Report | Catholic Attitudes on Gay and Lesbian Issues: A Comprehensive Portrait from Recent Research
Catholics are more supportive of legal recognitions of same-sex relationships than members of any other Christian tradition and Americans overall. Nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43%) or allowing them to …
read moreNew Evangelical Partnership Releases “A Call to Christian Common Ground on Family Planning, and Maternal, and Children’s Health”
Worldwide, about 125 million women face social, emotional, and spiritual trauma – and for some, the life-threatening risk – of not having access to family planning. As a result, one in four births worldwide is unplanned, leading …
read moreWhy a Bible belt conservative spent a year pretending to be gay
Timothy Kurek, a graduate of the evangelical Liberty University, decided to 'walk in the shoes' of a gay man and emerged with his faith strengthened
Timothy Kurek grew up hating homosexuality. As a conservative Christian deep in America’s Bible belt, he had been taught that being gay was an abomination before God. He went to his right-wing church, saw himself as a …
read more
TEDxManitoba – TJ Dawe: An Experiment in Collective Intelligence
TJ Dawe speaks about the goals of his organization, Beams and Struts, and an ideology of compassionate cooperation.
read more
A Tale of Two Cities
Jerusalem, Now and When?
Why would a Jewish American doctor risk serving the medical needs of Palestinian children in the occupied territories of the West Bank?
read more
Would You Vote For Jesus? Questions Christian Voters Must Ask
Many Christians I know vote based on a single issue, usually abortion. Now I don’t want to get into the pro-choice, anti-abortion, debate. I understand that if the point of conception is the beginning of life, pro-choice does not feel like a viable option. But I believe that the question for a Christian-motivated voter is not as simple as a candidate’s stance on abortion. The question should be: How Christ-like is my candidate?
read more
Marriage Equality As Christian Sacrament
Sermon by Rev. Rich Lang with University Temple United Methodist Church in Seattle on “Marriage Equality As Christian Sacrament” rooted in Matthew 16: 5-19 recorded October 14, 2012.
read moreFifty years on, Catholics still debate the meaning of Vatican II
When Pope John XXIII called the Second Vatican Council half a century ago, he said he wanted to “open the windows” of his almost 2,000-year Church to the rapid changes in the modern world. Within a few …
read moreCalifornians To Cast A Life Or Death Vote On Prop 34
Above: California voters will make a life or death decision this election, when they vote on Proposition 34. The proposition to repeal the death penalty comes at a time when executions are declining and capital punishment has …
read moreAfter Riots, Buddhists Call for Peace
DHAKA, Bangladesh – Anxiety has yet to die down over a week after crowds of Muslims torched more than a dozen temples and scores of houses in southeast Bangladesh, leaving thousands of Buddhists with the unshakeable premonition that …
read moreCatholic bishops rebuke Biden over contraception mandate claims
WASHINGTON (RNS) In a rare public rebuke, Catholic bishops chided Vice President Joe Biden for saying during Thursday’s vice-presidential debate that Catholic hospitals and institutions will not be forced to provide contraception coverage to employees. Without mentioning …
read more‘Young Earth’ Baloney on the House Science Committee
A Republican congressman has dismissed evolution, the Big Bang theory and embryology as “lies straight from the pit of hell.” Representative Paul Broun (R-Ga.), whose speech at Liberty Baptist Church in Georgia last September was posted on YouTube …
read moreReligious leaders respond to the rise of the “Nones”
As we noted yesterday, the number of Americans who have no religious affiliation has hit an all-time high, according to a new study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. One in five adults does not belong …
read more
The Heart of Freedom
For Whitehead and Hartshorne, the indeterminacy of subatomic events suggests that freedom, and the creativity that flows from it, are ubiquitous in the universe. Even electrons make choices. According to process thought, we’re so free that even God can’t know the future, since all entities have the God-given ability to behave unpredictably.
read moreNon-Catholics less likely to credit Columbus with discovery of America
Is there no end to the things that divide people by religious categories? Here’s a stat for your Columbus Day (Observed) edition: Eighty-seven percent of Roman Catholics credit Christopher Columbus with discovering America, according to a 2010 …
read moreCampaigns’ faith outreach centers on economy
On the Democratic side, the top issues listed on Obama’s faith platform are “economic recovery,” followed by “tax fairness” and “Wall Street reform.” Citing the Apostle Paul, the platform says that “President Obama’s belief that we are all connected …
read moreSally Quinn Declares Romney Debate Winner for Mentioning God
In the Washington Post’s On Faith section, Sally Quinn, whose last noticed piece of writing was a much-ridiculed lament about the decline of the Washington power dinner party, is out this afternoon with quite possibly one of the most slipshod treatments of religion …
read moreIHM nuns lacking voter ID; call law ‘unfair and ridiculous’
For decades, Sister Jeanne Gallagher, I.H.M., taught young children about government and the importance of voting. As the November election nears, the 86-year-old nun and retired teacher fears the state’s controversial Voter ID law will keep her …
read more
