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A Debate Rages in India Over Conversion, Secularism, and “Spiritual Violence”

By Murali Balaji

…lytization is typically cultural alienation, a growing sense of social inferiority, gradual or rapid displacement from local ecosystems, demonization of the stories that integrated their human activities into sustainable and respectful exchange with local plants, animals, soils, and waters,” says Perkinson, who has written extensively on the impact missionary activity has had on native cultures. “Younger people are often pulled away from tradition…

Can the Catholic Church Survive Trump?

By Patricia Miller

…ily Defense Council. Working in tandem with the highest profile culture warriors like Baltimore’s Archbishop Lori and New York’s Cardinal Dolan, they helped steer the more confrontational posture of the U.S. bishops’ conference. Byrnes argues that it’s foolish for any religious institution to tie itself too clearly to any political party for the simple reason that parties are “ephemeral political institutions,” always in the process of decay and r…

Are You There God? It’s Us, Googling

By Michael Schulson

…ay with homosexuality?” Chabad gets to speak second, within the Google algorithm, right after Wikipedia. Ask “Can you be gay and Jewish?” and Chabad—which does not condone same-sex relationships or intimacy—gets the first two answers. (Methodological notes for the wonky: this was tested on Google Incognito, on two different computers, one with no known search history for Chabad). Again, it’s not clear whether these quirks of search actually shape…

Indonesian Court Rejects Religious Conservatives’ Bid To Criminalize Gay Sex; More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…uality. “We’re not going to promote gender ideology,” Education Minister Enrique Riera told local media earlier this year. “We’re going to base ourselves on what is expressed in the constitution, which says that marriage is between a man and a woman.” … “We’re living a sad time of religious fundamentalism, intolerance and hate that places this country as the most homophobic one of the region,” Somos Gay, a Paraguayan gay rights group, said in a st…

Welcome to the Shari’ah Conspiracy Theory Industry

By Sarah Posner

…ideological and organizational godfather of all American Muslim groups. Dorrie O’Brien, a chapter head of ACT!, described a controversial speech she gave on the Brotherhood: [T]he Muslim Brotherhood (the Ikhwan, in Arabic) is active in the United States and their stated goal is to subvert the U.S., replace our Constitution with Shari’ah law, and establish a North American Caliphate here. That was the entire point of the presentation, to make peopl…

First U.S. Visit of the Virgin Mary Confirmed in Wisconsin

By Lewis Wallace

…stream of beliefs that arise around the world. Since the creation of new criteria for Marian apparitions in 1978, hundreds of sightings have been studied, and at least 12 were formally approved as of 2008—according to most numbers (although even a simple count of “official” sites is hard to obtain), Our Lady of Good Help is the 13th. Pope Benedict XVI recently called for more moderation in approving such sites, but any new regulations did not fal…

Not a ‘Weenie-A** Lodge’: James Ray Trial Begins

By Johnny P. Flynn

…into the lodge to finish the sweat. The trial finished its first week on Friday in Arizona’s Yavapai County. Ray is facing three counts of manslaughter and more than thirty years in prison for allegedly causing the deaths of Kirby Brown, James Shore, and Liz Neuman in an October 2009 “Spiritual Warrior Retreat” near Sedona, Arizona. Participants in the retreat paid more than ten thousand dollars each to fast, sweat, listen to lectures and watch f…

Yet Another Survey Shows ‘Nones’ Growth at Record Levels

By Elizabeth Drescher

…cs at Santa Clara University, will explore the ethical practices of Nones. These two projects are part of a larger book project, Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America’s Nones, which will be released by Oxford University Press in 2014….

Sovereign Grace Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Just Got More Complicated

By T.F. Charlton

…s, but also by concerns for evangelical reputation and organizational integrity. Strikingly, both statements express worries that if they were to “[separate] and rush to judgment” in the case of “civil litigation against a Christian ministry or leader…no ministry or minister [would be] safe from destruction at any time” (T4G). The TGC statement suggests that “high profile Christians are sometimes targeted” with such allegations simply “because the…

How the Politics of the 1890s Explain the GOP’s Health Care Woes

By Patricia Miller

…oke through and gained control of the presidency and Congress and passed a number of historic bills, including the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which reintroduced silver into the currency supply, and the McKinley Tariff Act, the Republican attempt to modernize the tariff schedule. They also passed a long-awaited pension for Civil War veterans and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The Democrats dubbed the 51st Congress the “Billion Dollar Congress,” char…