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LDS General Conference in the “Mormon Moment”

By Joanna Brooks

…e Conference Center in downtown Salt Lake City, or by internet, cable television, satellite broadcast, and radio—for the Church’s semi-annual General Conference. For Mormons, Conference means listening to a set of sermon-like addresses by Church leaders, not “conferring” in committee and deliberating policy, as is the case for other Protestant denominations. And although Church spokespeople stressed that Conference this year would be a routine aff…

Neuroscience Says Evil is “Over”: Not So Fast…

By Paul Wallace

…e that, since evil — whatever it may be — cannot be pinned down in any specific location or function of the brain, it must not be real. The article points to a number of ways neuropsychology has been overinterpreted and oversold. Rosenbaum addresses the fetishizing of fMRI images, the ideology that conflates causation and correlation, and the shifting semantics — evil recast as “non-empathy” by one esteemed psychologist (echoing, interestingly, th…

New Study Touts Success of “Praying Away the Gay”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ex and Marital Therapy the final results of their longitudinal study of individuals seeking sexual orientation change through involvement in a variety of Christian ministries affiliated with Exodus International. The results show change to be possible for some, and the attempt not harmful on average. These results stand in tension with the supposed professional consensus…” Both researchers are from conservative Christian colleges, which, of course…

The New Age Fantasy of a Celtic Church that Revered Nature and the Divine Feminine Never Existed — So What?

By Ed Simon

…Avenue to Dorchester Heights, this St. Patrick’s Day will feature the traditional uilleann pipers and Irish step dancers; in Chicago the river will be dyed green, and in Washington DC the Taoiseach will present the president with a Waterford Crystal filled with shamrocks. We’ll see kitschier associations as well, from “Kiss Me I’m Irish” t-shirts to full-grown adults cosplaying as leprechauns. Clergy have expressed concern about secular revelry o…

“Pregnancy is Not a Disease”: Birth of an Anti-Contraception Rallying Cry

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…be required to offer contraception without copay, unless they meet the conditions allowing for a religious exemption. The HHS guidelines follow recent recommendations issued by the Institute of Medicine. Included are contraceptive methods like IUDs and tubal ligations which have a high upfront cost but, when offered for free, may be especially effective in reducing abortions. Despite their promise for preventing unintended pregnancy and abortion,…

Picasso’s Sacred Monster Eats Chicago: A Mystery Solved?

By Jeremy Biles

…temporary residence in Pioneer Court, the flare of her windblown skirt providing shade to spectators. But it is the untitled Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza that remains Chicago’s most iconic artwork—a sculpture that owes some of its mystery to the mythical resonance hidden in its form. If it Quacks Like a Sphinx The “Chicago Picasso” has long been a source of bewildered fascination; all around it, brows furrow even as cameras click and children…

Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy: Choosing Religion Over Sex

By Lynne Gerber

Leonard was the first person that helped me see the value of ex-gay ministries in the lives of some homosexually-oriented Christians. We met in a library in a small midwestern town when I was researching my forthcoming book on ex-gay ministries and Christian weight loss programs. Thoughtful and honest, he told me about his 20-year experience in a fundamentalist church and the affair he had with another man the whole time. Frustrated with the chur…

Change v. Change at NPR

By Warren Throckmorton

…esentative of two sides of a current debate in psychology. In fact, the official pronouncements of the mental health professions are clear that scientific evidence does not warrant psychologists telling a client that therapy can change orientation. In fairness, there are small groups of therapists associated with religious groups who question the APA’s findings. However, most of the therapists who argue with the APA are associated with churches an…

From Licking Floors to Praying for an Inept Government, Churches React to C-19

By Daniel Schultz

…reached a fiery sermon for the small congregation, denouncing the Trump administration for spending money on a border wall while cutting public health teams that might have otherwise been ready to respond to the pandemic. “Yes, we will come through the coronavirus! Yes, we will come through the city quarantines,” he avowed. “Yes, we will come through an inept government that can’t handle a real crisis. Yes, we will come through an election season,…

The Year of the Abusive Priest

By Anthea Butler

…ing matters worse, the Pope tried to deflect from the mounting worldwide criticism with a stab at his detractors during his Palm Sunday homily, stating “Jesus leads us toward the courage not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion.” I beg to differ, but this sexual abuse scandal is not petty gossip. It is hardcore fact. In another case, almost at the Vatican City doorstep, students from another school of the deaf…