Search for "cheap airline tickets from dom. rep. phone number 1-800-299-7264"

“God Created You”: Bishop Supports Gay Ugandans, Defies Death Threats

By Jocelyn Edwards

…or exhorted on homosexuals to repent or be punished by God before the microphone was snatched away one of Kato’s supporters. It might have seemed that the last person the activist’s friends would turn to for support at the moment would be another religious leader. Especially given that the church in Uganda was at the head of the drive for the draconian anti-homosexuality bill still pending in Parliament. But 79-year-old Bishop Christopher Senyonjo…

Intensive Care: Preachers’ Daughters Episode Five Recap

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…ll use the term “mix tape”?) While she’s out and completely unreachable by phone, her dad, Ken, goes into the hospital with breathing difficulties and is admitted to intensive care. Taylor finally gets the message, is stricken with remorse and concern, prays for her dad’s healing, and resolves to be more responsible. My Dinner with Frankie: Mark and Cheryl Perry invited their teenage daughter Olivia’s friend Frankie over for dinner. Since Olivia h…

Christian Atheism: The Only Response Worth its Salt to the Zimmerman Verdict

By J. Kameron Carter

…e convenience store with Skittles and a soft-drink and talking on his cell phone with his friend. Instead, all that Zimmerman could see was a hooded threat. And so, he deputized himself to be the police, and in that capacity shot Trayvon Martin dead. But more than just deputizing himself to act with police power (and this is the crucial point of Dr. Butler’s reflections), he deputized himself to stand in the place of god, to act in god’s name and…

Satanic FOIA Reveals Deep Confusion About 1st Amendment

By Joseph Laycock

…or understanding of the establishment clause. In their view, religious freedom is like pie and giving a slice of freedom to Satanists means taking a slice away from Christians. Accordingly, many callers invoked a tyranny of the majority, arguing that religious minorities can be ignored because Oklahoma is “The Bible Belt.” One letter suggested that the monument to Satan be allowed but that its scale must be in proportion to the percentage of Satan…

“What Kind of Islam Is That?”: Talking With Refugees From ISIS

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…middle of the night and then they and their neighbors made a break for freedom. They piled into the back of trucks and with the lights out drove madly through checkpoints and down the road towards Iraq and Kurdistan. The pharmacist showed me a video he had made with his cell phone, which did indeed look like a cattle surge of vehicles illumined by a few eerie lights. Now the news from his town is “very bad”—there is no water or electricity or food…

Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with Jesus: 1946-2011

By Lauri Lebo

…alistic take on life, I can’t say it didn’t work at least somewhat in my case. But I’m still a sucker for the cross of gaud. Given that Mrs Roach has long ago departed with the angel band, I can confess to having stood around in any number of European cathedrals gawking at some particularly ostentatious representation of the ‘nailin’ boards’. In addition to his two books, Bageant has written numerous poignant essays, which can be read here. Oh, Jo…

Qaddafi Dies; Should it Matter How?

By Haroon Moghul

…, and promised a massacre. He was the one who seized power, who oppressed, repressed, tortured, humiliated, and offended. And yet. I was ecstatic over Egypt’s revolution, thrilled by Tunisia’s, and still hurt to see what’s happening in Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria. As much as I was concerned by the far more violent turn Libya’s revolution took, I wanted Qaddafi gone. And now he is gone. But I sense in his rise, fall, and expiration a moral lesson we…

Why I Won’t Leave the Mormon Church Alone

By Holly Welker

…s difficult, particularly since the church wouldn’t leave me alone. (I got repeated phone calls, letters, and visits to my home from missionaries and people in the congregation, despite formal requests that they stop.) Eventually I sought a community of people also striving to come to terms with what it meant to have been but no longer be a devout Mormon. Luckily a diverse community of ex-, post-, or lapsed Mormons (we differ on what to call ourse…

AAA: Like a Good Neighbor

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…de of the road with a flat tire, or a broken down car, that help is just a phone call away. It also gives me discounts on lodging and other perks. My partner has a gold card with her name on it as well. The account number on both cards is the same. Years ago, when we signed up for the cards with the venerable roadside assistance company AAA, the woman at the counter smiled sweetly and never blinked an eye when we asked for the “family” plan. We we…

Pope Decries ‘Ideological Colonization’ of Family; Islamic State Executes Gays and Others; Gay Couple Gets Long-Delayed Wedding in Mexico; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…He also referred to marriage equality as a civil right and “a story of freedom.” We have reported on the World Council of Families and its promotion of anti-gay policies in Russia and around the world, as well as religious conservatives’ rhetorical opposition to “gender ideology.” This week Political Research Associates released an article on WCF’s global reach and how “a seemingly innocuous definition of the ‘natural family’ is being used as the…