https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to groomer panic en https://religiondispatches.org/2024/07/29/rising-influence-new-apostolic-reformation-teachings-ominous-sign-us-especially-lgbtq Whether or not anyone recognizes it by name, the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is hitting its stride. After his June declaration that “every teacher, every classroom… will be teaching from the Bible,” Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, who… Mon, 29 Jul 2024 11:48:35 EDT Jonathon Sawyer 5e940aa4-aa08-44ac-b58e-d8e19bf46bb7 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/12/21/roundup-conspiracies-and-bad-ideas-caught-or-gained-momentum-2023 In 2023, the landscape of conspiracy theories witnessed a significant evolution, with some older conspiratorial ideas surviving into the new year and others moving from the fringe to become influential narratives shaping public discourse and political agendas. QAnon , the… Thu, 21 Dec 2023 02:42:39 EST Carmen Celestini, Amarnath Amarasingam 6e4679f3-e515-4063-92fe-063b4da3227e https://religiondispatches.org/2023/12/06/american-right-hasnt-adopted-childrens-rights-theyve-redefined-and-weaponized-them For decades, the American Right has claimed children’s rights are anathema. They undermine the family , they threaten parents , they could destroy the United States and cause the downfall of Western Civilization . Probably the most succinct summary of… Wed, 06 Dec 2023 02:39:59 EST R.L. Stollar 18b114f9-695a-4a51-a87f-343b7351a459 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/07/24/christian-nationalism-hurts-children-it-claims-protect-author-lillian-smith-understood Recently, an Indiana Moms for Liberty chapter included — and attributed — a quote from Adolf Hitler in their newsletter: “He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future.” After backlash, the chapter went into damage control and chapter chair… Mon, 24 Jul 2023 03:18:51 EDT Matthew Teutsch, Emma Williams 5f140ad7-6fe2-4cda-b015-b5e7833e0076 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/05/31/dalai-lamas-suck-my-tongue-controversy-reveals-centuries-old-christian-distortion In February 2023, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14 th Dalai Lama, appeared in Dharamshala, India at an event sponsored by the M3M Foundation , a philanthropic initiative established by the M3M Group—real-estate developers committed to “magnificence in the trinity of men… Wed, 31 May 2023 03:11:52 EDT Geoffrey Goble 2eb4f98d-e807-40ed-ad2d-403b9aedfea0 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/04/18/dragged-through-mud-little-church-backed-support-group-lgbtq-teens-suffered-bomb-threats “Twenty years ago I thought now would be better. And it’s not.” That’s how Tiffany Vasquez, a longtime resident of Roseville, California, feels after weeks of vicious right-wing attacks on the local LGBTQ community—attacks that are part of an increasingly… Tue, 18 Apr 2023 05:29:15 EDT Chrissy Stroop 1d99a2ef-0f38-442f-ba14-429adebdcf74 https://religiondispatches.org/2023/02/20/lila-rose-and-right-resurrect-malicious-child-predator-myth-putting-lgbtq-people-even In January the far-right website Townhall began publishing a four-part series on a so-called “Suburban LGBTQ Pedophile Ring.” The series, written by Townhall fact-checker Mia Cathell , claims to reveal “disturbing new details” about adoptive parents William and Zachary Zulock… Mon, 20 Feb 2023 01:12:47 EST R.L. Stollar 81bc25c1-b131-4628-9654-089169e17167 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/12/06/trans-talmud-could-1500-year-old-book-have-any-relevance-struggle-trans-equality-and To many, last month’s brutal attack on a queer nightclub in Colorado Springs, in which five people were killed and 25 were injured, was the logical conclusion of the Right’s increasingly dehumanizing rhetoric against the LGBTQI+ community. This tragic event… Tue, 06 Dec 2022 09:49:06 EST Shane Burley bdef2ab3-7f30-484b-95f0-77a712d467ba https://religiondispatches.org/2022/11/28/not-only-right-unapologetic-violent-anti-lgbtq-rhetoric-its-doubling-down There was a mass murder. I know, this is America, so I have to be more specific. And since the one I’m thinking of, at Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado , we’ve had several more—mass shooting events are so… Mon, 28 Nov 2022 04:42:37 EST Thomas Lecaque daa171db-22b3-4a7b-828e-f1ea9fab206a https://religiondispatches.org/2022/09/06/failure-focus-and-yes-cancel-right-wing-antisemitism-problem Earlier this month, amid increasing death threats, the synagogue of the judge who signed the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search warrant was forced to cancel its Shabbat service . And this is hardly an isolated incident. Antisemitism is becoming more and more… Tue, 06 Sep 2022 03:56:34 EDT Elad Nehorai 614f301e-c234-49d5-ad18-ba1afe9a1a97 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/27/embryo-men-decades-conspiracy-christian-nationalism-and-fear-led-us-end-roe-v-wade This morning as we again awaken to the realization that American women have lost their bodily autonomy , that five individuals can decide that States’ rights can’t control guns, but that they do have the power to control women’s bodies… Mon, 27 Jun 2022 02:18:42 EDT Carmen Celestini 4decb173-6927-4006-b0fb-cf236d4a5747 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/22/has-american-conservatism-abandoned-christian-right Most of us don’t want to grow up to be our parents, especially when we’re in our twenties and ready to forge our own path in the world. For better or for worse, age often proves that we’re more like… Wed, 22 Jun 2022 02:08:57 EDT Bradley Onishi 50c9ce58-7193-43cb-8adf-6644f65e7c20 