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Catholic Church Gives Darwin the Cold Shoulder

By Kate Childs Graham

On September 16, senior Vatican official, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, stated that Darwin’s theory of evolution is compatible with Catholic Church teaching and the Bible, but the Church still wouldn’t be apologizing to Darwin. Ravasi stated, ”Maybe we should abandon the idea of issuing apologies as if history was a court eternally in session.” In 1950, Pope Pius XII and, in 1996, Pope John Paul II stated that the theory of evolution has validity…

Women as Head Pastors Was Final Straw for Southern Baptist Convention — Not Scandal, Sexual Abuse, or Dalliance with Dictators

By Caroline Matas

…of faith.”* The decision, in some ways, was no shock: the SBC updated its official statement of faith in 2000 to include its denomination-wide prohibition on female pastors. Since then, the denomination has repeatedly doubled down on its belief in women’s role—in both marriage and the church—as “helpers.” Several high-profile members have left the church in recent years citing the convention’s misogyny and skewed priorities, many in the wake of a…

Fed. Court Rules Prop. 8 Unconstitutional

By Peter Montgomery

…onents of Prop 8 had standing to defend the initiative in court when state officials declined to do so (appeals court said yes). Judge Walker ruled that Prop. 8 unconstitutionally violated both the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the 14th Amendment. In his 2010 decision, Walker wrote, “A private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples is not a proper basis for legislation,” and “The state does not have an…

Mormons React to Prop. 8 Ruling

By Joanna Brooks

…aughn Walker’s ruling Wednesday overturning California’s Proposition 8. An official statement released Wednesday afternoon by the LDS Newsroom reads: “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regrets today’s decision. California voters have twice been given the opportunity to vote on the definition of marriage in their state and both times have determined that marriage should be recognized as only between a man and a woman. We agree. Marria…

When Religion Kills: The Narco-Traffickers of the Borderlands

By Luis Leon

…aballeros Templarios de Michoacan) or KTM. They have been denounced by the official Knights Templar organization in Mexico, a group dedicated to charitable work. Nonetheless KTM boldly proclaims itself to be in the chivalrous and bloody tradition of Christian crusaders. It seems no coincidence that the group emerged during the Lenten season, which occasions Christian self examination, control of appetites, and spiritual devotion: sacrifice. KTM em…

The Curious Case of Mormons and LGBT Rights

By Alan Michael Williams

…t no longer wants to exclude. In December 2012, the Church launched the website “Mormonsandgays.org,” which points to a new tactic for a new generation; the “closet” is now considered an ecclesiastical hindrance. Openness about gayness can seem revolutionary on its face, but queer discourse is being sifted through church protocol with an aim to fortify “love the sinner, not the sin” ideology, rather than tear it down. As an example, in the summer…

Kudlow Brags on Twitter About Helping Card. Dolan Write “Free Market” Oped

By Patricia Miller

…dlow (@larry_kudlow) May 23, 2014 Kudlow is a former Reagan Administration official who is well known for his support of supply-side economics (a support that, according to Pope Francis, “expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power”) and the wonders of the free market. He is a regular contributor to the WSJ, the National Review and the Cato Journal. Kudlow was converted to his particular brand of capitalistic…

The Sexual Threat to Fundamentalism

By Michelle Goldberg

…lish translation of the Pope’s remarks hasn’t yet been published, but an unofficial version disseminated online by English bishop Michael Campbell shows that Pope Benedict did not, on this occasion, draw analogies between the despoiling of nature and torture or war. Gender-bending alone is singled out as a force rending the harmony of God’s creation. “What is necessary is a kind of ecology of man, understood in the correct sense,” said the Pope. “…

V-Day: An Arrow in the Heart

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…lly a party to begin with? Important symbolic convergences suggest the opposite. Love and violence were always joined. This may help to explain the logic of this fascinating pagan-Christian juxtaposition of February 14. Pagans and Christians need not always be at war. Several of their images overlap in significant and interesting ways. Think of Mary the Mother of Sorrows, with her desperate look and bleeding heart. Is she grieving over the martyrd…

What’s the Role of LDS Church Leaders when it comes to Politics?

By Joanna Brooks

…esture—a preemptive strike, perhaps—against charges that the LDS Church is officially involved in the campaigns of either Mitt Romney or Jon Huntsman Jr. To truly get the significance of the statement it helps to understand a little about how the extensive worldwide leadership of the Church is constituted. The LDS Church has an all-lay priesthood—no trained clergy. Just about everyone who attends Church regularly has a “calling,” an officially def…