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Fighting 21st Century Fascism

Tanya Erzen

Tanya Erzen is an Associate Professor of Religion and Gender Studies at the University of Puget Sound and the executive director of a college program for incarcerated women in Washington state. She received a Soros Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Foundation to complete God in Captivity: The Rise of Faith-Based Ministries in an Age of Mass Incarceration (Beacon, 2017).

Articles

Public Eye

Captive Audience

How Prison Ministries Prioritize Salvation Over Justice
As bipartisan reform efforts have steadily drifted rightward, the heavy hand of evangelicals in prison reform efforts has created new kinds of problems.
Tanya Erzen
Article
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Religion Dispatches

“Ex-Gay” is Anti-Gay, Disguised as Compassion

National Coming Out day elicits both despondency and outrage in the wake of the recent suicides of Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown, Seth Walsh, and Billy Lucas. Yet, the various laments against bullying in the media overlook the question about the “tougher, more uncertain work (of) creating a world that loves queer kids, that wants them to live and thrive.” Few of the commentaries about Clementi, Brown, Walsh, Lucas and others address the broader context of responsibility for their suicides.
Tanya Erzen
Article
Religion Dispatches

Praying Away the Gay: “This is What Love Feels Like?”

Prayers For Bobby, a new Lifetime TV movie, portrays the tragic struggle of a gay teen in a conservative Christian family and the family’s attempt to “heal” him. Predictably, the film was heavily criticized by the religious right.
Tanya Erzen
Article