COMMENTARY
God, Guns and Gen Z
Religion News Service Mar. 14, 2018 /By C.S. Pearce
One week after the Parkland school massacre, Florida’s House of Representatives voted 97-10 to pass a measure requiring every school in the state to display the motto “In God We Trust.” Outside stood about 100 students, chanting for stricter gun laws. The day before, when the students were inside, watching from the gallery, the House had voted 71-36 to kill a potential bill to ban assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. The lawmakers refused even to bring it to the floor for debate. Read more...
On gay marriage, voters got it right even if the church gets it wrong.
Religion News Service Nov. 15, 2012 /By C.S. Pearce
Last week, citizens in Maine, Maryland and Washington state made history with their votes to legalize same-sex marriage. Minnesotans, too, rejected a constitutional amendment that would have banned gay marriage. Since 1998, 32 states have had marriage equality measures on their ballots, and voters have rejected every one of them. The six states that have legalized gay marriage did it through legislation or by court order. Read more...
The Christian case for gay marriage.
More Christians are finding another message about same-sex marriage in the Bible.
Dec. 02, 2012 | By C.S. Pearce
Despite the increasing number of those who hold other faiths or no faith, Christians still wield substantial influence on our nation's cultural and ethical norms. After all, 73% of Americans still identify as Christian, according to a 2012 Pew Forum Study. So the fact that many churchgoers have changed their views about gay civil rights in recent years is one of the major under-reported reasons why same-sex marriage is now legal in nine states. It is also one of the reasons that the constitutional challenge to Proposition 8, which took away gay Californians' right to marry, may get a hearing in the Supreme Court this term (an announcement is expected on Monday). Read more...
Learning at the world's first Interfaith College.
Sept. 7, 2011 | Updated Nov 07, 2011
(Ghost-written by C.S. Pearce)
A rabbi, a minister, and an imam meet together for a year and something amazing happens... In June of 2010, the three of us, Rev. Jerry Campbell, Imam Jihad Turk and Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, announced an agreement for our respective institutions to co-create the world's first inter-religious university -- a place where rabbis, ministers, imams and other religious leaders would each be educated in their own traditions, side by side, but also with classes in common. The new university would include academic schools for students who wanted to do world-healing work in non-religious fields as well. . Read more...
Letting doubters in the door.
Those without religious affiliation aren't necessarily rejecting God.
March 25, 2012 | By Philip Clayton
(Ghost-written by C.S. Pearce & edited by Philip)
"The Rise of the Nones" is one of 10 trends changing American life, according to Time magazine's March 12 cover story. That's because the "nones" — those who mark "none" on surveys that ask them to identify their religious affiliation — are the fastest-growing religious group in the United States.
Not surprisingly, the increase in the unaffiliated comes at the expense of America's mainstream religions, which means that Christianity is taking the biggest hit. Mainstream Protestant churches have lost more than a third of their members since 1960. Evangelical churches are also feeling the pinch; Southern Baptists are hurting. Read more...
(San Diego edition)
How Christian Right Got on School Boards.
There is plenty of blame to go around, and if the fundamentalists don’t want to be accused of running stealth campaigns, they should act differently.
Sept. 20, 1992 | By C.S. Pearce
Imagine a candidate for your community’s school board who has never attended a board meeting, who admits knowing little about the school district, who hopes to teach her children at home when they’re of school age, and who refuses to participate in public forums for the candidates. Further imagine that this candidate belongs to a well-financed coalition of fundamentalist Christians that plans to take over school boards and public offices in communities throughout San Diego County in order to further its agenda of banning abortions, fighting gun-control laws, and putting its brand of Christian values into school classrooms.. Read more...