All posts tagged: Christians

Episcopal Divinity School launches public online course equipping Christians to shift public theological narrative around reproductive justice

Episcopal Divinity School launches public online course equipping Christians to shift public theological narrative around reproductive justice

Published by skeptic

[January 21, 2025 – Online] — With the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the resulting elimination of legal access to abortion in 25 states and counting, Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) is offering a public, non-credit, six-week online course to equip people of faith with the education and practical tools needed to shift the theological narrative around this pressing issue. The course, The Sacred Work of Reproductive Justice, will be taught by the Rev. Dr. Rebecca Todd Peters, a renowned feminist social ethicist and advocate for reproductive justice, and will run from February 4 to March 11, 2025. As Christians lead the current rush to criminalize abortion, this course will reframe the issue as one of reproductive justice—a framework developed by Black women activists in 1994—and explore the church’s responsibility in changing the public narrative about abortion in the country. Why Take This Course? Most liberal Protestant denominations—including Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, Unitarian Universalist, and Episcopalian—have official positions in support of reproductive rights. Yet, these perspectives are often unheard, considered taboo, or held privately—leaving the theological …

Deadly violence in Nigeria linked to breakup of United Methodist Church over LGBTQ policies

Deadly violence in Nigeria linked to breakup of United Methodist Church over LGBTQ policies

Published by skeptic

A religious schism has turned deadly in Nigeria, with a church member fatally shot and two young children killed as homes were set ablaze, according to United Methodist News Service. The news service said the reported violence on Sunday stemmed from a schism in the worldwide United Methodist Church over its decision to repeal LGBTQ bans — and the ensuing formation of the new Global Methodist Church by breakaway conservative churches. According to the news service, a United Methodist church member was shot and killed in a confrontation between both factions in Taraba, a state in northeast Nigeria. Homes were set ablaze, claiming the lives of two children, ages 2 and 4, of the overseer of a United Methodist school and nursery, the news service said. Another 10 church members were reported injured. The worldwide Global Methodist Church held its inaugural general conference earlier this year. It was created by churches breaking away from the United Methodist Church — an international denomination with a strong U.S. presence. While the UMC, at its general conference in May, lifted …

Texas makes public education great again (for Christians)

Texas makes public education great again (for Christians)

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Last Friday (Nov. 22), the Texas State Board of Education narrowly approved a new elementary school curriculum that has drawn widespread criticism for favoritism toward Christianity. The criticism is warranted, but it’s nonetheless unlikely that courts will find the Bluebonnet Learning Program an unconstitutional establishment of religion. Why? It is at once more innocuous and more insidious than recent moves in adjacent states to inject (Judeo-)Christian religion into public education. It shouldn’t be hard for the courts to turn thumbs down on Louisiana’s mandate that every public classroom in the state display a specific version of the Ten Commandments and Oklahoma’s mandate that every public classroom be equipped with a Bible and every public schoolteacher teach from it. But how will judges address a program that, for example, teaches kindergartners to count by having them number the biblical days of creation? Or consider the program’s fifth grade language arts unit on Christian apologist C.S. Lewis’ novel “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” On the one hand, it’s a classic, widely read and …

NSS: Ban on ad that may offend Christians resembles blasphemy code

NSS: Ban on ad that may offend Christians resembles blasphemy code

Published by skeptic

An advert for a tour by Scottish comedian Fern Brady has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) over concerns it may offend Christians. The advert (pictured), which is a parody of the 17th century religious painting ‘The Lactation of St Bernard’, depicts Brady squirting breast milk into the mouth of a religious figure. The National Secular Society said the decision resembles a “modern-day blasphemy code”. An anonymous complainant told the ASA the advert, displayed on Sky’s website, was “offensive” because it “mocked the Christian faith”. In its ruling, the ASA said the advert was likely to be seen as depicting Mary, “a highly revered individual in the Christian tradition”, breastfeeding “an adult holy figure in a church setting”. The ASA acknowledged that Brady’s reenactment of the painting was “selected for comic effect”. But it said particular care “must be taken to avoid causing offence” on certain grounds, including “religion or belief”. The ASA concluded the ad was likely to be seen as “mocking the religious figures shown”, and was likely to cause “serious …

Conservative Christians ‘grieve’ Gaetz nomination, express frustration with leaders’ silence

Conservative Christians ‘grieve’ Gaetz nomination, express frustration with leaders’ silence

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — Christian conservative leaders are hearing mounting criticism for their silence about the nomination of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as the new Trump administration’s attorney general, as allegations about drug-fueled parties and sex trafficking involving the nominee continue to swirl in Washington. “Those most vocal about supposedly loving Jesus and embracing Christian values are the ones that are least likely to stand up and object to nominations of this type of individual,” Boz Tchividjian, grandson of famed evangelist Billy Graham and longtime attorney for sexual abuse survivors in religious settings, told RNS on Wednesday (Nov. 20). Shortly after President-elect Donald Trump tapped Gaetz, a Southern Baptist, as his pick to head the U.S. Department of Justice, attention turned to a congressional ethics investigation looking into allegations by a Gaetz associate that Gaetz knew that women were paid for sex at parties he attended and that Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old in 2017. ABC News has reported that it obtained Venmo records suggesting the former congressman paid $10,000 to two women who …

