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“Jane Roe” arrested outside Sotomayor hearing
Norma McCorvey, a.k.a. “Jane Roe” of the original Roe v. (…)
The Wright religion
Over at AlterNet, Terrence McNally interviews Robert Wright about the latter’s new book, The Evolution of God. The pertinent issue here is the interview explores the factors that make religion a force for good or for ill. Wright was raised Southern Baptist but strayed from the faith and is now a spiritually-oriented agnostic. (…)
Science-Based Bellyaching
Barack Obama’s recent appointment of Francis Collins to head the National Institutes of Health should be uncontroversial. After all, Collins led the Human Genome Project, and he did it ahead of schedule and under budget. His own landmark scientific research led to the discovery of genes for cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease, among others. He is by all accounts a likable guy. The trifecta he offers — a great administrator, a great scientist, a great personality — is darn near unheard of. (…)
The Pope’s “Christian humanism”
For those who think Pope Benedict XVI is the Antichrist, the latest papal encyclical won’t come as a shock. But for other conservatives who have come to rely on the Pope as a defender of right-wing orthodoxy, it just might. (…)
The religious pendulum swings again
American pastors are getting back into the political game — from the left. (…)
From Warren’s lips to Muslims’ ears
Rick Warren bolstered his non-extremist bonafides this past weekend by preaching interfaith action to a group of 8000 Muslims. The problems that he proposed tackling together include what he called “the five global giants” — war, poverty, corruption, disease, and illiteracy. (…)
The more things change…
A new religious right organization is emerging from the tattered remains of groups like the Christian Coalition and Moral Majority. This organization — calling itself the Freedom Federation — purports to have a kinder, gentler face than its predecessors, which all too often came across like the Blue Meanies. But the group’s agenda is anything but new. Indeed, it features all the familiar bugaboos: no abortion, no gay marriage, no porn or obscenity, no judicial activism (at least of the liberal variety), and no limits on religious expression “through our public institutions” (read: no prohibitions on Christian monuments in public buildings). All of that is fine, as far as it goes. If conservatives want to try their hand at reviving issues on which the old school religious righties failed to gain traction, bully for them. (…)
Holding the coats of killers?
Repentant religious righty Frank Schaeffer — son of the legendary fundamentalist Francis Schaeffer and a former evangelical leader in his own right — lays the blame for the recent uptick in domestic terrorism squarely at the feet of of our nation’s conservative leaders. He recalls the biblical story of pre-conversion Paul (then known as Saul) holding the coats of people who were stoning a Christian to death — and claims modern right-wingers such as James Dobson, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, and the NRA are doing much the same thing. (…)
Those dangerous fundraisers
In stark contrast to the lovefest (or at least awkward smiling) between gays and fundamentalists at John Hagee’s Texas church this past Sunday, a gay-straight exchange in California last weekend turned violent. (…)
Dancing with the devil
As gay pride parades took place across the country yesterday — including one in Wichita — some gay rights activists in Texas decided to show pride in a different way: by attending an infamously anti-gay church. They went en masse to the San Antonio congregation of firebrand pastor John Hagee, sporting buttons that read: The only things distinguishing them from the rest of the congregation were the small buttons they wore that read: “Gay? (…)