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An interview with Leslie Dorrough Smith on her new book, “Righteous Rhetoric: Sex, Speech, and the Politics of Concerned Women for America.”

There are various levels of nuance to the message that LGBT people are unacceptable to God, and these often pass under the guise of tolerance. One of the most pervasive is the notion of “ welcoming but not affirming.” It is the pinnacle of the soul-destroying practice of theologized tolerance that says, “You are welcome to exist among us, but we cannot affirm the goodness, value or worth of your life( style).” This is a particularly popular discourse among “moderates” who rest proud that they aren’t like Westboro and for whom tolerance seems virtuous.

So, about that Chrysler “Imported from Detroit” Super Bowl ad with Eminem. Not too long after I first saw the spot on the internet, I started thinking about how the pop-culture ubiquity of the black gospel choir belies its complicated cultural capital.

As National Day of Unplugging looms (it begins a week from today) I hope we all can agree that taking time away from the frenzy of everyday life is a good thing. And pausing to reflect on the role of technology in our lives is important at a time when social technologies in particular are becoming increasingly integrated into daily life with effects that we are just beginning to describe and understand. But I do have to wonder if the keen, even if not hostile, focus on technology as such misses the phenomenological, relational, and spiritual mark just a bit.

Annie Lobért knows that sex sells. The 16 years she spent as a stripper, prostitute, and high-class escort, most recently on the Las Vegas Strip, taught her that.

If you haven’t heard of Jonathan Haidt yet, you probably will soon. The social psychologist from the University of Virginia is making quite a media splash. Most recently, he set off a small media storm by calling out his fellow psychologists for unacknowledged liberal bias. …

“It was what I found in the archives that inspired me to write the book—Craddock’s unpublished book manuscripts on everything from ancient sex worship to contemporary marriage reform. And then there was her journal of mystical experiences—a diary so baffling and intense in its combination of spiritualism and sexuality as to demand attention.”

With the swing to the Right of the 1950s, conservatives began to deploy “Judeo-Christian” in the fight against “Godless Communism,” contrasting it with “the communist projection of man as a producing, consuming animal to be used and discarded.”

Catholic women priests are an oxymoron for the Vatican. It considers them automatically excommunicated before the holy oil is dry on their hands. Other Catholics accept them as sacramental ministers and are delighted with the innovation. Still, others, myself included, want far deeper structural changes in the Catholic Church such that priesthood loses its baked-on charm and ministry becomes the expected task of adult members. This is an important theological conversation that the Vatican wishes would go away. Memo to them: it is just starting.

Bakker on LGBT inclusion: “My goal is pure acceptance, not just tolerance. I think we’re on the verge of that. People are having conversations. I had someone ask me to listen to this sermon that was a thirty-minute apology, and then a ten-minute why it’s wrong to be gay. So, I’m starting to see these pastors apologizing for what they’re about to say. They seem to know, instinctively, that what they’re doing is wrong.”