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Its the Spiritual Economy, Stupid: Why the Gay Marriage Fracas Isn’t About Either

By Nick Street

…esbians and gay men are allowed to tie the knot on the courthouse steps in San Francisco. The real issues are the authority of the Bible and the nature of revelation. Recent polls show that while roughly two-thirds of Americans believe that Noah’s flood, the creation story and other biblical events are literally true, only about 40 percent of those surveyed accept the Bible as completely inerrant—a figure declining at about the rate that public ac…

RDNews: Oct 20, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…ise Keepers experienced an extraordinary growth spurt, drawing tens of thousands of men to rallies in football stadiums and sports arenas across the country. As attendance at its rallies grew—278,000 in 1994, 738,000 in 1995 and more than a million in 1996—so did its revenues. In 1997, more than one million men gathered on the National Mall in Washington for “Stand in the Gap.” Not long after “Stand in the Gap,” however, the organization hit hard…

Obamunism? The Traditional Values Coalition Coins a Term

By Bill Berkowitz

…n Bailout! Advocacy Campaign Marjorie Dannenfelser, the President of the Susan B. Anthony List, recently announced plans for the Stop the Abortion Bailout! advocacy campaign, which according to the group’s press release, aims to convince the Senate to preserve “federal abortion funding restrictions.” The campaign intends “to secure the 41 votes necessary to sustain a filibuster against measures promoting federal taxpayer funding of abortion.” The…

Jerusalem Countdown: Christian Zionists and the New Israeli Government

By Bill Berkowitz

…million strong. The End of the World as We Know It Pastor John Hagee, the San Antonio-based preacher who presides over a multimillion dollar ministry, has been cooling his heels since taking a drubbing from the mainstream press last year after saying Jews had caused the Holocaust. “The end of the world as we know it is rapidly approaching,” Hagee wrote in his 2006 book, Jerusalem Countdown: A Warning to the World. “Just before us is a nuclear cou…

Texas Board of Education Wants to Change History

By Lauri Lebo

…professor and chairman of the history department at Texas State University-San Marcos; and Lybeth Hodges, professor of history and government at Texas Woman’s University, all provide the panel with solid mainstream advanced academic credentials and educational experience. In their expert reviews, Kracht, de la Teja, and Hodges offer reasonable suggestions for curriculum updates; while the other three offer suggestions that reveal a bizarre politic…

Patron Saint of AIDS/HIV To Be Canonized

By Susan Henking

…ill be shown at a church in Detroit shortly after the canonization, and in San Francisco thereafter.) Today, there are institutions organized to address AIDS/HIV that are named after the Belgian missionary, including Damien Ministries. Indeed, Damien Ministries is celebrating its 20th year of caring for persons with AIDS/HIV. And, what some claim to be the world’s only Roman Catholic chapel memorializing persons who have died from HIV/AIDS, at Mon…

Reverend Billy For Mayor: Is He For Real?

By Nathan Schneider

…thirties, he finally settled down as an actor, writer, and producer in the San Francisco theater scene. It was there that Talen met Sidney Lanier, an Episcopal minister whose own antics were dramatized in the play-turned-film The Night of the Iguana, by his cousin, Tennessee Williams. At the time, remembers Lanier, he was “mostly traveling in the opposite direction from the Church.” After seeing Talen perform, Lanier took him out to lunch and said…

Arrest the Pope: New Atheist Effort to Seek Justice in Sexual Abuse Crisis Should Be Applauded

By Frances Kissling

…ite a civil lawsuit that was filed against him in 2002. And last year, the San Antonio (TX) Express News reported that Miller “was forced to resign two years ago after a (credible) claim that he sexually abused (a St. Louis teenager), but was sent to his superiors to live and work for the church in Rome. SNAP, and now Dawkins, et al are frequently criticized as “too angry” or “too radical.” Their insistence that the Catholic Church and its leaders…

Nuns Pray, Rangers Lose

By Lisa Webster

San Francisco was bedlam last night after the Giants broke a 53-year drought to win the World Series; you could hear the sound of the streets from way up in the hills over the Mission district. And near the ball park? Forget it. But amid the din, and my own rarely-elicited hometown pride, I found myself wondering about those elderly nuns who have been praying for so many years for the Texas Rangers. They’ve had a few minutes of fame this season,…

Ian Buruma on the Political Excesses of Religion

By Lisa Webster

…nd to set a new kind of conversation in motion. When we met last month in San Francisco, I began our conversation by commenting on the scope of the book. Buruma, best known for his expertise on Japan, told me he’d written partly to contest the idea that religion doesn’t matter in the political life of East Asia. “It’s a different kind of religion,” he explained, “the idea of spiritual authority still plays a big role.” And, while it operates more…