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LDS General Conference in the “Mormon Moment”

By Joanna Brooks

…d” from their callings. With both men being the namesakes of current political candidates—Mitt Romney’s first name is Willard, and Marriott was a close friend of Mitt’s father George Romney—the changes in office led to some speculation that the move was motivated by the Church’s desire to underscore its stated non-involvement in the Huntsman and Romney campaigns. Church spokespeople, however, described the changes as a routine “rotation.” Signs th…

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

By Paul Wallace

…that anyone who cares to devote time and effort to understanding evolution can do it. As difficult as it can be, science is, in a very real sense, right there on the page. In fact, in the end there is nothing for it but to be out in the open, to be seen, to be comprehended. This is one of the great joys of science. Though it has its own joys, theology does not operate this way. Religion does not make sense as a set of strictly empirical claims. It…

New Study Touts Success of “Praying Away the Gay”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…98 highly-motivated subjects, the authors found that a small, unspecified number can use prayer and counseling to shut down their sexual feelings or become a bit more bi. And possibly none who turned straight.” Even the researchers call their conclusions “overly optimistic.” “These results do not prove that categorical change in sexual orientation is possible for everyone or anyone, but rather that meaningful shifts along a continuum that constit…

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

By Ed Simon

…rents to transcend frequently bloody sectarian differences, to move beyond categories of Catholicism and Protestantism. Ian Bradley in Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams explains that today the myth of a Celtic Church attracts “New Agers, post-modernists, liberals, feminists, [and] environmentalists.” While it’s true that many of these groups’ tales of their own origins are mythic—as with any religion, denomination, or sect—the m…

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

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…tivities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops? I ask only because Cardinal DiNardo said, in a statement about the Institute of Medicine recommendations: “Pregnancy is not a disease, and fertility is not a pathological condition to be suppressed by any means technically possible.” (emphasis mine) Well, okay, that’s two. But as anyone who reads the New York Times style section, you have to have three instances of something for it to b…

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

By Jeremy Biles

…s; they endlessly call for, but are never exhausted by, interpretation. Chicago cabby George Downs expressed something similar at the 1967 unveiling of the Picasso sculpture: “The longer you look, the more you see. That’s what art should be.” Art has the power of inexhaustible revelation, raising questions endlessly, and compelling intellect, imagination, and emotion to exceed their usual boundaries through the very act of interpretation. In his e…

Ex-Gay Conversion Therapy: Choosing Religion Over Sex

By Lynne Gerber

…uth that religious and sexual identities at times clash, that such clashes can cause suffering, and that not all people resolve that clash in favor of sexual identity. But, after years of studying and writing about reparative therapy and the ex-gay movement, and after reading Rich Wyler’s own account of his sexual conversion, I found NPR’s story, and Schumacher-Matos’ defense of it, shallow and dispiriting. Married with Children There is much to c…

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

By Daniel Schultz

…lead pastor at Second Baptist church in Conway, Ark. … “In your more politically conservative regions, closing is not interpreted as caring for you. It’s interpreted as liberalism, or buying into the hype,” said King, whose church draws about 1,100 worshipers on a typical Sunday. I’m not sure what’s daffier or more offensive: the notion that God’s supposed demand for adherence to rigid gender roles outweighs protecting vulnerable members of the co…

Why Don’t White People Show Up For Juneteenth The Way They Showed Up For George Floyd?

By A. E. Brooks-Key

…ve been interested in how this holiday would translate from a regional African American celebration into a mainstream American federal holiday. More importantly I was interested in how Black folks, White folks and others would navigate the issues of race and slavery that reside at the center of the Juneteenth holiday. One of the most comical aspects to what I have come to call the ‘Juneteenth conundrum’ is who is greeted by whom? In 2021, while at…

Protesters in Washington DC, the day before the January 6 insurrection, wrapped in American flags blow shofars.

Netanyahu’s Genocidal Religious Rhetoric isn’t Just an Appeal to the Israeli Right — He Has Another Constituency in Mind

By Brock Bahler

…hofars during the January 6th attack of the Capitol building, and of political campaigns such as Doug Mastriano’s bid for PA governor, whose wife told supporters, “When the Israelites came into their Promised Land . . . God had to move in mighty ways to remove their enemies. . . . Our Promised Land is Pennsylvania and we’re taking it back.” Which brings us back to Israel/Palestine. Netanyahu and American Christian nationalists not only invoke simi…