Religion Dispatches

> Among the apparent sins of the Weimar Republic: one person one vote, equally counted, for all men and women over 20, as well as legalised abortion. Back to the U.S. I recommend this 2020 book on that issue: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-power-worshippers-9781635573435/ "The Power Worshippers -- Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism" by Katherine Stewart "Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power." Also, from 2013, "The Not-So-Lofty Origins of the Evangelical Pro-Life Movement": https://religiondispatches.org/the-not-so-lofty-origins-of-the-evangel… "as Randall Balmer has succinctly put it: “the religious right of the late twentieth century organized to perpetuate racial discrimination.”" And "How Republicans Became Anti-Choice": https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/how-republicans-became-ant… "in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Republicans were behind efforts to liberalize and even decriminalize abortion; theirs was the party of reproductive choice, while Democrats, with their large Catholic constituency, were the opposition." The book I've…

To be fair, they just recently slightly improved their stance on homosexuality, but saying "the LDS church doesn't think anybody is damaged goods" is whitewashing at best. Here's the new, improved policy: http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/joannabrooks/3720/homosex… In short, gay people are sinners, are "subject to church discipline", but can be forgiven if they repent for their sins (i.e. stop being gay -- i.e. stop being themselves). Church leaders should tell them to "control unrighteous thoughts". And they aren't allowed to attend Church. The only substantive positive change is that church leaders are no longer told to send gay members to counselling, which they were up until a month ago. How is telling someone "you can't be a real Mormon or go to heaven unless you stop being gay" not telling them they're damaged goods? I don't want to say you're lying about your gay Mormon friends, but presumably they can't actually go to church, and through some kind of Stockholm syndrome consider themselves a member of an organisation that thinks that "Homosexual behaviour can be forgiven through sincere repentance". Sure, you can talk about how you think everyone is good and precious and deserves love, but beyond platitudes, the Church's policies on homosexuality are pretty clear.

Keep in mind that these powerful men believe that Jewish people coming back to Israel is the first step of the Apocalypse, and the return of Christ. It is a death cult quite literally trying to bring about the end of the world, and they're ruling the world. Also, they are insanely antisemitic and believe most Jews will go to hell. https://religiondispatches.org/2025/12/04/mike-huckabee-tries-get-apoc…

Personally endorsed by Musk: "If white men become a minority, we will be slaughtered. Remember, if non-Whites openly hate White men while White men hold a collective majority, then they will be 1000x times [sic] more hostile and cruel when they are a majority over whites. White solidarity is the only way to survive." https://religiondispatches.org/2026/01/09/musk-endorsed-white-national… And this is "anodyne" to you? Personally, I want absolutely nothing to do with these cretins. Being in the same virtual space with them makes me feel dirty, let alone using a platform actually owned by one of them. I wouldn't go to Stormfront to discuss gaming news, either.

I very much want this to be true but it seems you’ll do fine if you can confidently spew off another explanation. https://religiondispatches.org/a-year-after-the-non-apocalypse-where-a…

http://www.factcheck.org/2015/02/paul-repeats-baseless-vaccine-claims http://religiondispatches.org/rand-paul-we-wouldnt-need-laws-if-everyo…

>http://www.factcheck.org/2015/02/paul-repeats-baseless-vaccine-claims That quote is taken out of context. To quote the entire thing: "The point is that I have heard of – I mean who hasn’t ever met a child who has a profound disability and in the parents’ mind they see a connection,” Paul said. “But I didn’t allege there is a connection. I said I heard of people who believe there is a connection. I do think that vaccines are a good idea. I’ve been vaccinated. My kids have been vaccinated." >http://religiondispatches.org/rand-paul-we-wouldnt-need-laws-if-everyo… The headlines says "Rand Paul: We Wouldn’t Need Laws If Everyone Were Christian". Paul never said anything like that. He said that "Christian values" like non-violence and such are good.

Opinions on abortion among many christian groups have been pretty fluid in the past century[1]. > The rhetoric about abortion being the catalyst for the rise of the Religious Right, however, collapses under scrutiny. Evangelicals considered abortion a “Catholic issue” until the late 1970s. In 1968, the flagship evangelical magazine Christianity Today convened a conference with another evangelical organization, Christian Medical Society, to discuss the ethics of abortion. After several days of deliberations, twenty-six evangelical theologians issued a statement acknowledging that they could not agree on any one position, that the ambiguities of the issue allowed for many different approaches. “Whether the performance of an induced abortion is sinful we are not agreed,” the statement read, “but about the necessity of it and permissibility for it under certain circumstances we are in accord.” The statement cited “individual health, family welfare, and social responsibility” as possible justifications for abortion and allowed for instances when fetal life “may have to be abandoned to maintain full and secure family life.” And this is a real eye-opener: > Baptists, in particular, applauded the Roe decision as an appropriate articulation of the line of division between church and state, between personal morality and state regulation of individual behavior. “Religious liberty, human equality and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court abortion decision,” W. Barry Garrett of…

A statement from within orthodox Christianity about this (http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/248/are_god_and_aliens_compa… God became man in Jesus in order to save us. So if there are also other intelligent beings, it’s not a given that they need redemption. They might have remained in full friendship with their creator. The article also includes an interesting quote from C. S. Lewis on the subject: I look forward with horror to contact with the other inhabited planets, if there are such. We would only transport to them all of our sin and our acquisitiveness, and establish a new colonialism. I can’t bear to think of it. But if we on Earth were to get right with God, of course, all would be changed. Once we find ourselves spiritually awakened, we can go to outer space and take the good things with us. That is quite a different matter.

For which part? Global population increase: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-by-yea… White supremacist: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/feb/12/elon-musk-posts-jan… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VfYjPzj1Xw https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/as-elon-musk-amplifie… https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/17/business/elon-musk-reveals-his-actual-t… https://religiondispatches.org/2026/01/09/musk-endorsed-white-national… and so on and so forth

> there aren't really any left http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_God_(USA) http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/342577631.html?dids=… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutaree http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-green-phd/anders-behring-breivik-ch… http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/guest_bloggers/6263/chris…