Search

“As a black, feminist, marriage-equality advocate I reside at an important intersection in this struggle. This movement must acknowledge the unique history of racial oppression, while still revealing the interconnections of all marriage exclusion. This work must reflect the feminist critique of marriage, while still acknowledging the ancient, cross-cultural, human attachment to marriage. This work must be staunchly supportive of same-sex marriage, while rejecting a marriage-normative framework that silences the contributions of queer life.”

The original St. Valentinus (one of at least seven with the same name, so we can’t be too sure!) was arrested for marrying Roman Christian couples. His bloody martyrdom was particularly brutal. Love and loss, romance and violence. They’ve always gone together.

Given that so many powerful Pentecostals and Charismatics, like Senator John Ensign and Sarah Palin, are embroiled in high-profile scandals, one might expect to hear more about the movements that unite them. Anthea Butler, a leading scholar on Pentecostalism and American religious history, traces the various movements and their theologies of wealth, healing, and dominion.

Despite the fact that the AIG bonuses represent only a fraction of the crisis there’s more to economics than number crunching.

While I support free speech, the lunatic fringe of Fred Phelps and all too many mainstream believers whose idea of the Bible is limited to particular portions of Leviticus speak all too often. What should we do on this particular Saturday and in the future when Fred Phelps announces he will picket in our neighborhoods? Should we throw glitter on Fred Phelps? Should we stay home? Should we even write articles or comment on the six o’clock news?

Why exactly are these prophets receiving even more bonus money and what happened to Obama the prophet candidate?

The Pioneer Institute has engaged in a well-funded, well-connected effort to influence the direction of politics in Massachusetts, a historically liberal state that has elected Republican governors and adopted many right-wing policies.

It’s been over a decade since the final installment of Philip Pullman’s subversive fantasy trilogy was published, with no new work in sight. So what are devotees of Oxford’s Rebel Angel to do? Well, they could do worse than to remember an old hand at religious satire: Anatole France. While my local big-box bookstore doesn’t carry a single one of his titles, this Nobel Prize winner (for literature, 1921) is among the world’s greatest satirists. He is also the writer of a clever piece of speculative fiction, Revolt of the Angels (1914), that comes across a bit like Pullman—drunk on sacramental wine.

Buried in the typical bile on the comment board of my last column is an interesting thread about the nature of identity…

The Left Behind films leave one Muslim wondering whether Satan wouldn’t more likely be multinational corporations than liberal secularism.