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RDPulpit: Rick Warren and the Limits of Empathy

By Tom Davis

…laws, to name one. But the focus on saving individual souls has had a tendency to override biblical concerns for social justice. There is nothing wrong with this as far as it goes, but it doesn’t fully recognize the complexity of human evil. Reinhold Niebuhr pointed out that it is fine to urge people not to be selfish, but a more profound Christian faith will go further and try to create systems of justice which will save society and ourselves fro…

Resurrection of ‘Comstock Laws’ Would Threaten Access to Abortifacients — But Even That Fear Misses Bigger Picture

By Gillian Frank

…wo months to find reliable information. Well into her third month of pregnancy and increasingly distressed, she feared she would be compelled to have a 10th child. Although this woman, after considerable perseverance and expense, eventually found someone in England to help her terminate her pregnancy, many more were not so lucky. Despite the scarcity of information about abortion and the illegality of the act in most cases, women sought to termina…

The Story Behind the Catholic Church’s Stunning Contraception Reversal

By Patricia Miller

…man who cannot control her own fertility, who must remain vulnerable to chance conception, is a woman who cannot hope to be much more than a baby-machine,” she wrote. Cahill and Ruether were not alone in concluding that the church’s dictum on contraception was an anachronism. Catholic theologians and bishops were also suggesting it was time to revisit the teaching. Two developments spurred their willingness to question the ban. One was a change in…

Trump the Totem: Like Other Fascist Leaders, Trump has Turned from Man to Symbol — And That’s the Danger

By Robert P. Jones

…take away your freedom. And I’m never gonna let it happen. They wanna silence me because I will never let them silence you. And in the end, they’re not after me. They’re after you. I just happen to be standing in the way. When the leader becomes the totem, no transgression is capable of separating him from his acolytes. A totem can’t lie or be vulgar. A totem doesn’t have marriage vows that can be violated. A totem can’t sexually assault a woman….

Review: Is the Religious Right Dying?

By Laura R. Olson

…eaching out to religious Americans using faith-based themes. The preponderance of the evidence does suggest that a religious “middle-to-left” may in fact be resurging in the United States. The proof will be in the pudding: will the Democratic presidential candidate succeed in attracting a broad faith-based coalition of voters in November? Even if the 2008 presidential election does rewrite conventional wisdom about the ideological nature of religi…

“Can You Tell Me Who The Villains Are?”: Rock and Religion, Irish-Style

By Lisa Bitel

…She feels examined by their eyes Is she right or is she wrong? She’s got a number in her pocket And one change of clothes Her innocence is fading Like last years winter snow’s Light a candle in the window So she can see it from the road With all the loving in your heart Welcome her back home. The Docs’ keening for a fallen innocent seems all too prescient, given the recent negotiations over revelations of priestly sexual abuse of both girls and bo…

Religion vs. Science: America’s Perilous Fight

By Edward J. Larson

…ons, it is treading on what many see as holy ground. More than any other concept in science, the theory of organic evolution (particularly as applied to human origins and behavior) addresses these questions. Yet many others despair over the failure of religion to mitigate suffering and view science, especially evolution, as offering greater hope for progress. Indeed, some see religion itself as both a cause of suffering and an impediment to its re…

Catholic ‘Soul-Searching’ as Ireland Votes on Marriage; Churches, American Activists Join Kenyan Anti-Gay Group’s ‘Family’ Confab; Indian Mom Seeks Spouse For Gay Son; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e deeply concerned about credible reports of torture, suspicious disappearances — including of two American citizens — and arbitrary detention at the government’s hands.” ThinkProgress reported that Jennifer Jukawski, who co-hosted a fundraiser for presidential candidate Marco Rubio this week, recently served as a registered foreign agent for Gambia as part of a $45,000 per month (plus expenses) contract between the country and BGR Group. Luxembou…

Refusal of Interracial Couple Shows How Slippery the Slope of LGBTQ Refusal Really Is

By Heron Greenesmith

…GBT laws in the country: the state permits state-licensed child welfare agencies to refuse to place and provide services to children and families, including LGBT people and same-sex couples, if doing so conflicts with their religious belief; it permits state officials to decline to marry couples of whose marriage they disapprove; and it likewise permits medical professionals to decline to serve LGBT clients. Now, federal and state laws that create…

Response to Daniel Philpott: the Politics of Religious Freedom

By Elizabeth Shakman Hurd

…e projects in specific contexts and developing a critique of their consequences. Uncovering and exploring the gap between the religion that is promoted through these efforts and the rest of the world’s religion leads me to challenge the prevailing assumption that the legalization of freedom of religion, engagement with faith communities, and protections for religious minorities are the keys to emancipating society from persecution and discriminati…