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Deception, Doubt and Divinity (School)

By Meghan Florian

…the divine with a group of eager first-year students, in hope that it will help us better serve our churches down the road? This resonates with another comment made by Bolz-Weber in the interview quoted above. She describes Mary Magdalene, her patron saint, mistaking the resurrected Jesus for the gardener: I’m sure her friends, for the rest of her life, when they’d be drinking, they’d be like, “Hey, Mary, remember when you thought Jesus was a gard…

Rick Warren, Is That All the Courage You Can Muster?

By Ross Murray

…. He rolled up his sleeves, he rallied his supporters, and he got to work, helping the people of Uganda and Africa. Yes, Rick Warren is correct in tweeting that he had already voiced his opposition to the “Kill the Gays Bill” in 2009; that they still find the legislation “abhorrent.” That may be true, but remember that his recent comment that being gay is like having the urge to punch someone in the nose came as he was promoting The Purpose Driv…

All the Lonely People: Holiday Blues and the Epidemic of Isolation

By Peter Laarman

…the living, breathing presence of another person Healthy religion can also help to create the kinds of communities that are inviting but not intrusive—communities where one is accepted but not interrogated or manipulated. I have long argued that in view of the labor movement’s severe decline, congregations should step up their efforts to create healthy and free social spaces in which people can talk (or not talk) about their struggles, dreams, and…

Egypt Goes After Gays to Silence Islamist Critics; South Africa’s ‘Open Mosque’ is Closed; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…resident Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who ousted it from power last year with the help of the army. Egyptian officials have been enforcing morality laws with a renewed zeal almost since Sisi took power. According to human rights activists in Egypt, at least 77 people have been arrested in well-publicized cases of “debauchery” or “violating public decency,” the two charges used to prosecute people alleged to be LGBT since Egypt has no law explicitly again…

Purpose-Driven Empire

By Bill Berkowitz

…e Abstinence & Marriage Education Partnership, which was founded by Scott Phelps and is headquartered in northern Illinois. Phelps is “one of the authors of [PR’s] Game Plan and Navigator curricula,” and has “worked with” PR “for several years prior to starting the A & M Partnership, a 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit corporation, a few years ago.” According to the note, “The merger will give A & M the ability to offer a broader selection of materials co…

The Mouths of Babes

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…homes. Me: Right, and those are the people President Obama says he want so help. She left to set the table and returned to a flurry of talking heads in a video clip, weighing in on the stimulus package and the market’s perplexing refusal to be reassured. She: They sure do say the obvious things. Me: They don’t sound much like experts, do they? She: Nobody is. Me: [laughter] She: What’s so funny? The situation is so clear at this point that a child…

Is God a Delusion? A Reply to Religion’s Cultured Despisers

By Eric Reitan

…sense: philosophy that engages with contemporary issues in a way that can help the wider public think more clearly about them. What’s the most important take-home message for readers? A number of years ago, I was in a conversation with a conservative preacher who insisted that the existence of God was obvious and that atheists weren’t just in a state of denial, but were in that state because of profound character defects. His view, in short, was…

Paul Ryan: I Reject Ayn Rand, She’s an Atheist!

By Sarah Posner

…must have woken up to the reality that piggybacking on an atheist wouldn’t help his Catholic “social justice” defenses of his budget. Don’t be fooled, though, by his giving Rand the boot. There are plenty of other conservative ideologues willing to defend Ryan’s budget as being in line with what the Ethics and Public Policy Center’s George Weigel calls, in a column for the Archdiocese of Denver, “Catholicism’s anti-statist social justice principle…

Church Bloodies Berlusconi’s Nose?

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…power of media images in today’s world, such that mafia connections cannot help, media connections cannot help, and even insuperable wealth cannot help to displace them. In short, the man’s nose was bloodied in a very public way and that symbolizes the end, if not if his career, then at least of his veneer of invincibility. “The blood of the victor.” There is another symbolic twist to this strange tale, and it has not yet received the attention it…

Gay by the Grace of God

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…uals’ misery and make them happy well-adjusted gays.” The site promises to help release people “from the shackles of straight life,” and provides testimonies from those who “Prayed and Got Laid.” Mary Bermanoff, of Dearborn, another ex-straight, says she’s never been so happy. “I truly am born again. Who knew Jesus could make me a happy lesbian? Twenty years with a man who smelled and never once emptied the recycle bin on the computer was more tha…