When President Obama told the Justice Department in February 2011 to stop defending a key federal law that defines marriage as between a man and a woman, it was widely assumed the department would take a neutral position and sit on the sidelines. But with little fanfare since that announcement, the Justice Department has actually…
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There are legitimate theological arguments on both sides of our political divide, but they are not equally well received. In America, it seems, one man’s moral teacher is another’s Torquemada — the difference is usually determined by party registration — and the returns on overt religiosity are mixed at best. As president, George W. Bush…
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Dan Savage spoke, and the Internet exploded. He rejected the Bible as “bullshit” in a keynote address to high-school journalists, and then described students who chose to walk away as “pansy-assed.” Since being uploaded to YouTube on April 27, the video of his speech has received over 600,000 views. In describing those who had the…
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On Wednesday (May 9), President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage in an interview with ABC News. He noted that he and the first lady “are both practicing Christians,” and that his faith helped inform his shifting views on marriage equality. “When we think about our faith,” he said, “the thing at root that…
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Jake Flannigan filmed every in-state basketball game played by Chicago’s Simeon Career Academy during the 2011–12 season. He saw Simeon’s star forward, Jabari Parker, score 40 points one day and block 12 shots another. But his lasting impression of Jabari was formed when the camera was off. After a home game in which Jabari barely…
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“We don’t do God,” his spokesman, Alastair Campbell, insisted while he was Prime Minister. But since leaving office, Tony Blair has converted to Roman Catholicism, launched a faith foundation and yesterday gave his strongest endorsement of the church yet. Speaking at a conference in London organised by the Holy Trinity Brompton Church, Mr Blair warned…
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A judge in the latest ACLU-generated Ten Commandments display case has suggested that the targeted high school cull out four commandments that refer to God in order to avoid a full-blown lawsuit. As reported by the Associated Press, the ACLU of Virginia has filed a complaint against the Narrows, Virginia, high school on behalf of…
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When asked by The Barna Group what words or phrases best describe Christianity, the top response among Americans ages 16-29 was “antihomosexual.” For a staggering 91 percent of non-Christians, this was the first word that came to their mind when asked about the Christian faith. The same was true for 80 percent of young churchgoers.…
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Not long ago I reread The Pilgrim’s Progress in order to write commentary on it for my book blog. Reading slowly for notes and questions made me wonder if John Bunyan might have eavesdropped on the 21st century somehow, particularly in his description of Vanity Fair. The thing that struck me most on this reading…
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Dozens of faculty and staff at a Georgian Christian academic institute are resigning over a statement from school officials in which employees must pledge to refrain from activities including drug use, alcohol, adultery, and homosexuality. Known as the “personal lifestyle statement,” around 50 members of the faculty and staff at Shorter University based in Rome,…
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