Religion

Finally, Andrew Sullivan stops being so ridiculous and acknowledges that the LGBT community doesn't have to overreact to every perceived slight. He's starting to figure out that maybe the best way to dialogue with the faith community isn't by staging aggressive rallies outside their places of worship.

As Sullivan writes today, "The truth is: if we cannot engage a Rick Warren on the question of our equality, we may secure a narrow and bitter victory in some states (just as the Christianists won a narrow and bitter victory in California in November). But we will not win the bigger argument and our victories will lack the moral legitimacy they deserve." Read more...

President-elect Obama got just what he wanted in exchange for the invitation he extended to the Rev. Rick Warren to give the invocation at his Inauguration on Jan. 20. He has infuriated progressives who opposed Proposition 8 in California, but was showered with praise by Warren, a very powerful player Obama needs to keep and attract evangelical support in the next four years.

The money quote Warren gave almost sounds like the Obama team wrote it for him:

"I commend President-elect Obama for his courage to willingly take enormous heat from his base by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn't agree on every issue, to offer the invocation at his historic Inaugural ceremony," Warren said in a statement. Read more...

As we get ready to begin a new administration, one important rule for Democrats: Remember, it’s not necessary to agree with Barack Obama on every issue.

Good thing! Because there’s no way I could agree with Obama’s inviting pastor Rick Warren to give the invocation at his Inaugural.

Obama says his decision is just one more way to show how “inclusive” he is. But why throw a bone to his enemies — at his Inauguration, of all places? Most evangelicals campaigned against Barack Obama this year. They’re not going to like him any better just because Warren’s on the platform. Read more...

President-elect Obama's selection of Rick Warren, pastor of the Saddleback Church and author of the mega-selling book The Purpose Driven Life, to give the invocation at his swearing-in has drawn howls from the far left.

Warren is pro-life and believes that marriage should remain between a man and a woman. The horror! Moreover, Warren exercised his right as an American and participated in the democratic process by endorsing Proposition 8, a measure codifying marriage as between a man and a woman and supported by a majority of Californians. Why, how in the name of all things tolerant could the left allow any such diversity in the Inauguration?! Read more...

Since the announcement that Rick Warren will deliver the invocation at Obama's Inauguration, liberals are up in arms that such a conservative, anti-gay, anti-choice preacher was chosen.

There must be something wrong with me, because I can't bring myself to care.

When I survey the landscape of American preachers, there are many more traditionally liberal preachers available. Preachers like the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, who will deliver the closing prayer at the Inauguration. But I don't care about any of them, either. Read more...

Scripture says that the meek shall inherit the Earth.

Guess what? It is already happening.

Among richer, more secular countries, the birthrate is not at the rate of replacement. Maintaining a steady population requires a birthrate of 2.1 In Western Europe; the birthrate currently stands at 1.5, or 30 percent below replacement.

In 30 years there will be 70 to 80 million fewer Europeans than there are today. The current birthrate in Germany is 1.3. Italy and Spain are even lower, at 1.2. At that rate, the working-age population declines by 30 percent in 20 years, which has a huge impact on the economy. Read more...

Is it not written in your law you are gods?
— John 10:34

John Lennon was gunned down and killed in New York City 28 years ago next Monday. This event goes largely unnoticed in the press today, but in 1969, at the peak of the war in Vietnam, John Lennon was the most important man in the world.

The high point of his art and work had come a couple years before, when he used the expression "I am he" at the beginning of one of his most important and entertaining songs at the height of the hippie days. Lennon was, in his time, a generational shaman. He awakened his own generation between childhood and adulthood. But today he resonates in the world as a pure force all his own. Read more...

I'm a little scared of the anti-Mormon fervor that I'm seeing in the gay community. All over Facebook today the statues look like we're planning a Night of the Long Knives at the Mormon Temple in NYC at 6:30. Seriously guys, cut it out. I know you're angry. I know you need some way to express that anger, but the Mormon Temple in NYC makes no more sense than your grandparents' retirement community in Sacramento or The Apollo Theater in Harlem. Can't we be better than this?

While thousands and thousands of protesters gather outside the Mormon Temple, evoking scenes of Fred Phelps, we'll still be left with a simple fact: We were out-organized and out-fundraised in California. That's why we lost. It's great to see all these voices speaking out about Prop. 8 now that it's too late to do anything about it. Where were these people weeks ago when the Equality Groups were on their knees begging for money? We knew we were being out-fundraised for weeks and I rarely got a message about it. I've been contacted about 30 times regarding this single protest. Read more...

It sounds like such a clear legal arrangement: A major requirement for a church to avoid taxes is that it stay away from election endorsements. It's the flip side of that pesky Establishment Clause thing.

Believers might consider it a Faustian deal with the Devil, but that's how it works for organized religion: When it comes to election politics, where you pray, you can't play. If you do, there's Hell to pay.

It follows that those pastors who just couldn't contain themselves a couple weeks ago, the ones who announced their presidential preferences from the pulpit, have forfeited these tax breaks. They will have to answer to their congregations when the IRS comes calling. Read more...

I first heard the term “Islamofascism” on a summer visit to the U.S. six years ago. Though its source was dubious — talk radio of the most strident sort — the expression immediately rang true with me. Yes, fascism did seem a good way to characterize the extreme Islamic fundamentalism that appeared to be spreading through the Muslim world and beyond.

Before going further, it's worth noting that few expressions are more offensive to Muslims than “Islamofascism,” since it associates their religion with something that is patently evil. You have only to pair fascism with your preferred religious system to see why: “Christian fascism,” “Jewish fascism,” “Buddhist fascism” — we'd like to think all of these are contradictions in terms.

So I'm going to generalize the term and use “religious fascism” instead. Read more...