The Liar Tony Perkins says that questioning the legitimacy of this president’s birth certificate is “a legitimate issue.” The leader of the anti-gay hate group the Family Research Council defended the birthers while a guest on “AFA Today,” a radio show hosted by Sandy Rios of the American Family Association. Rios has spent most of April pushing a convoluted conspiracy theory arguing that Barack Obama is a Soviet sleeper agent (seriously). Perkins’ comment on Obama’s birth certificate was made in... Read more

  “We do not have to live as if we are alone.” “Those people are wrong, and they must be shouted down.” “It is about us saying ‘no’ to hate, even when it is done in the name of God — no, especially when it is done in the name of God.” “Here before my eyes was the unabridged, and little Baptist boy me was horrified.” “Top 10 Reasons Why Men Shouldn’t Be Ordained” “If the Catholic church’s insurance does... Read more

John Shore has launched a petition on Change.org called “Christians: Affirm that same-sex relationships are not inherently immoral.” It reads: I am a Christian who affirms that there is nothing inherently immoral about same-sex relationships. It’s time to end the Christian condemnation of LGBTQ people, which is in direct contradiction to everything for which Jesus Christ stands. Being in a same-sex relationship is not, in and of itself, an offense against God. The fact that a person lives in a... Read more

In an op-ed at CNN’s Belief Blog titled “Name-calling is ‘rhetorical pornography,'” a trio of religious right figures urge Christians not to use ethnic and homophobic slurs. I agree! The use of ethnic and homophobic slurs is hurtful and wrong. And, I suppose, I commend these three — Focus on the Family exec Jim Daly, Southern Baptist Seminary dean Russell Moore and Samuel Rodriguez of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference — for supporting this unremarkable, unimpressive and bare-minimum moral... Read more

The Vatican’s crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (i.e., on American nuns) is proving to be a public relations disaster and a morale-killer within the Catholic Church because it gives the appearance of a bunch of power-mad misogynists trying to distract from their own horrific scandals by exerting arbitrary manly authority over women who spend most of their time helping people. It gives that appearance because, actually, the Vatican’s crackdown on the LCWR is a bunch of power-mad... Read more

I want to follow up on this earlier discusssion — “Mercy for the downpresser man is not the first step. Or the second, or third” — about what it might mean to extend grace to an oppressor or an abuser. What we’re talking about here is forgiveness. Can Pharaoh be forgiven? Forgiveness is a Good Thing. Each one of us, at some point, requires it. And thus each of us, at some point, will also need to grant it to... Read more