts where the poor have been left to struggle. Historian Randy Sparks recounts a range of ways New Orleans’ clergy and congregations mobilized…

No ‘Christian Compassion’ in Tony Perkins’ Response to Anti-Gay Bullying, Suicides

By Andrew Marin

…n LGBT people to gay Christians to conservative and liberal straight Christians and non-Christian straight people—closing with these words: “If the church is to ever have an impact [on] today’s culture it has to start by giving up its power. We don’t win anything by using power; rather we are [here] to influence with love and service.” Therefore I ask you, Mr. Perkins: stop being a gatekeeper and start acting like Jesus. All of Jesus—not just the…