https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to millennials en https://religiondispatches.org/2023/06/08/new-poll-reveals-anti-trans-rhetoric-isnt-just-affecting-republicans-and-white Remember when transgender Americans seemed to be having a positive cultural moment? Former child actor and author Chaz Bono, Sonny and Cher’s transgender son, helped pave the way with a documentary about his experience that came out in 2011, the… Thu, 08 Jun 2023 04:29:39 EDT Chrissy Stroop df223ab5-2c06-4ffb-8bfb-3268e8f853a1 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/10/19/new-anti-trans-strategies-floated-family-research-councils-pray-vote-stand-summit As anyone with access to the internet is likely aware, former college football star Hershel Walker is running for US Senate in Georgia as a pro-Trump Republican. Walker, who has four children —three of whom he appears to have just… Wed, 19 Oct 2022 09:10:21 EDT Heron Greenesmith, Asia Korkmaz 92bf9060-b4bc-491c-84ac-4a4852926882 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/02/04/secularism-us-larger-more-diverse-and-more-dynamic-ever-you-wouldnt-know-it-media “I’m done waiting for mainstream media to cover nonreligious people and secular issues fairly and accurately,” says Sarah Levin , a woman who wears a number of hats in the institutional secular world. “I’m done waiting for them to stop… Fri, 04 Feb 2022 03:36:32 EST Chrissy Stroop 73de9be0-855e-4cba-b481-3a7546e21d9a https://religiondispatches.org/2021/11/24/what-faith-groups-do-x-journalism-reveals-about-presss-priorities Along with freedom of religion, freedom of the press stands as one of the five fundamental freedoms in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. But what is the free press, as an institution, supposed to do ? Theorists of… Wed, 24 Nov 2021 03:43:04 EST Chrissy Stroop a5fc3fad-027c-4f23-a2e6-20930479b577 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/10/22/why-grownups-have-caught-halloween-fever-and-why-its-unlikely-end-anytime-soon It’s spooky season again, the time of year when we’re drawn to horror ; when The Great Pumpkin arrives to teach us how to live with the blockheads ; when the pagan outrage machine is fired up; and when, increasingly… Fri, 22 Oct 2021 04:03:14 EDT Daniel Wise 1784530f-d945-48bf-9841-5bcf23a3f80b https://religiondispatches.org/2020/10/22/survival-crossfittest-after-schism-over-racism-can-fitness-empire-shed-its-culture This weekend, Oct. 23-25th, marks the end of the 2020 CrossFit Games season, with ten finalists traveling to Aromas, California to test their fitness in a multi-day competition. This has undoubtedly been the strangest season for CrossFit athletes competing in… Thu, 22 Oct 2020 02:07:36 EDT Cody Musselman 77ed8e80-996b-438d-b85d-0abcaf75f01b https://religiondispatches.org/2020/02/20/empty-pews-chronicles-nurtured-insanity-fundamentalist-upbringing There is a great exodus taking place in Christian circles. Can it be called a loss of faith? I don’t think so. It is rather a loss of confidence in everything at once. Christianity has always been about “the Word,”… Thu, 20 Feb 2020 12:09:44 EST Frank Schaeffer 01d155f8-06b1-451d-8029-f986766da14e https://religiondispatches.org/2019/09/13/student-debt-crisis-so-bad-even-clergy-are-packing-their-bags Millions of taxpayers, particularly those fortunate enough to not accrue education debt and those who diligently paid off their debts, reject the idea of taking on the debt of people who consciously entered college with this burden. But structural and moral crises like this one require a legislative approach that no household savings plan or practice offers. Fri, 13 Sep 2019 01:31:51 EDT Willie Dwayne Francois ec7638d1-c4ca-4c91-8384-1d083781f9da https://religiondispatches.org/2019/05/01/resurgence-right-wing-anti-semitic-conspiracism-endangers-all-justice-movements In right-wing circles, theories about cultural Marxism in the era of Trumpism come entangled with other anti-Semitic theories, often arguing that George Soros and a shadowy “globalist” cabal are working to dissolve national borders and sovereignty into a totalitarian-communist “New World Order.” Wed, 01 May 2019 02:26:02 EDT Ben Lorber 11e68b16-4e42-4132-9dc0-457aa4ffd414 https://religiondispatches.org/2019/04/08/lds-leaders-owe-repentance-and-apology-cruelty-lgbtq-people-and-their-children While LDS leadership rescinded its prohibition on baptizing children of LGBTQ parents, they bizarrely claim that neither the church’s nor God’s will have changed. You can all but hear them say, “Look, don’t blame us for the fact that God finds your gayness abhorrent! We’re just messengers!” Mon, 08 Apr 2019 02:54:06 EDT Holly Welker e3c2db23-b89c-4ded-ab75-e8e3f9dd2a68 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/12/26/5-key-moments-year-exvangelicals We’ve used our increased visibility, often through hashtag campaigns, to expose evangelical authoritarianism to the broader American public, something that major media outlets have mostly failed to do. Wed, 26 Dec 2018 02:08:50 EST Chrissy Stroop 4e9bec57-db8d-448d-9b43-8e33531fa220 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/11/01/evangelical-pr-blitz-midterms-wont-fix-81-problem Evangelicals—and those who are strongly invested in a “respectable” image for evangelicalism—now seem to be making a concerted effort to push back ahead of the midterm elections. Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:46:57 EDT Chrissy Stroop 843625df-55ef-4a71-9591-b9cad4bba2d0 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/08/05/time-irrational-fear-and-new-media-deadly-dance-plague-500 The deadly “dance plague” of 1518 took place in a rapidly changing world where suddenly old verities were in question and a new media brought all manner of unconfirmed, superstitious ideas. Sound familiar? Sun, 05 Aug 2018 11:37:54 EDT Ed Simon 8977aedd-852a-4aca-9acc-9e4da0cc38ed https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/18/alcoholics-anonymous-religion Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) was established in 1935 by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, American men who were significantly influenced by a Christian organization called the Oxford Group. Central to AA are the well-known Twelve Steps, which stress belief in… Fri, 18 May 2018 01:22:46 EDT Galen Watts 8bcd23e1-ab35-4ea9-86c6-8db6834a3de1 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/14/why-has-critique-hypocrisy-run-out-steam-0 President Donald Trump recently led a ceremony on National Prayer Day, just a day after his lawyer admitted in a television interview that, contrary to previous declarations, the president had indeed paid off an adult film actress to keep quiet… Mon, 14 May 2018 05:56:39 EDT Christopher Douglas ef1540c4-4bd6-4074-a4e9-e1c2e25d65e4 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/05/14/why-has-critique-hypocrisy-run-out-steam It’s not that Republican politicians and strategists had become convinced of critical theory’s questioning of how scientific knowledge is produced. It’s that their desire to undercut the “realist attitude” and their love of uncertainty about the true had appeared to strangely dovetail with some postmodern theorists. Mon, 14 May 2018 02:46:22 EDT Christopher Douglas a5f43331-b1c3-4330-967c-67dc8f6990b2 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/04/20/trump-may-be-big-fan-hindu-hindus-are-running-and-winning-democrats On Tuesday, the special election in Arizona’s eighth congressional district could produce the fifth Hindu member of the U.S. House. While Democrat Hiral Tipirneni faces long odds— despite polls showing otherwise—in a reliably red district formerly held by GOP Rep… Fri, 20 Apr 2018 11:34:52 EDT Murali Balaji ff562aa9-3015-4ccf-b8c9-40d58a156794 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/04/16/new-book-trump-and-evangelicals-gets-it-mostly-right In the wake of Donald Trump’s election (and since) many tried to answer the question, “Why would evangelicals support him?” According to the Pew Research Center 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, an astonishing margin given Trump’s… Mon, 16 Apr 2018 10:22:37 EDT Greg Carey a2df701d-b4a5-4f6d-a399-ac967d7bc926 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/02/19/making-college-great-again-evangelical-outsiders-age-trump Are they or aren’t they? As pundits have noticed, younger white evangelicals show signs that they are abandoning the political conservatism and GOP loyalty that defined their parents’ generation. Yet careful observers warn not to assume too much. On evangelical… Mon, 19 Feb 2018 02:43:47 EST Adam Laats b952b1d0-2f41-41ff-ae95-d6496e0011d8 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/01/29/i-think-white-evangelical-church-dead-dr-russell-jeung-guilt-vs-shame-and-decolonizing People of color are a few short decades away from making up the majority of the American Christian population, according to demographers and church growth experts. Yet their stories, theologies and impact on American society often take a backseat to… Mon, 29 Jan 2018 03:44:50 EST Deborah Jian Lee 35c583a1-1e73-4803-a365-451cce5a3eb7 https://religiondispatches.org/2018/01/19/new-survey-catholic-women-disengaged-disengaging-and-dont-listen-us-bishops Nearly five years into Pope Francis papacy, with its great expectations for a revival of Catholicism among the flagging faithful, a new large-scale survey of American Catholic women finds the flock faithful but disengaged from the rituals of the church… Fri, 19 Jan 2018 01:22:50 EST Patricia Miller 91448444-aa89-4631-a80e-dd56cc8dbe35 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/11/14/evangelical-author-why-christian-conservatives-supported-trump Though he lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million ballots, the Electoral College carried Donald Trump across the line with razor thin victories in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Nationally, he relied very heavily on support from a base few… Tue, 14 Nov 2017 01:42:11 EST Eric C. Miller 27eb82ac-de61-4f79-b544-639e9b9ab0f9 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/10/13/tell-me-what-you-believe-about-ferguson-and-ill-tell-you-what-you-believe-about-god Three years post-uprising, the community still struggles to be seen. Fri, 13 Oct 2017 04:40:23 EDT Anita Little 5f8f4eae-d124-492e-bf1a-e0263401fe14 https://religiondispatches.org/2017/08/03/will-millennials-forge-future-progressive-black-church An electric sermon lights up the night at a century-old conference for Black clergy. Thu, 03 Aug 2017 07:36:42 EDT Joshua L. Lazard b99fd232-a340-488f-9862-90efcb6aaaec https://religiondispatches.org/2017/07/24/catholic-archbishop-takes-jesuit-magazines-slam-ecumenism-hate-and-more-global-lgbt Earlier this month, the Jesuit magazine La Civilta Cattolica published an article on the political alliance between conservative evangelicals and Catholics in the U.S., calling it an “ecumenism of hate.” From the Jesuit-run America magazine: U.S. politics have become increasingly… Mon, 24 Jul 2017 08:05:04 EDT Peter Montgomery c12496b4-e74c-4b60-a012-7ee9cd2e03ba