Search for "cheap airline tickets from flint to little rock ar phone number 1-800-299-7264"

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

By Mary E. Hunt

…ions,” “co-responsible in mission,” and “common obedience to the Spirit” bear little resemblance to reality. Such spiritualized, stylized, not to say slippery, phrases make for wonderful copy. But they bear no resemblance to a church in which women are categorically prohibited from priesthood and therefore almost all decision-making; in which LGBTIQ+ people are seen as products of “gender ideology” and unfit for sacramental marriage and employment…

The ‘Pro-Family’ Movement Has Little to Say About Family Separation

By Sophie Bjork-James

…of one that reasons that these kids deserve such treatment because their parents are criminals. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, the person responsible for the care of these children, also endorses this approach. Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council (FRC), agrees. In a statement on the FRC website, Perkins argues that the “burden lies with their parents who knowingly put them in this position.” Perkins then publish…

Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates: The Problem with Popularization

By Kathryn Lofton

…Wordy Shipmates, “Americans have learned our history from exaggerated popular art for as long as anyone can remember.” The point is not to denigrate the popular art, but for smart people to provide popular alternatives to academic monographs. “This is sort of my mission,” Vowell has said in interviews, “writing about history, to be a translator.” Truth be told, distrusting the popular is no longer a prescient pose within scholarly studies either….

Istanbul ‘Haven of Sorts’ For LGBT Syrians and Iraqis; Cayman Islands Affirm Marriage Ban with ‘Holy Bible Evidence’; No Room for LGBTs in Malaysia’s ‘Islam-Based’ Human Rights Policy; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…rday nights are his liveliest. As he dances in his regular spot, you can hear Arabic dialects from all over the region. For at least one night a week, Arab Christians, Sunnis, atheists and others dance to the same beat. “There is freedom in Istanbul, but not much,” concludes Sami. “I want to go to a place far away.” Malaysia: Prime Minister says LGBTs not included in country’s Islam-based view of human rights Prime Minister Najib Razak said that t…

C’mon, Joel, Swerve a Little Bit

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…with Soledad O’Brien and a panel of guests including Deepak Chopra and Richard Socarides, an openly gay Democratic strategist. Osteen offered his signature pained full-toothed smile as he explained, again, that homosexuality is like lying or pride, all sins but no worse than the others. O’Brien kept hammering the theme, though, that lying and pride are choices we can make, but homosexuality is not. Finally, poor Osteen went to his fallback positio…

Are Evangelicals Sweetness and Light or Enablers of Cruelty and Racism? Gender Roles Hint at an Answer

By Kristin Kobes Du Mez

…ance!”), created a genteel and intimate atmosphere far different from the large arenas where Trump himself tends to hold court. A few dozen people stood in line, in somewhat socially-distanced pairs and small groups. Apart from a quick temperature check, no security measures appeared to be taken. Inside the tent stood a table with a basket of disposable masks, and on another, an assortment of iced tea and lemonade, prompting people to remove their…

Just Give ‘Em a Little Jesus: Black Marriage Meets White Paternalism

By Sikivu Hutchinson

…transforms offenders into upstanding, law-abiding citizens. In this missionary scenario, the sinners get Jesus—some even converting to Christianity in prison—and forswear a life of crime. As one of their interview subjects noted, God “met me when I was selling drugs in prison. So, you know, that was a big thing for me, knowing that I have a relationship with God.” The authors’ conclusion that churchgoing makes (presumably heterosexual) black men m…

Invoking God’s Name Like a Bludgeon

By Lauri Lebo

…ty College District, has been offering up Christian prayers at annual scholarship award presentations, graduations and other events despite ongoing requests by students, faculty and members of the public that the prayers offend their religious beliefs. Donald Wagner, president of the Board of Trustees, took offense to their offense. So, in response to the complaints, he threw what amounted to a public hissy fit cloaked as religious observance at t…

A Church With a Hole In Its Heart: An Excerpt from Peter Manseau’s “One Nation Under Gods”

By Peter Manseau

…as the physical nature of the spirit world since before the Spanish missionaries arrived with their own notions of embodied divinity; it was holy even before the first Europeans looked on the people of an unmapped continent and declared that they must know nothing of God. Though it has a long and eclectic spiritual history, the hole sits today in the back corner of a Roman Catholic Church, El Santuario de Chimayo, which is among the most visited r…

RD News Round-Up—Oct.14, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…spectively). Americans say the economy, energy and gas prices, and health care are the most important issues in 2008. Americans rank the economy (83%) and energy/gas prices (76%), and health care (71%) as the most important issues in the 2008 election. Economic issues topped the list of most important issues among all religious groups. Americans rank abortion and same-sex marriage as the least important issues in 2008. Only 43% and 28% respectivel…