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How to Make Nones and Lose Money: Study Shows Cost of Catholic Sex Abuse Scandals

By Kaya Oakes

…use scandal did indeed contribute to their decisions to leave the church. Emily, who was raised in a devout family and at one point considered becoming a nun, reported that the abuse scandal and the Vatican investigation of women religious “made me vote with my feet” and leave the church for good. However, Emily still feels a sense of solidarity with Catholicism. “I don’t see myself in the church,” she adds, “but with people from the church.” Eliz…

The Vatican v. Protestant Free Thinkers

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…ne announced by John Paul II in his anticipation of a new Church for a new millennium (laid out in the Apostolic Letter, Tertio millennnio adveniente, 10 November 1994), which famously called for a “purification of memory.” What John Paul II intended was to recall the Roman Church to a mindfulness of her failures as well as her successes. Faith, as that Pope never tired of repeating, can never be promoted by force; truth’s power lies its truthfuln…

“Split at the Root”: Adrienne Rich and (Religious) Identity

By Ryan Harper

…I know there are a number of Christians who aren’t so sure I should be so numbered. My examination occurs alongside my spouse’s examination. She is an ordained Baptist minister who with unspeakable grace regularly braves misogynistic condescension: the assumption among even thoughtful, well-meaning people that her spouse possesses the professional, theological mind in the relationship. The struggle for religious identity is a struggle for gender…

Growing Catholic Resistance to Bishops’ Crusades

By Peter Montgomery

…know that not everybody out there agrees with the bishops.” Pointing to a number of studies that show that about 90 percent of Catholics don’t follow the church’s official teaching on birth control, McCaulley said the group thought that since the bishop is “always willing to meet with priests,” they could raise the issue with Zubik and ask him to meet with laypeople, as “we didn’t feel competent to speak on women’s issues.” In Washington State, m…

Seeing the Future: Can Religion Evolve and Survive in a Changing World?

By Peter Savastano

…xical argument: that the means by which one outgrows or moves beyond the limiting worldview of one’s native religious tradition is through the practice of the religious tradition itself. Two questions I have spent a lot of time thinking about over the last number of years is what form, structure, and expression the phenomenon we call “religion” will take in the future (that is, if “religion” is then still labeled as such); or, conversely, is there…

As Psychedelics Experience a Renaissance, Emory’s New Center for Psychedelics and Spirituality Seeks a Novel Approach

By Hollis Phelps

…sion, PTSD, and substance abuse disorders—as well as in palliative care. A number of prominent institutions in the United States currently host centers devoted to studying the mechanisms, effects, and efficacy of psychedelics, including NYU’s Center for Psychedelic Medicine, Johns Hopkins’s Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, and UC Berkeley’s Center for the Science of Psychedelics. In addition, and anticipating the legal and socioc…

Two Women and a Mosque: A Convert Community Grows in Panama City

By Aliyya Swaby

…ries of mosques in New York. As a child in Brooklyn, I was surrounded by families like mine: black, Muslim, converts. But when my family moved to the suburbs, that support system fell away. I had been taught repeatedly that Islam was colorblind, that everyone was born Muslim, that Allah was for everyone. But, a minority within a minority group, I always felt like I was living at the fringe of a more authentic religious experience. Islam belonged t…

Contrary to Claims of Anti-Trans Muslims, LGBTQ+ Acceptance is Widespread in the History of Islam

By Ali Olomi

…y based on how they presented. Tolerance of gender ambiguity and non-conformity in Islamic cultures went hand-in-hand with broader acceptance of homoeroticism. Texts like Ali ibn Nasir al-Katib’s Jawami al-Ladhdha, Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani’s Kitab al-Aghani, and the Tunisian, Ahmad al-Tifashi’s Nuz’ha al-‘Albab attest to the widespread acceptance of same-sex desire as natural. Homoeroticism is a common element in much of Persian and Arabic poetry…

Why Even Progressive Christianity Must Own Its Complicity in Anti-LGBT Violence

By Layton E. Williams

…many Christian churches and leaders—has led to countless hate crimes, alarmingly high numbers of homeless LGBT young people, and staggering rates of depression, self-harm, and suicide among LGBT youth and adults. Of course, a growing number of churches and denominations today have rejected such a destructive understanding of human sexuality. Religion Dispatches recently compiled a list of the official positions on LGBT issues currently taught by…

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

By B. Howell Belser

…most popular series of children’s books—and one of the most contentious, coming in at number one on The American Library Association’s list of “Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009.” The film series, the seventh of which was released last weekend, is the highest-grossing series of all time, surpassing both Star Wars and the James Bond films—all 22 of them. Harry Potter, the story goes, is a special young man and a talented wizard, who—with a…