Hännah Ettinger blogs, tweets, is the founding publisher of The Swan Children Magazine, and dishes feminist critique of YA novels over at The YA Wallpaper.
The faith heritage in the descendants of Billy Graham is starkly divided, most noticeably between his son Franklin Graham and his daughter’s son Rev. Tullian Tchividjian. Fred Clark at Slacktivist is calling feud in part by pointing out how the elder Graham’s legacy has taken a very hard rightward turn under the leadership of Franklin, who leads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association: Read more
A profile of old guard conservative Southern Baptist leader Richard Land (below) in the National Journal reveals some interesting connections about how he drove the shift in conservative Christian politics over the last 10 years and the current Southern Baptist community’s evolution since his heyday. Called “God’s Lobbyist” by TIME magazine, Land was pivotal to shifting the moderate Southern Baptists of the late 70s and early 80s to a firm line of conservative Christians with an eye toward aggressive political engagement, especially on issues of sexuality and reproduction. Read more
Growing up as a conservative Christian, I always heard about those one or two kids who got sent away to special “camps” after they had “issues” with their families over things like their sexuality. They’d disappear for a semester or a year with little explanation or fanfare. They’d usually be quiet and withdrawn from church functions for a period of time beforehand, and then, poof! they’d be gone. When they came back, they’d either be shiny-bright and smiley and give a testimony before the church about how they got saved from the error of their ways at camp, or they would be even more withdrawn and absent and eventually just disappear from the church scene (and sometimes from their families) altogether. Read more
I happened to graduate from a school that’s notorious for being exempt from Title IX, the law that says schools receiving federal funding can’t discriminate on the basis of gender. After the rash of rape-related Title IX rights violations over the past few years, I tend to keep my eyes open for instances where Christian colleges are using exemptions from the nines to practice hypocritical Christianity and bigotry on their campuses. The latest of these violations in the guise of religious freedom is taking place at George Fox University in Portland, Oregon. Jayce Marcus (above), a fully transitioned transgender man, has been in a battle with the school for equal access to male housing. The school showed its desperation to remain inhospitable to LGBTQ individuals through a hush-hush, rush application for a religious exemption from Title IX from the Department of Education. Simply put, they didn’t want to allow someone they still believe is female to live with men. Read more
After the ruling on Hobby Lobby came down, the biggest question in the minds of those outside of the Christian Right may have been: Why is the science behind birth control irrelevant to the Christians involved in this case? A quick Google search reveals that the objected-to forms of birth control don’t cause abortions, but the fearful visceral response from Hobby Lobby supporters was entirely driven by the idea that these contraceptives cause early abortions. Read more
