Bible

The history of Christianity, as atheists are fond of reminding us, is one that has been drenched in blood. Whether religious war, inquisition, or colonial violence, there’s been great evil committed in the name of God. What role has the idea of Satan played in the development of this culture?

“It’s been a rough month.”

Does your conscience, religious or secular, feel outrage? And does your heart cry? These, not dogma, creed, purity or piety, are the signs that your soul is awake.

A conversation with Brook Wilensky-Lanford, author of Paradise Lust: Searching for the Garden of Eden.

“As a black, feminist, marriage-equality advocate I reside at an important intersection in this struggle. This movement must acknowledge the unique history of racial oppression, while still revealing the interconnections of all marriage exclusion. This work must reflect the feminist critique of marriage, while still acknowledging the ancient, cross-cultural, human attachment to marriage. This work must be staunchly supportive of same-sex marriage, while rejecting a marriage-normative framework that silences the contributions of queer life.”

For any student of American history, all of this sounds eerily familiar—right down to the revision of dates. American history is littered with predictions about the end of the world.

During my lecture I faced a standing room crowd of heretics, fence sitters, curiosity seekers, and true believers bracing for a circus sideshow. Traveling across America to speak on freethought and abolitionism during the 19th century, white feminist atheist Ernestine Rose was smeared as being a “thousand times below a prostitute.”

When survival is the name of the game, how are White Male Heterosexual Conservative Christians going to rally the diminishing troops in a desperate bid to hold on to the power slipping from their hands?

But even while the language and the tone of anti-gay evangelical groups is beginning to shift, the reality is that while the language of anti- bullying has been adopted by groups like Focus on the Family, the theological and ideological currents that produce the reality of anti- gay bullying remain unquestioned.

Did the alleged killer draw any imaginary encouragement from his newfound Mormon context?