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A Queer Atheist In the Heart of Mormon Country

By Chris Stedman

…inue to. But as was evident at this year’s Utah Pride, there is also a fast-growing number of Mormons who are working for change. They may be less visible—after all, our society, and the media in particular, privilege polarizing perspectives—but these Mormons are there, doing difficult but important work. Among them is Joanna Brooks, who served as the Mormon panelist at the conference. She has been an advocate for LGBTQ equality and acceptance amo…

The Threat to Democracy Runs Deep, But Mathematics Could Address the Abominable State of Representation and Voting

By Ismar Volić

…our 520,000 public officers are elected in mathematically abominable winner-take-all races that cause spoilers and vote-splitting, discourage political diversity, support the duopoly’s iron grip, and encourage negative campaigning. Crowded primary elections elevate fringe candidates who compete in districts that have been gerrymandered into uncompetitive insignificance, with millions of voters (rightfully) feeling like their voice doesn’t matter….

Supreme Court Rules Religion is Special… This Time

By Katherine Stewart

…against religion. The same line of thought informs the world of government-funded, faith-based social services. There is no difference between a secular nonprofit drug rehabilitation service and a faith-based one, right? Except that, as per the Hosanna-Tabor ruling, the religious one now has the right to discriminate against its own employees. So which is it? Is religion something special? Or is it like every other activity? So far as America’s f…

Speaking with Palestinian-American Republican Who Confronted GOP at Debate

By Haroon Moghul

…o much of a contradiction for Gingrich’s ideological fluff or Romney’s well-crafted, test-marketed style of engagement. Both candidates also used the opportunity to charge off in another direction, declaring their full support for Israel’s current government—neither of them noted that identifying America with Netanyahu’s government admits that one cannot be an impartial broker of peace. They also demonstrated their ignorance of a crucial part of t…

Catholic Church is Lucky it’s Just Same-Sex Marriage

By Marian Ronan

…an investigation of the Girl Scouts of America was the admission of a male-to-female transgender child to a troop in Colorado. But what about sex/gender reassignment surgery, which is chosen not only by transgender men and women, but also by adults who believe that they were surgically assigned the wrong gender in infancy? The very existence of intersex conditions and the surgery to remedy them undercuts the ostensibly unambiguous sex/gender cate…

Turn On The News: This Isn’t a Split, It’s a Tiny Sliver of Conservatives Walking Out the Door — Introducing A New Media Criticism Column

By Daniel Schultz

…mpanion kept 95.7% of it.) It’s possible this is part of a larger trend. A number of paragraphs down there’s mention of a long-delayed vote on the future of the denomination, which might lend credibility to the headline, but no details are given, so it’s not possible to evaluate the claim. Likewise, near the top of the story comes a paragraph with a quote from an RCA pastor about the financial difficulties this will create. Does he speak for the d…

How the Study of Evangelicalism Has Blinded Us to the Problems in Evangelical Culture

By Christopher D. Cantwell

…gton’s famed Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, wherein he laid out his four-part description of evangelicals noted above. This view became the field’s prevailing paradigm, as the remaining reprints of the book’s first part make clear. An old Noll article on social survey data, a recent etymology of the term “evangelical” by historian Linford Fisher, and a roundtable commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of Evangelicalism in Modern Britain fro…

Church=State in Putin’s Orthodox Empire?; Evangelical-Orthodox Anti-Gay Alliance; Malaysian Court Protects Transwomen; Catholicism (Still) Declining in Latin America; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…openly is the biggest hurdle to overcome for British Muslims, Claire, a 28-year-old Birmingham-based Muslim convert, says it’s only the beginning of the struggle. “As an LGBT Muslim, I face discrimination in the gay community. They say I cannot be gay and Muslim but I can. No one can judge you for who you are – you decide that.” Claire also observes this hostility within the Muslim community. Recently engaged to her partner, she says she does not…

New Poll Reveals That Anti-Trans Rhetoric isn’t Just Affecting Republicans and White Evangelicals

By Chrissy Stroop

…clear that the widespread use of false, inflammatory, and dehumanizing anti-trans rhetoric by right-wing activists and politicians generates a feedback loop that enables the proliferation and escalation of anti-trans legislation. And we’re now learning that the deluge of disinformation and hateful propaganda is also having a negative impact on trans acceptance in the general public—even among progressive demographics. That, at least, is my grim ta…

The Only Common Denominator of American Conservatism is Anti-Blackness

By Yannick Marshall

…d nothing more. They, it’s believed, have long renounced the apartheid, pro-slavery and ethno-state dreams of earlier generations, but see no need to throw the baby out with the bath water. The fact that anti-Black white nationalist organizing during Reconstruction “was necessarily secret since open opposition of any kind would be considered rebellion,” however, should mean that no declaration of a ‘coming to Jesus’ moment on race by today’s conse…