…rs takes a similar tack. In a formal statement initially adopted during the 1980s in opposition to young-earth creationism and always controversial among theists, the group defined evolution as “an unsupervised, impersonal, unpredictable, and natural process of temporal descent with gradual modification.” In 1997, responding to ID challenges, the association deleted the words “unsupervised” and “impersonal” from the statement. Its executive direct…
…national Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia were held on and around May 17. In Chile, more than 50,000 people joined the annual March for Equality last Saturday, and a group of anti-gay evangelicals invaded and disrupted a press conference being held by a gay rights organization. Activists were reportedly attacked in Kyrgyzstan, where anti-gay violence has been on the rise as the government considers a Russian-style anti-gay “propaganda” law….
…current data on state-by-state support for interracial marriage, but while 18% of all newly married people in urban areas are married to someone of a different race, only 3% of newlyweds in Jackson, Mississippi are married to someone of a different race, the lowest percentage in the country. And the Mississippi Clarion Ledger reported earlier this year that the overall growth in number of interracial couples in Mississippi was behind the national…
…learning from our colleagues and exploring these complex histories over a number of years, we have found that religious liberty is not a single, stable principle existing outside of history, as it is often depicted (particularly in policy circles in North America and Europe and by many academics invested in promoting religious freedom). It is, rather, an inescapably context-bound, polyvalent concept unfolding within divergent histories in differi…
…ated as non-Jews and antisemites, may ironically find themselves rejoining the historical mainstream of Jewish religious tradition documented by Ravitzky. ¹ Song of Songs Rabbah 2:7, Babylonian Talmud Ketubbot 111a with Rashi’s specifications. ² The first Reform platform calling for “the rehabilitation of Palestine” passed by a single vote in 1937. ³ On Redemption and its [Illegitimate] Substitutes…
By Randall Balmer, Anthea Butler, Evan Derkacz, Jeff Sharlet, and Diane Winston
…Camelot was a “layover on the way to Vietnam.” Maybe so, maybe not. On June 10, 1963, President Kennedy delivered the commencement speech at American University. In the middle of the Cold War, he laid out his vision for a world at peace and how we might get there: “Some say it is useless to speak of peace or world disarmament, and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I bel…
…d under collective bargaining agreements—continued its steady rise into the 1950s and 1960s, creating something new on the face of the earth: a working class capable of enjoying a middle-class living standard. As late as 1973—also the peak year for real worker income in the United States—union density hovered at around 25% in the private sector. Today that number is just 7.4%. The bargaining power and the political clout of organized labor have be…
…Rick Warren signed a statement of concern about global warming, joining a number of the new breed of evangelicals, much to the chagrin of the old guard like James Dobson. The press began to talk about the expanded agenda of the “new evangelicals,” an agenda not limited to the old shibboleths of abortion and opposition to gay marriage. The Five Non-Negotiable Issues Despite all the above, on a number of issues critical to women’s lives, he remains…
…des Maher wants to make fun of. A contemporary Google search for “Webster’s 1828 dictionary” will turn up the swarming of conservative Christian groups praising Webster and, more typically, offering a reprint of the old book for sale. Christianbook.com sells the product with this description: Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language was produced during the years when the American home, church and school were established upon…
…ight Americans is poor. One child in six is poor. … From 2000 to 2007, the number of children living in poverty increased by 15 percent… In 2007, the richest 20 percent of Americans had over 50 percent of the nation’s income, while the poorest 20 percent had only 3.4 percent.” In a piece titled “Fighting Poverty With Faith,” Steeland and Nordengren recently reported that “the ‘Fighting Poverty with Faith’ action campaign [in September] brought tog…
