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Pop Culture Yogi B. K. S. Iyengar Dead at 95

By Andrea R. Jain

…m for his fiercely confident, direct, and demanding guidance at his Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune and far beyond. Iyengar’s widespread influence can be attributed to his success in constructing and disseminating what is known as “Iyengar Yoga,” an idiosyncratic rendition of modern postural yoga, a complex and contested collection of systems consisting of some combination of asana, or “posture,” synchronized with the breath throu…

Will Iowa’s Abortion Ban Respect Religious Freedom?

By Christine Ryan

…the lower court’s injunction. In doing so, the Iowa Supreme Court also nullified a 2018 decision that recognized abortion as a fundamental right under the state’s Constitution—an essential component of “ordered liberty.” However, with new personnel and a green light from the US Supreme Court, that liberty has been wiped out. Planned Parenthood has dropped that particular lawsuit, but there may be another path forward for advocates of reproductive…

Mormon Rejection of Trump Embarrassing for Evangelicals?

By Neil J. Young

…d States, the LDS Church took the rare step of responding directly to a political candidate, issuing a statement that affirmed religious freedom and emphasized Mormon-Muslim partnerships in humanitarian causes. Aside from these political differences, Mormons have recoiled at the personality and style of Trump. Conservative, family-oriented, and devout, Mormons are a sharp contrast to the brash and profane Trump, and they have expressed disapproval…

American Christianity Is Changing Fast: Five Stories to Watch in 2016

By Richard Flory

While LGBT evangelicals cheered on the SCOTUS decision on gay marriage, evangelical institutions lobbied for the passage of “religious freedom” laws that would allow them to discriminate. When President Obama mouthed platitudes during the funeral of the slain Rev. Clementa Pinckney at Emanuel AME, activist Bree Newsome took it upon herself to scale a flagpole and take down an instrument of hate and bigotry. Pope Francis is a rock star, but Americ…

An Unholy Holy Week: Is the All-Male Rule of the Roman Catholic Church Self-Destructing?

By Anne Eggebroten

…ic call for change came in 1992 when she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II as protest against child sexual abuse on Saturday Night Live. She and others have pinpointed one source of the problem: canon law, which does not require cases of abuse to be reported to the police. Instead, a culture of extreme secrecy has prevailed, codified in Vatican norms issued in 1962 requiring secret investigations and prohibiting any report to civil authorities….

The Faith Outreach Canard

By Sarah Posner

Following up on last week’s post about the complaints of Democratic political consultants that their advice to reach out to religious voters was not heeded, thus causing the election losses, a closer look at the numbers fails to demonstrate a causal link. At the Huffington Post, pollsters Robert P. Jones and Daniel Cox of Public Religion Research write: Faced with significant Democratic defeats, however, some activists who advise Democrats on rel…

Special Hell: Progressive Catholics Reckon With the Rise of Trump

By Patricia Miller

…tion raises questions about how Catholics should respond personally and politically. One source of dismay for some Catholics is that so many of their number broke decisively toward Trump and were critical to his victory in the Rust Belt swing states. “The Catholic vote went for Trump and many Catholics joined the non-voting defectors. That’s a scandal that calls into question the moral standing and integrity of most—not all—Catholics today,” Marqu…

55% of Utah Mormons Believe LGBT People can “Change”

By Joanna Brooks

…n it comes to the reality of LGBT experience. Just a few weeks ago, I was visiting with a friend who has a gay adult child. We discussed the nuances of the recent events surrounding Elder Boyd K. Packer’s abrasive and controversial October conference talk which asserted that God would never have people be born with “tendencies” to same-sex attraction, and which drew hurtful, crude comparisons between the electoral battle to establish civil equalit…

The Devil is in the Details

By Amina Wadud

Today is my last official day for completing local business before departure. I’ve balanced my checkbook and paid all of my bills except the ones that are automatically paid (which is about the same as being paid, when the checking account from which they are drawn has been balanced). I’ve taken out cash for travel with the knowledge that using ATMs abroad is always a great way to get the best rates. Yep that’s right. The U.S. always considers it…

What Pence and Kaine Reveal About Divides in Catholicism

By Patricia Miller

…publican Party during the Reagan era coincided with the start of John Paul II’s papacy. John Paul’s emphasis on opposition to abortion as a core Catholic value—and his warnings about a pro-choice “culture of death“—perfectly meshed with the Republican Party’s use of abortion as a wedge issue. But even before John Paul, the U.S. bishops’ conference had, in 1976, meddled in electoral politics when they pronounced themselves “encouraged” by Gerald Fo…