https://politicalresearch.org/ The latest research related to tennessee en https://religiondispatches.org/2024/05/28/alarming-new-report-shows-attacks-public-education-are-coordinated-right-wing-think Religion Dispatches recently sat down with Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, Hartford, and the director of the Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom at the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to discuss how… Tue, 28 May 2024 04:45:01 EDT Hialy Gutierrez 5bb9a8f2-9add-46f5-8b13-5d6b40a14065 https://religiondispatches.org/2024/02/27/taking-aim-religion-itself-apostles-prime-networks-real-world-violence It is more than paradoxical that an ostensibly Christian university leader would say, “We are here to put a knife to the throat of religion.” But that’s what Apostle Greg Hood, the founder of Kingdom University in Franklin, Tennessee believes… Tue, 27 Feb 2024 04:44:52 EST Frederick Clarkson b3ae5102-1a3b-422e-9dad-e63275bc8c0c https://religiondispatches.org/2023/11/19/netanyahus-genocidal-religious-rhetoric-isnt-just-appeal-israeli-right-he-has-another As a horrifying humanitarian crisis unfolds in Palestine/Israel, observers have been alarmed by the Israeli leadership’s deployment of religious rhetoric and colonialist talking points in its response to the Hamas attacks. On October 28th, for example, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu… Sun, 19 Nov 2023 05:43:37 EST Brock Bahler d2acaf09-a698-4579-b4af-e5e0cff6e083 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/2023/04/25/its-battle-life-antiabortion-movement-willing-expose-its-enemies-death-and-theres-old The recent Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn the FDA’s approval of mifepristone presents itself—in the typical pattern of antiabortion politics—as a form of protection. The suit alleges that the FDA failed to properly assess the safety risks of the… Tue, 25 Apr 2023 05:40:18 EDT Beatrice Marovich 7cbb95c9-aa94-4c7c-9edd-98fb40b28889 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/2023/03/23/clues-data-suggest-increase-lgbtq-acceptance-may-be-skewed-conservative-desire It’s well established that people lie to pollsters , or at the very least put their need to believe they are “good people” over their actual feelings for, and commitments toward, the marginalized groups they may be asked about. This… Thu, 23 Mar 2023 05:16:43 EDT Chrissy Stroop 8a0c9a99-0bf7-4e8f-a444-b376e1fa2cff https://religiondispatches.org/2022/09/20/after-roe-3-troubling-trends-compassionate-anti-abortion-crowd In the early ’90s, my Catholic grade school hosted a guest speaker, a member of the Pennsylvania state legislature. After giving our eighth-grade class a basic civics lesson, he opened the floor to Q&A. And, in the excruciating hour that… Tue, 20 Sep 2022 05:38:23 EDT Robert Repino 1e148793-3fdb-4e9b-943e-41e62a946c22 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/09/01/book-bannings-are-bad-enough-where-those-involved-are-considered-demonic-stakes-could Calls for, or at least predictions of, revolution or civil war have been common on the religious and political Right for decades. This has been particularly so among leaders of the Christian revivalist movement, the New Apostolic Reformation, in recent… Thu, 01 Sep 2022 12:39:52 EDT Frederick Clarkson cd774fcd-5ee8-4090-b7e6-94ce432d0f0e https://religiondispatches.org/2022/08/29/disturbing-trend-far-right-candidates-are-getting-crucial-support-militia-groups-and How many local churches are providing direct electoral support to far-right-wing Christian candidates for political office? How many of these churches have members who participated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection, radicalized in part by their pastors’ extreme preaching? How… Mon, 29 Aug 2022 02:53:31 EDT Chrissy Stroop 8dca006f-c49b-4325-ac22-d69be0d48f1f https://religiondispatches.org/2022/07/18/caught-fever-dream-originalism-can-scotus-majority-learn-lessons-early-america-its-too The separation of church and state feels like bedrock in America. It is, after all, part of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment—that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion”—which has traditionally been interpreted to mean… Mon, 18 Jul 2022 08:43:48 EDT J.L. Tomlin, Thomas Lecaque b0bd3de6-b907-4006-a16b-8f665e5ff5c2 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/07/07/when-religious-freedom-means-freedom-religious-violence Religious freedom has long been a rallying cry of the religious and political right. In recent years, it’s been used to provide a rationale for exemptions from a variety of civil right laws. But at least since January 6 th… Thu, 07 Jul 2022 03:51:18 EDT Frederick Clarkson 290d1d1c-03e0-4adb-99f3-0f1ca77df92b https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/16/right-wing-slant-religious-freedom-slippery-slope Christian Right legislation that has often seemed to be aimed at undermining or rolling back LGBTQ rights in the name of religious freedom, has also often been about much more. This has become particularly clear