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/06/15/anti-trans-hate-machines-conspiracies-dont-stop-us-border Right-wing media have been relentless in their attacks on trans people. In a single three-week window during March and April of this year, Fox News aired over 170 anti-trans segments . And over the past few months and weeks, calling… Wed, 15 Jun 2022 02:19:33 EDT Annika Brockschmidt bf4ac3e0-87f5-4fe4-b5d3-faec348795da https://religiondispatches.org/2022/04/21/straight-white-christian-married-suburban-mom-calls-out-gop-bully-are-majority-white On April 19, Michigan state Senator Mallory McMorrow publicly called her colleague, Senator Lana Theis, to account. Theis had written an inflammatory fundraising email saying that McMorrow was “grooming and sexualizing children.” And McMorrow was having none of it. She… Thu, 21 Apr 2022 11:56:05 EDT Diana Butler Bass 1c8059a5-e162-4ee4-b0f4-59f2074bdea8 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/04/19/rights-grooming-rhetoric-didnt-begin-qanon-you-have-go-back-bit-further-get-source It seems that all the Right wants to talk about these days is “grooming.” These accusations became popular recently in Florida with Republicans pushing for a law equating books about LGBT families with pedophiles grooming children. Governor Ron DeSantis’s press… Tue, 19 Apr 2022 06:00:19 EDT Sophie Bjork-James 4e377070-fcc9-4e1c-8f18-8a67341c33d8 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/07/12/exclusive-christian-right-bill-mill-project-blitz-hasnt-gone-away-its-just-gotten-more In the Fall of 2019, the secretive Christian Right state legislative campaign, Project Blitz, became even more of a secret. When RD first reported on Project Blitz in April 2018 the website featured their annual state legislative playbook of model… Mon, 12 Jul 2021 04:39:07 EDT Frederick Clarkson 6c54e30d-1e42-45b1-bdd3-9e471c13c6dd https://religiondispatches.org/2021/06/25/new-patriarch-same-patriarchy-despite-glowing-praise-new-sbc-president-theres-just-one In the midst of tense debates around race, gender, and partisan politics, the 2021 Southern Baptist Convention made waves by narrowly electing Ed Litton, a white Alabama pastor known for his commitment to racial reconciliation, to serve as its new… Fri, 25 Jun 2021 01:24:11 EDT Caroline Matas 66e6a665-b284-4915-98a4-06ee635c0e54 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/06/04/note-churches-during-pride-if-youre-not-lgbtq-affirming-keep-your-water It’s Pride Month again! Time for indulging in hope, for flying flags, and for remembering the victims of anti-LGBTQ bigotry as well as celebrating the hard-fought gains that have come since Stonewall , both in terms of legal rights and… Fri, 04 Jun 2021 03:02:02 EDT Chrissy Stroop 494a3811-e10b-4f6e-a17d-74dd20e4247a https://religiondispatches.org/2019/10/24/catholic-anti-nuke-activists-looking-20-years-prison-true-test-religious-freedom Either sincere religious conviction should be a defense, or it shouldn’t. There should be a healthy debate about religious exemptions in a pluralistic society, but not about the content of the religious conviction concerned. Thu, 24 Oct 2019 08:30:55 EDT Patrick Hornbeck 260ebc31-cdec-416d-90ed-351b3d138eaf https://religiondispatches.org/2018/07/03/what-we-saw-eyes-koko-talking-gorilla-1971-2018 Inherit the Wind’s creationist protesters may have held signs reading “I’m not descended from a monkey,” but the reality is that apes permeate our myths, religion, and literature precisely because it’s so obvious we’re related. Darwin may have provided the mechanism, but our own eyes tell us that there’s something eerily human in the eyes of our closest simian ancestors. Tue, 03 Jul 2018 10:39:38 EDT Ed Simon bbba0ea9-8367-4165-9751-a7e66ccc6b68 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/05/15/heart-texas-aint-hateful-open-letter-lawmakers-texan-trans-queer-latinx Dear Texas Legislators, The Lone Star State still holds a ten-gallon spot in my heart, but I am afraid that the warm, welcoming place I loved, the place that proved so crucially formative to my sense of self, will be… Mon, 15 May 2017 04:05:18 EDT Robyn Henderson-Espinoza 85df9421-ba01-4af6-8346-3b598735125a https://religiondispatches.org/2017/01/31/deafening-silence-religious-freedom-defenders-trumps-muslim-ban For once, I agree with right-wing claims that religious freedom in America is under attack. This central tenet of American democracy is facing its most egregious assault in nearly 70 years. But this salvo isn’t coming from secular, liberal-minded progressives… Tue, 31 Jan 2017 04:26:31 EST Sunnivie Brydum 3cbc9224-6d7b-46e3-b9e3-e353da4be1bd https://religiondispatches.org/2015/08/14/barbaric-v-progressive-islam-catholic-church-objects-mexican-court-ok-gay-adoption Islam: ‘Barbaric’ and Progressive The United Nations ambassadors from the US and Chile have invited members of the UN Security Council to an August 24 meeting to discuss the “barbaric treatment” of LGBT people by the so-called Islamic State. Speaking… Fri, 14 Aug 2015 12:05:51 EDT Peter Montgomery 7326a0e2-eefe-4280-b36a-00f618c9e4cc https://religiondispatches.org/2015/03/30/how-indianas-new-rfra-expands-federal-rfra Over the weekend, Indiana’s Republican Governor, Mike Pence, insisted that the new Religious Freedom Restoration Act he signed into law week is just like the federal RFRA, enacted in 1993, and doesn’t permit discrimination cloaked in religion. This same claim—that… Mon, 30 Mar 2015 04:04:49 EDT Sarah Posner 39bdb441-9ab2-4abc-a6cc-5495da4574d5 https://religiondispatches.org/2015/03/02/religious-freedom-impossible-compared-what If harm to others is cultural chauvinism, sign me up. Mon, 02 Mar 2015 02:29:52 EST Austin Dacey e9d46ad2-15c1-4791-b7b8-1a56005c9cc8