Search for "cheap airline tickets to myrtle beach south carolina phone number 1-800-299-7264"

3 Religious Exemption Cases to Look For in 2015

By Kara Loewentheil

…directly into effect, as was the case with a recent proposed bill in North Carolina. 3. Corporate Rights: Size Matters Hobby Lobby involved a claim by a family-owned and family-operated for-profit corporation with a limited number of shareholders, all of whom shared a set of religious beliefs and values. And the majority opinion in the case was careful to assure readers that there was no reason to think that larger for-profit corporations would br…

Rand Paul Rattles the Personhood Crowd

By Sarah Posner

…s shocking, last week, when Paul was asked about Plan B during an event in South Carolina, and he nonchalantly declared that he had no problem with women using the so-called morning-after pill. “Plan B is taking two birth control pills in the morning and two in the evening, and I am not opposed to that,” he said. Let’s set aside that Plan B comes in doses of one pill, not four; for our purposes we’re talking about Paul’s rejection of the Christian…

What 19th-Century Marriage Controversies Can Tell Us About The Fight Over Gay Marriage

By Eric C. Miller

…geable institution. While the other side of the debate emphasized the huge number of laws and policies tied to marriage, simply changing laws and policies quickly became an inadequate response. Marriage seemed to function as a status that enabled full citizenship, and advocates often made the analogy to nineteenth and early twentieth-century bans on interracial marriage. By examining the history of these controversies we can better understand what…

Religious Leaders Press Obama for Exemption from Executive Order Barring Discrimination

By Sarah Posner

…bloggingheads show, University of Miami Law School First Amendment expert Carolina Mala Corbin discussed the impact of Monday’s decision in the Hobby Lobby case on LGBT rights. “Assuming the federal government passes laws that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” she said, ” you could very much expect to have corporations to object to these laws based on their religious beliefs.” The question, Corbin added, is “whether the outc…

No to Church, Yes to Jesus?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…d outcast. “Being an atheist doesn’t mean I hate Jesus,” a None from North Carolina who had been raised in a nondenominational Evangelical family told me. “You have to love the whole Good Samaritan story, or the way he stood up for the adultery woman. You don’t want to throw that away, because we need those stories.” He paused, “It’s just that my church experience didn’t really focus on that. It was about no sinning, avoiding temptation. It was ab…

Harry Jackson Fundraises for Anti-Obama Campaign

By Peter Montgomery

…connection. Manaigo reported that events have been held in Florida, North Carolina, and New Mexico, where the group was addressed by Rodriguez, Frank Pavone of Priests for Life, Lt. Governor John Sanchez, and others. Upcoming events will be held in Colorado, Ohio, Nevada, Maine, Maryland, and Washington, with a wind-up event in Virginia. Manaigo says the campaign’s goal is “to pull together multi-ethnic, multi-denominational groups to swing the…

Hell 101: A Back-to-School Reflection on the Persistence of Belief in Eternal Punishment

By Hollis Phelps

…hy one of the most popular fall attractions in the pocket of eastern North Carolina where I teach is Judgement House, sponsored by the First Pentecostal Holiness Church of Goldsboro, NC. Through mid-October to mid-November, visitors can experience a visually-impressive “walk-through drama that presents the truth of people’s choices versus the consequences of those decisions both in this life and the next.” The various scenes of decision, tragedy,…

Maybe Millennials Are Just Realizing That ‘God is Dead’

By Hollis Phelps

…ool located deep in the eastern quadrant of the Bible Belt, in rural North Carolina. The college is understood as a ministry of its founding church, the Original Free Will Baptists. The majority of my students, including those enrolled in my Introduction to the Study of Religion course, grew up in religious, almost invariably Christian, households. Clearly, the negative valuation of “religion” in my class can’t be chalked up to misunderstanding. B…

Should We Accept The Apology of an Ex-Gay Ministry?

By John Blevins

…tive therapist” affiliated with an ex-gay movement in my hometown in North Carolina. I only went once, refusing to listen to the honeyed venom of the man who seemed so caring but told me I was caught in the grip of powerful sin that condemned me to hell unless I repented. Exodus International and other programs like it have indeed caused untold pain and harm for queer folk. Repentance from its leaders really is the only faithful response in light…

Michelle Shocked Show Shut Down After Anti-Gay Rant

By Kathryn Joyce

…er), the singer declared herself “the world’s greatest homophobe” at North Carolina’s Wild Goose Festival, an LGBT-friendly Christian cultural event. Folk singer Michelle Shocked, who has in recent years publicly rejected her lesbian fan base, became incensed when asked about her “position on homosexuality” by an audience member. “Who drafted me as a gay icon? You are looking at the world’s greatest homophobe. Ask God what He thinks,” she said, b…