Search for "American Airlines 1800-299-7264 New Flight Booking"

New Southern Baptist Curriculum Bashes Gays

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ul and bullying lesson. The angry tone of this unit undercuts the wisdom of another unit that concludes with a quote from renowned religion scholar Robert Bellah: “We should not underestimate the significance of the small group of people who have a new vision of a just and gentle world. The quality of a culture may be changed when two percent of its people have a new vision.” Hopefully, some of these SBC teens will come to understand that demoniza…

Sex and the Chosen People: Be Fruitful and Multiply, Etc.

By Mandy Van Deven

…d hopefully rabbis can be part of that discussion. Do you find modern day ‘American culture’ at odds with ‘Jewish culture’ in terms of sexuality? I find it difficult to presume that either American culture or Jewish culture is entirely monolithic. There are many different streams, many different conversations happening all the time! That said, I see in the broader secular culture, often, the presumption that sexuality is an item to be bought, sold…

Church of Pain: Religion, Ritual, and the Body in the New Serial Spin-Off, “S-Town”

By Spencer Dew

…late-night am radio host, and, as fate would have it, he contacted a This American Life senior producer—Brian Reed, who serves as narrator/protagonist of the podcast—with an invitation to investigate a murder in his hometown of Woodstock, Alabama, which he refers to as “shit-town” (the “s” in the show’s title). McLemore’s voice is inimitable, seducing the listener into his jaded frame of mind. He describes his high school as “Auschwitz,” spins ou…

How To Talk To “Nones” and Influence People: Rob Bell’s Transrational Experience

By Brook Wilensky-Lanford

…el Hill. A good Northeastern liberal, I’d read the warning articles in The New Republic before I went, and I knew the Tea Party had taken over the state, but I could not have imagined something like the “bathroom bill,” or HB2. When I sat in Bell’s audience in Durham in March, the fallout from the state’s recent anti-LGBT legislation was just beginning. Still, I kept waiting for someone in the audience to ask: what do we do if it’s not our church…

The Political Strategist’s Conversion that Led to Ron Paul’s New Faithiness

By Sarah Posner

…President Bushes’ evangelical outreach strategy. The development signals a new approach by Paul, who, despite being a favorite of homeschoolers, a student of Christian Reconstructionist economics, and a committed foe of legal abortion, has never really played the religion card like a good, lock-step Republican. But recently he brought on Doug Wead as a senior advisor to his campaign. Wead told me that he encouraged Paul to dust off a 2007 “Stateme…

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

By Lewis Wallace

…the grotto, and how to leave an ex-voto offering (look elsewhere for hotel bookings—there are dozens of hotels in Lourdes, all advertising their proximity in meters and yards to the grotto). If you can’t travel, stay on the website and watch the grotto all day long via a 24/7 live feed. Lourdes is keeping up in the new millennium; will Champion, with its simple message of Catholic catechesis, follow suit? Two frequently asked questions on the Lour…

Forget the Pope—We Need a New Caliph!

By Haroon Moghul

…s. The only problem might be how President Obama would take to sharing the American stage. Also, far-right crazies will suffer a public meltdown faced with an actually Muslim black American leader. (VI) Amra Babic, Mayor of Visoko, Bosnia The Good: There’s a precedent for female Caliphs. In the mid-600s, the Khawarij movement elected female leaders, on the grounds that piety mattered more than anything—more than ethnic origin, race, or gender. B…

Global LGBT Recap: “Lavender Fascism,” Rage in India, Pope Francis Ousts Culture Warrior

By Peter Montgomery

…Advocate, the latter choice angering some gay-rights activists. Ethopia: Newsweek Reports ‘Cheered on by Americans, Ethiopia has Declared War on Gay Men” A major story in Newsweek reports on the extraordinary legal and cultural hostility toward LGBT people in Ethiopia. Seventy-six countries criminalize sexual activity by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, and 38 of them, including Ethiopia, are in Africa. According to the 2007 Pew G…

Answers in Genesis Seeks Tax Breaks for New Theme Park

By Lauri Lebo

…thinks creationism should be taught in the public schools. As part of the new project, AIG and Ark Encounter also say they are seeking tax breaks from the state, an announcement which has raised the eyebrows of constitutional watchdogs. According to the Courier-Journal: Gov. Beshear spokeswoman Kerri Richardson declined to answer questions Tuesday about possible incentives for the project. The developers are seeking incentives under the Kentucky…

Rising Christian Right Movement, New Apostolic Reformation, Emerged as a Mid-20th Century Splinter of White Supremacy

By Keri Ladner

…atter Rain, or the NAR and includes one of the most significant figures in American Pentecostalism: Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944) and her Los Angeles megachurch, Angelus Temple. “Sister Aimee” began her ministry through traveling revivals during which she claimed to heal people of their illnesses through the Holy Spirit. She became one of the most influential people in the country during the public years of her ministry, and when Angelus Temp…