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American Anti-Gay Campaign in Africa Opposes “Fictitious Sexual Rights”

By Warren Throckmorton

…-based FWI is affiliated with the World Congress of Families, an Illinois think tank which conducts international conferences to promote their vision for “the natural family”—“the fundamental social unit, inscribed in human nature, and centered around the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage.” Most of the conferences are outside the United States and have focused on developing nations where their conservative mes…

RDPulpit: Religious Right Censors Austria’s Gay Jesus

By Kittredge Cherry

…specially the suffering of Christ, a central theme in his art. The rest of his exhibit, titled “Religion, Flesh and Power,” remains on display until May 10 with two other controversial images: A sculpture of Jesus on the cross without a loincloth, and a crucifixion in which a soldier holds Jesus’ genitals while beating him. Over the past 20 years, artists in many nations, working in isolation, began portraying the queer Christ—Hrdlicka among them….

Is Downward Dog the Path to Hell?

By Andrea R. Jain

…nd that it needs to be protected by trademark laws. Shukla is not alone in his Hindu criticism of non-Hindus practicing yoga. The Hindu American Foundation shares Shukla’s concern that yoga has been stolen from Hinduism and has published its own statement that supports this view. Both the evangelical Christian yogaphobic position and the Hindu essentialist yoga-belongs-to-Hinduism position reflect religious fundamentalist tendencies to define idea…

No Space for American Islam?

By Mark Bergen

…st not there. But the recent, incessant opposition to Muslim houses of worship proves this is simply not about its location. A group in rural California is working fervently to halt construction of a new mosque in their changing community. In Staten Island, a short ferry ride from Ground Zero, a Catholic church prepared to sell its unused convent space to a group planning a new mosque. Protests erupted, and the church’s board voted to retract the…

Five Things We Can Learn From Creationists

By Nathan Schneider

…se.com, where users can celebrate the utter and final demise of evolution while watching you, dressed up as a clown, singing “Jingle Bells” on repeat. All of this madness, I submit, is a testament to the power of your idea. But, as in every madness, there is method too. By now you are doubtless familiar with the wrongs done in the name of evolution. Your cousin, Francis Dalton, created the eugenics movement with your Origin in his hands. The Gilde…

Gingrich’s Anti-Secularism Greatest Hits

By Sarah Posner

…ingrich’s politically expedient antipathy toward a secular democracy is nothing new, nor is his pandering to religious right figures to win elections. Here’s a look back at the greatest hits of Gingrich’s career in opposition to the separation of church and state: 1. Failed school prayer amendment. Rob Boston, senior policy analyst at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, was at the Heritage Foundation in 1994 when Gingrichd ann…

By the Way: Bush Commencement Opposed by Furman Faculty

By Randall Balmer

…y declared on the eve of the Iowa precinct caucuses in 2000 that Jesus was his favorite philosopher and who made much of his evangelical conversions during both campaigns. Yet, with the highly arguable exception of vetoing research on stem cells, Bush’s Christian faith has had precious little effect on his policies as president. Think of the Bush administration’s persistent and systematic use of torture, for example, his cavalier approach to the e…

American Civil Religion is Dead, Long Live American Civil Religion

By Peter Laarman

…invention of American civil religion possible with our eyes fully open to this criminal history? Is it even conceivable?? Let’s have a quick look at the main elements of the old religion: 1. The United States enjoys a unique (some would say, “a unique and God-given“) place in world history in that it was birthed from a bourgeois but still far-reaching revolutionary culture; 2. Our constitutional system, despite its creakiness and rigidity, still m…

Mitt’s Jesus, Barack’s Jesus, and Why Christ’s Color Matters

By Joanna Brooks

…rge W. Bush who claimed that Jesus was the most important “philosopher” in his thinking, Romney seems reticent to discuss Jesus. Perhaps this is because he fears looking particularly at Jesus may expose tensions and differences between his Mormonism (and the Book of Mormon as “another testament” of Jesus Christ) and conservative evangelicals who battle all the time over their Bible, how to read it, and its importance. For various reasons (of cours…

How Should Mormons Respond to Leader’s Anti-Gay Comments?

By Joanna Brooks

…ober 8, Affirmation: Gay and Lesbian Mormons is organizing a “Stand Up to Youth Suicide March” at 6:30 p.m. at the San Francisco Civic Center. The march on Friday is in conjunction with Affirmation’s annual conference, which is being held in San Francisco this year and which will feature workshops on standing up to suicide, standing up for understanding and standing up for equality. With the prominence of LGBT suicides the past month, the march is…