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Defending the Helpless: New Bible Highlights Poverty and Justice

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…sues of poverty and injustice,” said Richard Stearns, president and CEO of World Vision, an international relief organization and collaborator on the Bible project. I’m not sure that it’s because the Bible is “outdated” that so many people can’t pick out scripture verses dealing with issues of poverty and justice. The poll really proves that the religious right has so thoroughly hijacked the real message of the Bible that when people quote passage…

Atheists Gather in Burbank: A Humanist’s Response

By Anthony B. Pinn

…nhance quality of life, both through scientific advancement and rigorous struggle against irrational modes of destruction such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. What is necessary is the application of practices that speak clearly to atheism’s concern for life within the context of a fragile environment. To the extent that it is possible (and many atheists will reject this suggestion), attention should be given to a search for common ethical groun…

Howling at the Moon

By Amina Wadud

…iving to ourselves, and that does not purify. But that only works when we truly live in these networks or truly see to their needs on a regular basis. If you know you cannot help them all year round, maybe this is one time when you can. Also, unlike tithing the amount cannot go to the mosque, to build a mosque to pay for the imam or mosque leader. This is another kind of sadaqah, or gift-giving, distinct from zakah. You can give any amount you wan…

Na’vi and Goliath: Palestinian Protesters Dress as Avatar Underdogs

By Shalom Goldman

…een going on for almost five years and have attracted the attention of the international media, the photos of the blue-painted demonstrators were seen around the world. The conflict at Bilin revolves around disputes over the West Bank separation barrier—what many Israelis call the ‘security fence’ and what Palestinians refer to as the ‘racial segregation wall.’ The section of the barrier that runs through Bilin separates the villagers from their f…

The Racist Message of Do-Nothing Religion, Courtesy of Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

By Kevin Healey

…eutenant Governor’s view. While he’s careful to condemn racism and police brutality, his words ring hollow against the backdrop of white evangelicalism, which historically has dismissed progressive black churches, or otherwise left-leaning churches, synagogues, and progressives of other religions, as illegitimate. Political, maybe, but not religious, and certainly not Christian in any meaningful sense of the word. What do we call a view that is pr…

Gay Rights Org Delivers 150,000-Signature Petition to LDS Church

By Joanna Brooks

…t and encourage fellow members who wish to follow Church doctrine. Their struggle is our struggle. Those in the Church who are attracted to someone of the same sex but stay faithful to the Church’s teachings can be happy during this life and perform meaningful service in the Church. They can enjoy full fellowship with other Church members, including attending and serving in temples, and ultimately receive all the blessings afforded to those who li…

Fun with Facts, or, Yes Virginia, The UCC is still a Trinitarian Denomination

By Daniel Schultz

…ning in his glory. They have a credibility problem, to put it mildly. The truly egregious thing about it is that Mattingly passes on the BWF press release as true without bothering to do, as Grossman notes, any other kind of fact-checking. (As it happens, I know something about what happens when you do this. It ain’t pretty.) Any journalist worth his or her salt knows not to accept press releases as gospel. When Chuck Currie posted on the subject…

How Do Evangelical Missionaries in Brazil Justify Risking Indigenous Lives During a Pandemic?

By Chrissy Stroop

…be than in the center of God’s will.” If God needs you not to have coronavirus, in other words, you won’t get it; and why would God want people to get coronavirus in church after all? Following the same principle, if God wants you to preach to uncontacted peoples, God will make a way. You don’t need to worry about diseases; if the people you’re trying to convert die, that will turn out to have been God’s will. Of course, God might want you to beco…

New World A-Coming: How Black Religion Helped Shape Racial Identity

By Judith Weisenfeld

…e book, and the streamlining benefited the flow. Nevertheless, editing out stories of average members of the groups, even though many remained, was difficult for me because I was especially interested in highlighting their experiences. What are some of the biggest misconceptions about your topic? The characterization of these groups in earlier literature and in popular discourse as deviant “sects and cults,” their founders and leaders as fakers an…

A Lone Blogger vs. the McCain-Hagee Alliance

By Bruce Wilson

…ches—such as his variation on a classical conspiracy theory alleging that “international financial power brokers based in Europe” seek to control the world. That class of conspiricism derives from the Protocols of The Elders of Zion and also from Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic tract, deeply influential in Germany in the years preceding the rise of Hitler’s Third Reich, “The International Jew”—a document that, by one account, was for a period placed in…