On Thursday, the United Methodist Church defrocked a lesbian minister, the Reverend Elizabeth Stroud of Germantown, Pennsylvania. This was the first such step by the Church in 17 years, reflecting its law that bars ""self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" from ministry. Convicted by a 12-1 vote and defrocked by a 7-6 majority, Stroud may still perform other […]

Two recent news developments highlight once again the fallacy of "rational rejection" of the rights of gay Americans by social conservatives. In their ongoing quest to mask theology as social science, they have once run into the dual brick walls of the academy and the Supreme Court. The first instance of conservatives being "mugged by […]

In the latest installment of the Red State Pathology Report, we bring you this bit of psychosis from Wisconsin. Apparently, five people were killed and three wounded in a shootout over the use of a deer hunting platform. The Sawyer County Chief Deputy Tim Zeigle summed up the episode, "it's absolutely nuts." The bizarre massacre […]

With the election over and the Scott Peterson trial completed, the American media apparently has little else to report but the supposed scandal over the raunchy Terrell Owens Monday Night Football pre-game skit. For conservatives like the Heritage Foundation's Rebecca Hagelin, ABC and the NFL joined to open yet another front in the war against […]

In what is only the latest in a long line of Faux National Tragedies, Scott Peterson was found guilty of murdering his wife Laci. The media's obvious fixation with the tragedies of predictably white, often blond, and usually well-to-do girls continues unabated. Laci Peterson joins BYU student Brooke Wilsberger, Dru, Elizabeth, Jon Benet, Samantha, and […]

Sometimes, a single day of news tells you everything to know about what is or what is to come. On April 2, 2004, for example, the New York Times featured no fewer than seven stories covering different scandals, deceptions, stone-walling and perversions of science by the Bush administration. November 9, 2004 is another one of […]

While President Bush continues his cynically transparent effort to court American Catholic voters, some U.S. bishops are doing his dirty work for him. A group of American bishops, backed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican, proclaimed that pro-choice politicians should not receive Communion. Others […]

Four years ago, George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President, and famously set the moral tone - and expectations for his presidency: "So when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of […]

For the third time, a federal district court judge has ruled the so-called Partial Birth Abortion ban unconstitutional. Judge Richard Kopf in Lincoln, Nebraska followed his colleagues in New York and San Francisco in upending Congress' ban on the very rare intact dilation and extraction procedure. All three judges fired shots across the GOP bow, […]

Perhaps the only joys in watching the Republican National Convention are the rich servings of irony. Served fresh in virtually GOP speech, these morsels of sweet revenge help slow my otherwise inexorably rising bile. It is worth bearing in mind that the Republican platform calls for a ban on same-sex marriage and equates the rights […]