White Christians made Donald Trump president — again

White Christians made Donald Trump president — again

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — While the United States has become more religiously diverse in recent decades, white Christians remain the largest religious segment of the country, making up about 42% of the population, according to data from the Public Religion Research Institute. And for Donald Trump, their support has once again proved key to his victory. Exit poll data from CNN and other news outlets reported that 72% of white Protestants and 61% of white Catholics said they voted for Trump. Among white voters, 81% of those identified as born-again or evangelical supported Trump, up from 76% in 2020 and similar to the 80% of support Trump received in 2016. Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, said that kind of support is hard to overcome, especially in the Rust Belt swing states that helped seal Trump’s victory. “It’s hard to overcome the white God gap in a place like Pennsylvania, or Michigan and Wisconsin,” he said. But Trump also won the Christian vote overall: 58% of all Catholics voted for him and …

We’re Good at Being Bad Christians + Jayne Sugg

We’re Good at Being Bad Christians + Jayne Sugg

Published by skeptic

When was the last time you read your Bible? If you’ve “deconstructed” from evangelicalism — or any faith tradition — you know that as your faith has evolved your practices have shifted too. On this episode, Katelyn and Roxy explore what it means to find ways to engage with God, with church and with spiritual practices that feel honest and life giving in this, ahem, season (you can take the girl out of evangelicalism but …). We are joined by musician — and friend! — Jayne Sugg, whose new album “Belief Is Hard” is a beautiful exploration of her own “faith renaissance.” GUEST: Jayne Sugg is a New Mexico transplant in New York City. She is a singer and songwriter and a teacher by day. She leads worship and is a member of The Good Shepherd Collective, “a diaspora of musicians who are committed to writing and making music about peace, love, and acceptance.” Check out her debut album, Belief Is Hard, wherever you listen to your music! Songs from Jayne’s album are used on …

Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Christians may tear the country apart

Ukraine’s independent Orthodox Christians may tear the country apart

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — After the first Ukrainian-language liturgy was celebrated at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Cherkasy in central Ukraine on Thursday (Oct. 17), rival groups of Orthodox Christians clashed violently outside the church in a continuing skirmish between those loyal to the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church and supporters of the relatively new Orthodox Church of Ukraine. The brawl, which is being investigated by police, comes in the wake of a law signed in August by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month effectively banning the UOC because of its Russian ties. Though the law has been justified by credible evidence that a few UOC priests have been caught spying for Russia, it has also brought criticism in Ukraine and from abroad that Zelenskyy is impinging on Ukrainians’ religious freedom. The clash in Cherkasy points to a more dangerous reality: It is not just about a single city or church, but an indication of the brewing domestic tensions in Ukraine that have the potential to boil over into a religious and ethnic conflict that would be in no …

What’s a ‘Jezebel spirit’? Some Christians use the term to paint Kamala Harris with a demonic brush

What’s a ‘Jezebel spirit’? Some Christians use the term to paint Kamala Harris with a demonic brush

Published by skeptic

(AP) — Christian nationalist leaders are telling followers that Vice President Kamala Harris is under the influence of a “Jezebel spirit,” using a term with deeply racist and misogynistic roots that is setting off alarm bells for religious and political scholars. The concept is inspired by the biblical story of the evil Queen Jezebel, who persecuted prophets and was punished with a horrible death. The word “Jezebel” was used during slavery and throughout U.S. history to describe Black women, casting them as overtly sexual and untrustworthy. In the context of “Jezebel spirit,” the term has sinister connotations, suggesting the person is under the influence of demons in a spiritual battle between good and evil. People who have studied the Jan. 6 insurrection warn that similar rhetoric on spiritual warfare drove many to the U.S. Capitol that day. “People … are hearing this woman is possessed by a demonic spirit that is hardcore, terrible, hates men, hates authority, is going to do whatever she wants to do,” said Anthea Butler, professor at the University of Pennsylvania …

Anti-Trump evangelical Christians make the case for Harris

Anti-Trump evangelical Christians make the case for Harris

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — In his presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama captured 26% and 21% of white evangelical Christian voters, respectively — and won. Hillary Clinton got only 16% of the white evangelical vote in 2016 and lost. In the past two elections, Donald Trump took more than 80% of the white evangelical vote. Most analysts agree that if Kamala Harris can break this hold on religious conservatives and approach Obama’s numbers, she will sail into the White House. To recapture the religious conservative vote for the Democrats, evangelical groups that are aligned with the Democratic mission are alternating between the carrot and the stick. The “carrot,” — appealing to voters’ religious identities in a positive way — aims to show that Democratic policies in general and Harris’ in particular manifest a rich and broad understanding of religious duty grounded in the gospel. The “stick” is in large measure about wielding the prospect of a second term for Donald Trump. In this case, some of the same groups make the case that Trump is …