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RDPulpit: Rick Warren and the Limits of Empathy

By Tom Davis

…uld go further and not only improve the situation of women facing unwanted pregnancy, but also prevent society from imposing its arbitrary will on her reproductive life. As far as empathy is concerned, there seems to be scant evidence that Rick Warren and many other evangelical writers have tried to put themselves in the woman’s position, or that they can imagine what it would be like to have to make that decision. We always hear the phrase, “to f…

Dispatches From the Rhodian Shore: A (Tough) Love Letter to Religious Studies

By Todd LeVasseur

…s, let alone within the context of climate change, then we shouldn’t be surprised to have our programs of study lose funding and import and the interest of students in the decades to come. This brings me back to data point 2. If we think of future dispatches about religion written from inundated shores, hopefully they will reflect that religious studies joined with the rest of the academy in rising to the colossal challenges of our time. Hopefully…

Debunking the Myth That Democracy Is “Incompatible” With Islam

By Asma Afsaruddin

…of democracy—and regard democratic procedures, such as elections, as the appropriate mechanism for establishing such governments. An extensive multiyear Gallup research study conducted between 2001 and 2007 in more than 35 nations that have predominantly Muslim or substantial Muslim populations (claiming to have surveyed a sample representing over 90% of the world’s total Muslim inhabitants) categorically established that democracy is the preferre…

A Twisted Love Story: How American Evangelicals Helped Make Putin’s Russia and How Russia Became the Darling of the American Right

By Katherine Kelaidis

…od the persecution of the local indigenous Christian population and the suppression of a region’s historical Christian institutions to be primarily about themselves. And so, American evangelicals set about converting Russia to Christianity, a task that even a brief look at history would have revealed was already accomplished by the Byzantine Empire in the Middle Ages. Almost immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union, American evangeli…

Growing Up Cult: A Memoir of Life with Sri Chinmoy

By Brittany Shoot

…at he was the last and highest living avatar on Earth; he was the direct representative of God. Having the opportunity to spread his message felt like an honor for his disciples, and they believed that having the Guru reach the broadest audience possible was a way to spread God’s light around the world. Throughout the years, Sri Chinmoy devised new methods to gain public attention—from weightlifting elephants and helicopters on specially-rigged co…

My Womb for His Purposes: The Perils of Unassisted Childbirth in the Quiverfull Movement

By Kathryn Joyce

…s at unassisted childbirth: I had envisioned a glorious testimony of God’s protection and provision—His reward for my complete trust and obedience in allowing Him to use my womb for His purposes. I imagined myself explaining after my successful home birth that it was because I had been faithful in seeking His will for my life that the Lord had carried me and my baby safely through. The flip side of that trust and faith can lead women to ignore all…

The Dirty Little Secret of Every Ponzi Scheme, or: Bernie Madoff’s 150 Year Sentence

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…are enough ponzis to keep it going for a while. The people are part of the problem precisely because they are the centerpiece of the system. The ravenous desire for free money, the gluttonous appetite for unearned wealth, these are the vices that drive the system. Admittedly, the analogy between Law’s bank and Madoff Securities breaks down right here. There are some innocent victims of the Madoff scandal, perhaps most importantly those who were vi…

The 50 Shades of Evangelicalism

By Jonathan D. Fitzgerald

…The recent kerfuffle over the anti-gay marriage comments by Chick-fil-A’s president Dan Cathy has inspired divergent views from evangelicals who have flooded my Facebook wall and Twitter stream praising and condemning Cathy in blogs and columns, and yet believers have been portrayed as a unified bloc by the media. Yesterday, as competing groups met at Chick-fil-A restaurants around the country to show support or derision in organized events, the…

Competing Visions of Family & Freedom at UN; Methodists Try to Avoid Schism on Sexuality; Catholic Cardinal Denounces LGBT ‘Demonic Ideology’; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…sexual acts are “morally reprehensible.” Mexico: Marriage march continues, president proposes constitutional change On Tuesday, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, President Enrique Peña Nieto “signed a constitutional reform initiative” that could legalize same-sex marriage and allow transgender people to change the gender listed on their birth certificate. Journalist Rex Wockner, who monitors the steady march towar…

Mexico moves toward national marriage equality; Greek govt announces civil partnership legislation; Pope warns against ‘secularism and relativism’; Global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ious liberty of educators and administrators at Catholic schools forced to promulgate such prejudice or risk their job. In contrast to the bishops’ campaign, more than 150 companies took out a full-page ad in Australian newspapers calling on the government to introduce marriage equality. Greece: Government civil partnership move opposed by ‘rogue’ Orthodox bishop The Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights announced this week that it wo…