The Gospel of Contradiction: An Interview with Mary Gordon
Why is the character of Jesus so powerful? Why is he such a hit? Bestselling writer Mary Gordon re-reads the Gospels, asking these questions, among others, and trying to figure out why fundamentalist readings of scripture, grounded in fear and rage, have come to dominate the understanding of religion in this country.
Sex Comes For the Archbishop: Rembert Weakland’s Unflinching Memoir
Rembert Weakland is a Catholic progressive, a Benedictine monk, and a former Archbishop. His new memoir tells the story of a career marked by good work, pastoral advocacy, and the public scandal of a gay love life.
Catholic Bad Girls or Good Catholic Women: Bridging the Generation Gap
A young, lesbian, Catholic progressive responds to Frances Kissling on the question of old-school ideas and strategies versus the brave new world of boundary-busting and online activism.
The Best and the Brightest of the Catholic Bad Girls
We picketed bishops and Popes, stole their dresses, stood up at the consecration of the Eucharist and said the words out loud. We are the bad girls of Catholic feminism, and we have stood up, over and over again, for women’s freedom.
Undercover at Falwell’s Liberty University, Finding Common Ground
Brown sophomore Kevin Roose, an Ivy-league heathen, infiltrated the nation’s holiest university and emerged a changed man—not committed to conservative Christianity, but to finding a new language for reconciliation.
St. Paul the Pacifist: A Christian Response to Torture
In light of a recent finding that evangelical Christians are more likely, statistically, to support the use of torture, a scholar proposes an approach to nonviolence based on the teaching of Christianity’s first theologian.
Is it time for a non-Catholic on the Supreme Court? Or, put another way, should we not insist that the Court be religiously diverse?
Of Values and Viruses: The Challenges for Obama’s New Global AIDS Coordinator
Dr. Eric Goosby, Obama’s pick to run the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, will face the challenge of faith-based opposition to condom distribution, among other difficulties, when he assumes this important position.
Much-Married Newt Gingrich Converts to Catholicism
Newt Gingrich may be a Catholic now, but he's still going for the jugular.
Vatican Official Challenges Excommunication in Brazil
Archbishop says that in the case of the nine-year-old girl who was excommunicated for her life-saving abortion, the first concern of the Church should have been pastoral, not punitive.
Jesus, Please Take Away These Feelings
A play about gay teens steps outside the box, sparks a loud clamor in religious media, and rankles an archbishop.
Catholic magazine in Spain has its own set of movie awards. "Juno" tops the list. Guess why.
Catholic educators in Boston put a cross in every classroom, just in case anyone's wondering who's running the show.
Liberation Theology is Alive and Well
It wasn’t on CNN, but last month hundreds of theologians, activists, and indigenous people came together in Brazil to envision a new world; the gathering stressed diversity and sustainability, migration, and climate change.
Doubt v. Predator: A Vatican II Parable
The film adaptation of this Pulitzer Prize-winning play, set in the midst of Vatican II, pits the age-old male hierarchy against the secrecy of the recent molestation scandals. And the winner is...
The Cynical Use of “Freedom of Religion”
On the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we pay attention to the ways that religious groups are trying to claim that their right to religious freedom entitles them to oppress others.
Rick Warren’s Biblical Blowback
The proper role of government is to punish evildoers, Pastor Rick Warren tells Sean Hannity. If the Rev’s read is to be believed, the United States is in deep trouble.
Tom Daschle, a pro-choice and pro-stem cell Catholic, will serve as Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services. Though attacked in the past, he has a history of keeping church and state separate.
Election 2008: Religion and Politics
From McCain's faith (or not) to Obama's pastor to Palin's exorcist...it's all here.
Dissident UCC pastor apologizes to Catholic Church for his co-religionists' role in gay-friendly, women's ordination...
Dispatches from the Beltway: Beyond the Graying and Greening Religious Right
Less strident, less partisan, less defensive—the emerging evangelical center defies the stereotype...
The Vatican’s latest edit engages the contemporary world in a collective reconsideration of systemic and personal sin, including the environment and genetic engineering.
A Pakistani girl and a Nun square off over religious expression.