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As Catholic Bishops Punish Dissent, Rosemary Radford Ruether’s Life and Legacy Show the Way Forward

By Lauren Barbato

…between the Catholic Church and gender-marginalized people. The liberative spirit of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) transformed public life for American Catholics, energizing both clergy and laypeople to engage in social activism. Some Catholics viewed the push to repeal abortion laws—emerging from the second-wave feminist movement—as a prophetic call. When these coinciding movements clashed, Ruether claimed the results negatively impacted…

Tim Pawlenty, Bad Fundamentalist

By Michael J. Altman

…need for literary criticism or historical interpretation because the Holy Spirit of God spoke truth through the scriptures themselves. Furthermore, the Fundamentalists also held to Scottish Common Sense philosphy, a tradition that argued that facts were readily accessible to every person through common sense. To understand the Bible, all you needed to do was read it—no need to inject your own personal editorial comments. Pawlenty applies similar…

“Do Not Rejoice When Your Enemies Fall”

By Sarah Posner

…ll of its killing reflects the brokenness of our world. That is the proper spirit with which to greet this news. And, in a move in which he unmistakably distances himself from the saber-rattling of many of his more apocalyptically-minded fellow evangelicals, Gushee goes on: We also now have the opportunity for national reflection on how our broader military and foreign policies—including the placement of our troops throughout the largely Muslim Ar…

St. Paul the Pacifist: A Christian Response to Torture

By V. Henry T. Nguyen

…of nonviolent reconciliation of people to God and to one another. In that spirit, we may need to be prepared to absorb violence, but not to inflict it. Such is one central aspect of the calling of our time to those justified, sanctified, and divinized in Christ. In sum, Paul’s stance on nonviolent reconciliation and justice provides us with the necessary anti-torture posture for Christians today as they reflect on and respond to the pressing issu…

God is Love: A Desert Prophet’s Message

By Lauri Lebo

…the movie by the same name, which is about Chris McCandless, a young free-spirit who spent time in Slab City. McCandless eventually starved to death in an abandoned bus in Alaska. Knight knew McCandless and he portrays himself in the movie. Today, he is 79, still living on the outskirts of Slab City, hosting tours and providing his testimony for anyone who cares to listen. I think the fact that his message sounds so refreshing illustrates how cra…

Prophecy and Prosperity are Keys to Republican Christian Nationalism According to New Poll

By Daniel Schultz

…of religiously unaffiliated Americans are looking for a new “religious or spiritual home” Almost half of the people who reported leaving a religious tradition did so because of that tradition’s teachings on the LGBTQ community, and Disaffiliation and decreases in worship attendance can be seen across the board, affecting Republicans and Democrats alike. So one takeaway from PRRI’s study is that the US is in a process of secularization; fewer peop…

High on Drugs: Breaking the Just Say No Addiction

By Gary Laderman

…nce: “The psychedelic drug in magic mushrooms may have lasting medical and spiritual benefits…” Spiritual benefits? You can read the details yourself in Time or this Mother Jones piece, but bottom line is that the drug can induce transcendental, mystical experiences in volunteers who feel better and more fulfilled over time, with relatives and close friends claiming the individual also became “calmer, happier, and kinder.” Yes, it’s a rather limit…

Contraception Isn’t Meat

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…say that the husband’s domination of the wife is entirely at odds with the spirit of the teaching. “People who think it’s the husband’s vote misunderstand the teaching entirely,” they say. “It’s the couple’s vote, hers as much as his, and the only reason that he is the one who casts it is because of the God-given differences between men and women. Men are designed to take more initiative and to be more active in the public sphere, and women’s bodi…

Exodus Declares Opposition to Criminalization of Homosexuality

By Warren Throckmorton

…d truth of Jesus Christ. Finally, we stand with the LGBT community both in spirit, and when necessary, legally and physically, when violence rears its head in Uganda, Jamaica or anywhere else in the world. The statement is in response to reports that the board Vice-Chair of the Exodus board of directors, Dennis Jernigan, traveled to Jamaica in May to speak about his sexual reorientation. While there he spoke to several groups and appeared to suppo…

Putin’s Violent Holy War Rhetoric Made it to the Christian Right Fringe — And There’s Reason to Believe it’ll Go Mainstream

By Thomas Lecaque

…c too—on February 27, Metropolitan Epiphanius I of Ukraine said that, “The spirit of the Antichrist operates in the leader of Russia, the signs of which the Scriptures reveal to us: pride, devotion to evil, ruthlessness, false religiosity.” So the narrative of antichrist and Putin tends not to work in his favor—which shouldn’t be surprising as there’s a long-standing tradition in evangelical Christianity working against Putin and Russia from the C…