White House Unsure How Extremist Pastor Closely Associated With White House Became Involved With Embassy Ceremony
Welcome to Barf Bag, a daily politics roundup to help you sort through the chaotic Trumpian news cycle.
Focus on the Family Steamrolled the IRS Into Declaring It a ChurchÂ
Documents obtained by Right Wing Watch detail how Focus on the Family, a religious conservative and anti-abortion organization, convinced the IRS in 2016 to classify the nonprofit as a church, releasing it from financial transparency rules and requirements like unemployment benefits.
Trump Evangelical Advisor: No Need for Flu Shots When You Can 'Inoculate Yourself With the Word of God'
Gloria Copeland, a televangelist serving on Trump’s evangelical advisory board, has delivered a helpful message to those concerned by alarming reports that we are experiencing the worst flu season in nearly a decade. That message is: actually, there is no flu season, because Jesus went ahead and took care of that.
Trump Made Up His North Korea Threat on the Fly, If You Can Believe ItÂ
How do you guys think Kim Jong Un spent his day today?
US Muslims More Accepting of Gays Than White Evangelicals, Survey Suggests
After last year’s Pulse massacre, it was fairly common to hear those on the right discuss the great threat Islam posed toward gays (some even called it the “greatest threat”) because of Omar Mateen’s pledge of allegiance to Isis. It was no coincidence that this rhetoric surfaced during the presidential campaign of…
I Learned How to Make a Christian Conservative Meme at the Values Voter Summit, and You Can Too
Washington D.C.—On Saturday, across the street from Omni Shoreham Hotel, where this year’s Family Research Council-sponsored Values Voter Summit was being held, groups of high-school girls in oversized blazers and too-tight french braids, and high school boys in too-tight button-down shirts and oversized “Make America…
The Evangelicals Embrace Their Man
Washington D.C.—On Friday afternoon, anthropomorphic lie Donald Trump took the stage at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit, an annual conference held by and for the most fervently anti-choice, anti-gay, pro-Jesus voters, and managed to not mention abortion or LGBT people a single time.
This Is a Good Story About Growing Up EvangelicalÂ
Plenty of people didn’t realize the church was a church, even when they drove past it on Algonquin Road, even when the sign was put out front with enormous lettering, even when Christmas came. They thought it was a community college, maybe, or they didn’t think about it all other than when they got stuck in traffic at…
Evangelicals' Opposition to Gay Marriage Is Showing Some Cracks
Looks like the Earth still has a couple of miracles lying around: Seems the evangelical consensus against gay marriage, gay rights, and gays generally is starting to look a little crumbly.
Evangelicals Still Trying to Grapple With Sex, Modernity
MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE BIBLE BELT: Evangelicals are still struggling with this whole "women's lib" thing. Let's check in with the debate over "Biblical womanhood" and submission, shall we?
Over at The Atlantic, Abigail Rine examines the Evangelical push to revise the obsession with female purity and the "damaged goods" metaphor so heavily used in the religion's teachings.
Young Evangelicals Are Sick of Abstinence Pledges and Homophobia
Good news for rationally-minded religious folk and nonbelievers alike: young evangelicals increasingly care less and less about abstinence, abortion, and same-sex marriage. Which is to say: they're more interested in, as one expert told Buzzfeed's Anna North, "outward expressions of the faith" than purity balls and…
Another Religious Organization Accused of Covering Up Child Rape
What wouldn't Jesus do? Try not to act surprised, but another out-there group of holy rollers have been accused of trying to cover up the rape of a child. This time, the organization in the crosshairs is the big-haired Jesusophiles at Trinity Broadcasting Network, an evangelical Christian media group that owns five…
Majority Of Evangelicals Have Premarital Sex Like Normals
Many have suspected that not all Christian young people save themselves for marriage. Now there's data to prove it.
Michele Bachmann Is Second-Best Evangelical Candidate, After Jesus
Evangelical voters are apparently turning away from Mitt Romney and embracing Michele Bachmann. Reason: "she speaks our code."
Christian Men Beg Women Not To Dress Like Sluts
"Sometimes when I see a girl provocatively dressed, I'll say to myself, she probably doesn't even know that a 101 guys are going to devour her in their minds today," says pastor C.J. Mahaney in this sermon video on how women need to dress modestly for men's sakes, quoting a series of college guys. "Then again, maybe…
Forever 21's Bizarre Knockoff Empire
The top row of shirts is by Forever 21. The bottom row is by a small California-based label called Trovata. Welcome to a peek behind the curtain at secretive, cult-y, and very rapidly growing fast-fashion chain Forever 21.
Popular Female Evangelist Claims That What God Really Wants Is For Women To Shut Up
Great news, ladies! According to God/a new ideological movement, it turns out that the best thing a woman can do is submit and let her husband do all of the hard, thinky stuff. How novel!
The Anti-Pornography Debate Returns
Anti-porn activists — that familiar, yet still jarring coalition of women's studies professors and Bush administration vets — briefed interested members of congress on pornography and obscenity yesterday. Is this issue coming back to the agenda?
A "Hollow, Thoughtless Core:" Why Evangelicals Hate The Princess And The Frog
The Princess and the Frog has been a hit with viewers, but Christian groups are calling it "offensive" because of its supernatural references. And it turns out that Disney films have been pissing off evangelicals for years.
