Search for "evangelical left"

Tim LaHaye’s World: We’re Living In It

By Jason C. Bivins

…ly influential evangelical remains best known for his co-authorship of the Left Behind novels, ubiquitous between the Clinton and Bush administrations. But LaHaye not only lived through several different Americas in his 90 years, he helped shape our present moment. On the face of it, this seems an obvious, water-is-wet-ish thing to say about a public figure. But LaHaye did more than simply contribute to public discourse, or propose a particular re…

An Obituary for Right-Wing Evangelicalism?

By Becky Garrison

…humanism, calling out the US Supreme Court for being too queer for words. Even the thrice-married Newt Gingrich could not revise history and steer the party back on course. Having left Jesus at a bus stop, waiting to catch a ride with some voyaging nuns, right-wing evangelicalism leaves only a few weary survivors….

Heavenly Bodies Was the Most Popular Exhibit in the History of the Met—Here’s Why That’s a Problem

By Liz Bucar

…ike I was strolling around an ordination scene from Game of Thrones. I was left to figure out for myself how the garments related to the Met’s permanent collections. And I didn’t have a clue. This is especially true of the Vatican pieces on display in the Anna Wintour Center in the basement of the Met’s 5th avenue location. These items are impressive, and obvious displays of church power and wealth. But by displaying them without commentary, the v…

Will Women Priests Change the Church?

By Mary E. Hunt

…t for change that characterizes 21st-century Catholicism, lest viewers are left with an incomplete picture. Part of the movement is indeed focused on women’s ordination, the lack of which is one of the most obvious signs that institutional Catholicism relegates women to second-class citizenship. In the movie, many wonderful women describe their priestly vocations from childhood, their calls to ministry, and how they have struggled to fulfill them….

The Right Questions Kamala Harris’ Blackness — Yet as Long as She Holds Any Power She’ll Always Be Too Black for Them

By Mary Rambaran-Olm

…ris’ ancestor was a White plantation owner in Jamaica. Nothing says “child left behind” like the failure to understand that “[White] enslavers routinely sexually violated the people they enslaved, which is how Kamala can be related to a plantation owner.” I’m not sure what sort of “gotcha” that story was meant to be, but if there’s any takeaway for Harris, it’s that she needs to put more money into our education system. There is a valid critique a…

Vatican Considers ‘Disordered’ Language; HBO Doc on LGBT Persecution in Russia; Nigerian Bishop Shifts on Anti-Gay Law; Arson at ‘Open Mosque’ in South Africa; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…e evangelical leaders such as Rev. Pukuta Mwanza(Executive Director of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia), religious leaders endorse prayers and counseling as an answer to homosexuality. Despite the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby (leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion) telling Zambians that homosexuality is a global and human rights issue, Rev. Mwanza (who spoke afterwards) asked LGBTQ persons to seek “spiritual help and prayers” fr…

Pussy Riot Members Sentenced to 2 Years for Offending Russian Orthodox Church

By The Editors

…and are not, motivated by religious hatred and hostility, there is nothing left for our accusers other than to draw on the aid of false witnesses. One of them, Motilda Ivashchenko, was ashamed and didn’t show up in court. That left the false witness of the expert examination by [Vsevolod] Troitsky, [Igor] Ponkin and Mrs [Vera] Abramenkova. And there is no evidence of any hatred or enmity on our part other than this expert examination. For this rea…

Killing One Primate to Save Another: The Ethics of Animal Rights

By Arri Eisen

…judged by the way its animals are treated. —Mohandas Ghandi A fire-bomb is left (undetonated) on the porch. Lives and careers shift. Laws are made and broken. What is it? Religious conflict? Ideological rifts? Kind of. In this week’s Nature, the scientist Dario Ringach tells the disturbing story of how, because he did research on primates, he was targeted for violent treatment by so-called ‘animal rights extremists’; how after the fire-bomb incide…

The Leadership Crisis at the End of the Megachurch Era

By Benjamin Dueholm

…ts and limitations. This has been, more or less, the path of Rob Bell, who left behind the big, influential church he founded in 2011 to freelance as a speaker and sage. Entrepreneurs turned locally-designed innovations into business enterprises and fell into the pitfalls of the CEO. This seems to have been the fate of Bill Hybels, whose church was a major force in the church-growth movement. He ended up accused of inappropriate behavior on his ya…

What’s Islamophobia, and Do I Have It?

By Haroon Moghul

…in their denial of Islamophobia, considering it a “neologism” used by the left to silence their fair criticisms of Islam. Reality, as always, begs to disagree. Islamophobia is anything but rational, fair, or grounded. Like climate change denial, it masks real threats and makes it harder for us to deal with them. America deserves a better conversation on Islam. One that has the room to acknowledge real threats and challenges, but also enables us t…