in state legislation affecting adoption… Wed, 16 Mar 2022 04:40:34 EDT Frederick Clarkson 1ef2d025-14ef-4bac-bf14-a5bc27ab9144 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/10/gop-candidate-pa-governor-affiliated-far-right-gun-church-rod-iron-ministries-heres Pennsylvania State Senator and retired colonel Doug Mastriano has announced his candidacy for governor. And, in keeping with his participation in the Jericho March movement, the Stop the Steal Rally on January 6 th , and other appearances at Christian… Thu, 10 Mar 2022 12:03:28 EST Thomas Lecaque 0de76d50-8907-4ec3-ae08-8871f4b7493e https://religiondispatches.org/2022/03/04/one-hundred-years-anti-evolution-legislation-are-more-enough In a famous 1958 address commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s and Alfred Russel Wallace’s essays on evolution by natural selection, the distinguished geneticist Hermann J. Muller lamented the neglect of evolution in American education. “It… Fri, 04 Mar 2022 12:52:33 EST Glenn Branch 04eeb76d-22b5-4ae2-b12f-697964bc9838 https://religiondispatches.org/2022/01/27/no-more-pencils-no-more-books-ultimate-goal-all-those-anti-education-bills-nobodys There’s an important element missing in our national conversation about the flood of legislation attacking critical race theory , banning books, muzzling teachers, and opening public schools to legal liability for teaching about the realities of race in America and… Thu, 27 Jan 2022 02:16:46 EST Andrew L. Seidel 915e2207-de72-49ee-9f4b-746f6547eaa0 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/09/16/why-freebritney-exvangelical-cause Everyone knows Britney Spears. Her talent, popularity, and struggles with mental illness are ubiquitous. A widely celebrated artist dubbed “The Princess of Pop,” Spears has five No. 1 singles and six No. 1 albums. She’s sold 150 million records around… Thu, 16 Sep 2021 01:47:48 EDT R.L. Stollar 6df39262-f621-4d85-8e4d-24f515a0b61e https://religiondispatches.org/2021/09/07/bill-mill-ennialism-arkansas-end-times-politics-may-be-coming-state-near-you It was the best of the end times. It was the worst of the end times. It was the age of Trump. It was 2019. Trump was compared with the greatest of God’s biblical champions. Things would never be the… Tue, 07 Sep 2021 02:43:35 EDT Frederick Clarkson 77201a1d-2b34-4fdf-a065-5f9e082fb830 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/2021/06/10/less-moore-if-russell-moore-left-sbc-due-conscience-and-convictions-his-next-move The departure of Russell Moore from the Southern Baptist Convention has been a long time coming. As I noted here on RD last March, since the completion of the right-wing coup known in SBC circles as the “conservative resurgence,” the… Thu, 10 Jun 2021 02:53:06 EDT Chrissy Stroop d1ff60f6-8560-43dc-916e-124c8cf66cbe https://religiondispatches.org/2021/05/25/convergence-far-right-anti-democratic-factions-northwest-could-provide-model-rest-nation The city of Spokane, Washington sits at the eastern edge of the state—a mountain range and a cultural world away from the Pacific coast. It looks eastward to Idaho and Montana, and south to Eastern Oregon, where far right secessionist… Tue, 25 May 2021 10:41:18 EDT Frederick Clarkson, Cloee Cooper 9dcc3174-38a6-4d3a-8ce7-a207551dabe5 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/05/17/largely-overshadowed-election-red-pill-blue-pill-transcends-standard-explanations Mat Staver, cofounder of the right-wing legal activist group Liberty Counsel, seems to think that he knows a lot about vaccines. In his new show, he’s taken to pushing lurid theories about how the Covid vaccination drive is part of… Mon, 17 May 2021 11:56:54 EDT Katherine Stewart b0e1ff96-7070-4178-8f04-0f3f0f2272b3 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/04/16/minister-im-fed-anti-trans-legislation-written-adults-pick-children-all-name-religious Last month in Louisiana, my home, a member of our state legislature introduced legislation designed to make it difficult for transgender young people to get physical and mental health care because of their gender identity. The story stunned me—my morality… Fri, 16 Apr 2021 10:46:42 EDT Welton Gaddy c0267733-c8ad-4d9c-add3-a71c5460210b https://religiondispatches.org/2021/04/13/arkansass-creationism-bill-also-motivated-anti-trans-bigotry The average American might not realize that the prejudices and superstitions that underlie the push to teach creationism in public schools, also undergird anti-LGBTQ bigotry. But the Arkansas legislature has worked hard recently to showcase this link. Earlier this month… Tue, 13 Apr 2021 12:21:12 EDT Andrew L. Seidel 7b1b5c7c-29ab-4503-bcc4-90b5d57c0d36 https://religiondispatches.org/2021/04/01/derek-chauvins-defense-keeping-long-racist-tradition-seeks-criminalize-george-floyd On the first day of the George Floyd trial, Eric Nelson, the attorney for Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes 46 seconds, disputed the independent pathologists’ report that simple asphyxiation—a loss of oxygen—had… Thu, 01 Apr 2021 03:05:11 EDT Alex Zamalin d9173025-6884-4b85-af01-d9063fa28b88