Secular Left Posts
September 8, 2017

On “Closing” a Megachurch: Why Were We Surprised?

Natural disasters and acts of God tend to appear alongside each other on legal papers and insurance policies. It seems they’re touched on in Joel Osteen’s megachurch operations manual, too. You might think a former NBA basketball arena with capacity for 17,000 would make a good shelter in such a situation. Joel disagrees.

Despite being situated fairly ideally to assist the community during the worst hurricane to hit Texas in over fifty years, Osteen’s only first move was to encourage church members to donate to the church while insisting that flood waters made the facility inaccessible.

Don’t Hate the Pastor, Hate the Megachurch

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August 28, 2017

Lucas County’s 10 Commandments Monument Needs To Go

image of 10 Commandments Moument on grounds of Lucas County Ohio Courthouse
10 Commandments Moument on grounds of Lucas County Ohio Courthouse

A stone marker has sat on the grounds of the Lucas County Courthouse in Toledo, Ohio for the past 60 years. It’s engraved with the 10 Commandments – a set of Christian religious rules. Supporters of the monument claim the commandments are part of our collective legal history so it should remain on the courthouse lawn. In 2006, a federal court agreed. A reasonable person, looking at the full background of how the monument came to be would come to a different conclusion.

The Lucas County Courthouse is located on Adams Street in downtown Toledo. There aren’t many monuments or markers on the grounds but one that caught my eye is a 10 Commandments monument that was donated by a local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1957. The Eagles placed hundreds of markers across the country starting in the late 1940s through the early 1960s. The markers were placed on courthouses, public schools, and public parks.

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August 3, 2017

Interesting Organizations Defying Their Party’s Stereotypes

July 20, 2017

House Bill That Would Allow Mosque Super PACs Heads For A Vote

image of a typical Mosque

On July 13th, The House Financial Services and General Government (FSGG) Appropriations bill was voted out of committee 31-32 and heads to the full US House of Representatives for consideration. The bill includes a section that would basically eliminate the Johnson amendment enforcement of the tax code against churches opening them up to used as political tools and bribery facilitators.

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July 11, 2017

Examining the Christian Left Movement

A look at most of the major news headlines about Christianity often paints its followers as ultraconservative people who are against certain minority groups, such as refugees and the LGBT community. However, that’s not always the case, and a potentially powerful movement known as the Christian Left, or progressive Christianity, is also present and making impacts in faith communities and beyond.

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June 23, 2017

Why I Question Religious Support of Donald Trump

Donald Trump shocked the world this November as he defied political analysts and achieved the required number of electoral votes to become the president of the United States. Even people with little or no political interest weighed in about the news to say how surprised they were by how things turned out. However, for some people of the Christian faith, the most surprising thing is that Trump has been able to win support from other followers of Christ.

He Talks Flippantly About Sexually Assaulting Women

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