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‘Imagine Better’: Can Harry Potter Change the World?

By B. Howell Belser

…comparisons are unbalanced. Far from having forgotten what activism is, many are recognizing that it can take many forms. Joining the “Save Darfur Coalition” on Facebook or organizing a blood or bone marrow donation drive may not, on their own, “require that you confront socially entrenched norms and practices,” but there are ways to employ social media that do. The definition of activism is contextual and always changing, as are the strategies e…

Pope Denounces Gender Colonization; Indonesian Court Considers Islamist Request To Criminalize Homosexuality; Egypt’s Grand Mufti Says No One Has Right to Harm Homosexuals; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…day reported that “there were signs of acceptance during the opening ceremony.” At Outsports, Tony Scupham-Bilton estimates that “more than 250 LGBT Olympians have made their mark in sport” since 1928. The shortlist for the UK’s sixth annual Polari First Book Prize, which is awarded to a writer “whose first book explores the LGBT experience, whether in poetry, prose, fiction or non-fiction,” has been released. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudea…

Is Army’s New “Humanist” Designation Just Semantic Hooey?

By Elizabeth Drescher

…nship to God and marks the future trajectory of his lineage. Indeed, in many religions, choosing a name that expresses a close coherence between self-identity and religious identity and affiliation (or having one conferred) is a defining ritual feature, as in the Sikh Nam Karam ceremony for naming a child according to the first letter of a sacred hymn. Such a name is, as Roland Barthes put it, “the prince of signifiers; its connotations are rich,…

Naked Jihad

By Kate Blanchard

…ld soon be feeling the need to leave her home country. Not surprisingly, a number of Western women felt moved to show their support for Amina. An international movement called Femen staged bare-breasted protests in European cities, in which the writings on their chests echoed Amina’s, along with “Freedom for women” and “Fuck your morals.” (Be warned: photos contain nudity and strong language.) But Femen did not have the last word. Almost immediat…

American Sin: Why Pope Francis’ Mercy is Not Our Mercy

By Kaya Oakes

…nst Catholics, with “popery” having been perceived as highly suspect for many decades. But American Catholicism has from the beginning been shaped by immigrants, and resists a narrow, singular identity in the manner of WASPs. Beyond that, Francis’ vision of the confessional as a place of mercy is not the experience of many American Catholics. Francis tells Tonelli that when he regularly took confessions, “I always thought about myself, about my ow…

The Progress of Christ in Commercial America: A Review of Chris Lehmann’s The Money Cult

By Peter Laarman

…delights in surfacing little-known factoids. These include the remarkable number of commercial hucksters who were preachers or else preachers’ kids (e.g., Richard Bolles of What Color is Your Parachute? fame—a former Episcopal priest) and the equally remarkable number of notable preachers who had strong commercial instincts and/or commercial roots (ranging from 18th-century superstar evangelist George Whitefield to 19th-century revivalist giant C…

‘Cult’ Is an Inaccurate, Unhelpful and Dangerous Label for Followers of Trump, QAnon, and 1/6

By Catherine Wessinger

…desired collective salvation. On January 6, 2021, it probably seemed to a number of participants and supporters in the Euro-American Nativist Millennial Movement that they had finally achieved the critical mass of adherents to overthrow Congress. There are many varieties of millennialism. As I wrote in The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism: “A nativist millennial movement consists of people who feel under attack by a foreign colonizing government…

Religion and Other Animals

By Paul Waldau

…near their communities. This refusal is evident in food practices, where many encounter animals most frequently. At the same time, more households in the United States today have companion animals than have children. Polls consistently indicate that an astonishing number of people—in some cases more than ninety-nine percent—hold their dog or cat to be a “family member.” Communities of faith are among the institutions that are most responsive to th…

No Conspiracy Theories Needed: Abortion Foes Cry Racism

By Kathryn Joyce

…nter, has ties to white supremacist organizations. Regardless of these clunky historical facts, Obama’s presidency and the GOP’s dismaying efforts to appeal to “the hip-hop generation” appear to have prompted resurgent interest in these arguments as a race-conscious update to the anti-abortion message. Since late December, a number of anti-abortion organizations have made public and prominent hires of activists who frame their anti-abortion work i…

Evangelical Pastor Argues for Full LGBT Inclusion: “I Think It’s Inevitable”

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…ify as a disputable matter. Paul’s answer in the matter is acceptance. If anything, Paul was siding with those he called “strong” on these issues. But, the “weak” side, if anything, had more biblical support for its argument. Sabbath keeping and not eating meat sacrificed to idols was clearly forbidden in scripture, so it makes a great parallel for today’s LGBT question. In regards to this passage, I find that those we would call “liberal” on this…