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New Research Links Spiritual-Not-Religious to Mental Disorder

By Elizabeth Drescher

…y): “There ya go! Your fakey-fakey, sage-burning, labyrinth-walking, church-of-the-blessed-ME ‘spirituality’ doesn’t make you happy.” Throw in some (largely inconclusive) studies on prayer and healing, an the result seems fairly obvious: Traditional believers are happier, healthier, and a heck of a lot saner. So there! Not so fast. Like all research, the BJP study bears much closer scrutiny and, as its authors note, the relationship between religi…

What Irish Marriage Vote Means for Catholic Church; The Lonely Fight for Equality in Belize; Progress and Backlash in Tunisia; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…the Vatican to oppose or counter such statements implies approval; its hide-and-seek game essentially sanctions the persecution of sexual minorities in Africa and other parts of the world. Here at RD, Mary Hunt asked whether Ireland really “buried” the Catholic Church, writing, “Many people think the vote heralds the end of the Roman Catholic Church as we know it—but I think the reality might be more complicated.” We do know for sure that good Iri…

YOU Are Spiritual But Not Religious: The Secret Spiritual History of the Choose Your Own Adventure Books

By Daniel Silliman

…panzees. Your encounters with these creatures, and with various other ne’er-do-wells, spins the book off into so many directions it’s hard to keep track of them. Depending on which choices you make, the House of Danger houses a counterfeiting ring, a secret organization for international peace, a paranormal hotbed of ghosts left over from the 1887 prison riot, or a spearhead of an alien invasion. Whatever happens, there’s never a dull moment. The…

As Tensions Escalate in the Balkans, the West Could Hand Putin a Valuable Weapon

By Katherine Kelaidis

…us ways “Everything is Russia, except Kosovo. Kosovo is Serbia.” It’s a not-so-subtle message to the Serbian people: “Russia gets it. And a world with Russia in charge will see Kosovo returned to you.” What does the West have to offer? This ignorance also offers Russia and other reactionaries a valuable weapon in their efforts to win new converts, allowing them to argue that there’s a “hidden history” of Christian persecution and suffering that’s…

UPDATED: Oklahoma Personhood Bill Not Dead…

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…tutional. (More on that in a moment.) They tried to assure everyone that SB-1433 wouldn’t threaten IVF or women with life-threatening pregnancies. But many Oklahomans, and more to the point many legislators, found such lack of clarity. Sen. Doug Cox, who criticized other members of the Public Health committee for their unwillingness to put their reassurances in writing, proposed a number of amendments. So did other legislators, such that by the…

Trump’s “Muslim Ban” A Gift to Terrorists

By Ali Olomi

…gside the history of coexistence is a history of intolerance. From the anti-Irish Catholic Know-Nothing Party, to the Asian Exclusion Act, to the internment of people of Japanese ancestry, this country has vacillated on the razor’s edge. The immigration policies of Donald Trump aim to return us to the darker eras of our history, consequentially erasing the history of vulnerable groups who are part of the fabric of this nation. Since the horrific e…

Census Reveals Gay People are Shockingly… Normal

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…. Even here in my own incredibly conservative state of South Carolina, the number of same-sex couples increased and a quarter of them are raising children. It’s those kinds of facts that have right-wing media like the Christian Post scratching their heads, with headlines like this that rival anything over at The Onion: “Gay Couples Spread in U.S., Behave Like Straight Couples” Um, yeah, well, duh. What exactly are gay couples supposed to act like?…

Swimming Against the Tide: Religious (Non) Affiliation Might Not Mean What You Think It Means

By Timothy King

…llowing such a line of reasoning might mean we are seeing an uptick in the number of American’s who will report a life-changing Christian experience while simultaneously being less likely to identify with any particular Christian institution. This raises questions about the complicated relationship between Americans and their willingness to affiliate with large institutions (religious and otherwise) in general. The rate of decline in affiliation f…

After More Mass Shootings It’s Time to Call Out White Supremacy in the Pews

By Peter Laarman

…what’s going on, but too few seem capable of saying it. We now have a fair number of political and civic leaders who are willing to say the word trauma and talk about the all-pervasive violence in this culture, not to mention the extent of mental disturbance and the fact that American civilians have more assault rifles in their possession than does the U.S. military. All well and good. But we have too few leaders who will talk about the deeper roo…

Dispatches from the Workplace: Postville: Ground Zero for the Intersection of Immigrant and Workers’ Rights

By Kim Bobo

…like the Chicago-based Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and the Minneapolis-St. Paul-based Jewish Community Action, joined local religious leaders for a city-wide march in Postville. Rally speakers called for an end to the workplace raids that tear small communities apart and terrorize workers, a rational immigration reform package that will create a path to citizenship for hard-working immigrants who have shown themselves to be loving friends and…