James Ault is a writer and documentary filmmaker based in Northampton, MA. His first film, Born Again (1987), focused on the life of a fundamentalist Baptist church in Worcester, MA. He later wrote a book about the same church, Spirit Read More
Articles
Redefining Religious Liberty
A well-funded network of conservative Roman Catholics and evangelicals is using a “religious liberty” framework to attack same-sex marriage, antidiscrimination laws, access to contraception, and abortion rights—not on moral grounds, but because they supposedly violate the religious liberty of others. Read More
Will GOP’s Internal Divisions Create a Path to Real Immigration Reform?
Some Republicans are backing away from their hard-line stance on immigration reform, while the GOP’s most conservative members still oppose anything resembling “amnesty” for undocumented workers. These tensions are especially evident in Kansas, where the growing number of Latinos and Read More
Spiritual Warriors with an Antigay Mission: The New Apostolic Reformation
The New Apostolic Reformation, an aggressively political movement within Christianity, blames literal demonic beings for the world’s ills and stresses the power of “spiritual warfare” to deliver people and nations from their power. It is rapidly gaining influence in the Read More
Antigay Legal Group Targets Home of World’s Largest Pride Parade
From a modest building in a central neighborhood in Goiânia, the capital of the Brazilian state of Goiás, Filipe Coelho is launching the American Center for Law and Justice’s (ACLJ) Brazilian branch, following the example of the Christian Right organization’s Read More
D.C. Advertises for Transgender Acceptance
Iden Campbell McCollum is the founder of The Campbell Center, a peer-run resource center for people living with mental health challenges. The center serves the primarily low-income and African American community in Southeast Washington, D.C. McCollum, a man in his Read More
Why Marriage Won: Right-Wing Messaging and the 2012 Elections
Before the November 2012 elections, 37 states had voted on statewide ballot measures seeking to restrict marriage equality in this country. Each time, voters in these states—family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers of LGBTQ people—approved the anti-LGBTQ position, often by Read More
The Legal Arm of the Christian Right
Inside the American Center for Law and Justice
After his unsuccessful 1988 presidential bid mobilized Christian Right voters, televangelist Pat Robertson channeled his campaign’s energy into forming two influential right-wing organizations. One was the voter mobilization powerhouse the Christian Coalition of America; the other was the American Center Read More
Major Christian Right Actors Seek to Criminalize Homosexuality in Africa
On Friday, Andy Kroll at Mother Jones reported that Jay Sekulow and Jordan Sekulow, the father-son team leading the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) — high-profile social conservatives and advisers and supporters of Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Read More
Do We Have to Be “Equal”?
Commentary
The 2012 election promises to be an intensely contested one, but one constituency seems guaranteed to vote for Barack Obama in large numbers: The LGBTQ community, especially given his endorsement of gay marriage.
Even Republicans are coming out in support Read More