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The Episcopal Church ‘Takes a Flying Leap’ into Controversies Old and New  

…e from the Episcopal Church.” Opening the Doors Too Far? The approval of a number of other resolutions unrelated to gender, sexuality, and relationships drew little media attention but nonetheless stirred controversy in the wider Episcopal and Christian cosmos as the General Convention came to a close. Chief among these is a resolution (C029) that a task force be created to study so-called “open communion”—the practice of allowing access to consec…

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PRRI’s Robert P. Jones Discusses Authoritarianism, Christian Nationalism, and What the 2024 Election is Really About

…enship? Or should we identify them and deport them? The general population number is about 60-40: a little more than six in 10 Americans [agree with a] path to citizenship and the rest are divided among these other positions. But what we’ve seen are two things. The [second] option has thinned out a little bit and the deportation number [option 3] has gone up. That’s mostly been because Republicans have shifted. They’ve actually followed the lead o…

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What’s in a Name? Religious Nones and the American Religious Landscape

…r grandparents’ generations. Many church leaders are concerned about their losses and what in their view will result in a general decline in social and personal morals. Others rationalize their losses as essentially a culling of the religious herd. Now, they say, we’re down to people who really believe, instead of “cultural Christians” who don’t adhere to Christian beliefs. Meanwhile, many atheists claim that the entire category is populated by fe…

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Park51 and the Ground Liberals Are Forced to
Fight On

…inciples so it’s kind of important when you see a poll that says a growing number of Americans think you might be a Muslim. The President continues to tell everyone he’s a Christian but yet the number rises. See that? Which came first, the thought he was a Muslim or the lack of trust? If he is a Muslim, he can’t be trusted? Or if you can’t trust him, he must be a Muslim? In any case, Obama strained mightily to placate the likes of Graham and Brody…

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The Gospel Church and the Ruining of Gay Lives: An Interview with Anthony Heilbut

…, and then I say, thinking of all the ruined gay lives, this really is the number that no man can number. It’s also interesting to me that “Writing It Out” is followed by the section “War on the Children.” Such an organization suggests that the latter was a reaction against the former—that as these voices emerge, there’s this really virulent reaction culturally against them.  And also it’s so very political. As the church has become more right-win…

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Is Torture Utilitarian?

…ms. And that leads to some very bizarre moral reasoning. Utilitarianism is number-crunching, but of a very peculiar kind; in its crudest forms, it seems to imply that you can measure pleasure and pain, and that by maximizing the pleasure of the greatest number of people, you may be able to justify the infliction of pain on a select few. We see that strange logic at work in these memoranda. First, the CIA justified waterboarding with the “ticking t…

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What Color is Vatican Smoke?

…, seven thousand black South Africans were killed under apartheid, and the number imprisoned was far higher. The Catholic Church neither kills nor imprisons ordained women and their supporters; excommunication, while painful, is not at all the same, even when financial losses accompany it. In 2007 I published an article in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion explaining in some detail why highly educated white women simply cannot say that t…

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How a Powerful ‘Ex-Gay’ Pastor is Chasing the Latino Vote

…, Alianza de Pastores Unidos de San Diego. A pastor who is among the small number of Anglos at the gathering explains that breaking the news to congregants about the “biblically correct” way to vote can be a delicate business. “They came up in tears and said, ‘I was born in this political party and I’ve always voted in this political party. But now I understand I have to vote on issues.’ Or: ‘My husband has always told me who to vote for. But, bef…

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Forced Cremation of Covid Dead in Sri Lanka Further Marginalizes Muslim Community

…020, there have been 146 Covid deaths in Sri Lanka with a disproportionate number coming from the Muslim community; despite making up less than 10% of the population, Muslims account for nearly half of the reported deaths. A Muslim leader in Sri Lanka informed the authors that the number is actually higher, and that 82 Muslims have died, with over 70 cremations. The cremation of the victims was carried out by the state without the approval of the…

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The End (of Religion) is Near, Scientists Say

…whole new worlds of meaning and meaningful activity bubble to the surface. Lost in the debate is the large and growing number of thoughtful people who self-identify as “spiritual, but not religious” (that is, as non-affiliated), an admittedly complex phrase than doesn’t allow for easy analysis either. But, as has been frequently noted on RD, religion is highly dispersed in the modern period; it’s not going away, it’s just going elsewhere. Sometime…

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