Toledo, Ohio, Catholic school students were unceremoniously removed from a performance of The Nutcracker when chaperones realized that Clara’s parents would be portrayed as gay dads. Despite an apology from the administration, students still protested by painting the “spirit rock” in rainbow colors and emblazoning it with “God Loves U” on Tuesday, according to TV station WTOL.

Despite reports Monday that fast-food chain Chick-fil-A would cease all donations to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations, the conservative Christian leader Franklin Graham says that they’ve reversed that decision almost as soon as they announced it.

In a Facebook post, Graham, who is also aTrump ally, said he had personally called Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy as soon as he heard that the fast food restaruant might stop donating to anti-gay causes. According to Graham, Cathy was “very clear that they have not bowed down to anyone’s demands, including the LGBTQ community.”

Compared to the number of men, few women are mentioned in the Bible by name. The exact number of named and unnamed women in the Bible is somewhat uncertain because of a number of difficulties involved in calculating the total. For example, the Bible sometimes uses different names for the same woman, names in different languages can be translated differently, and some names can be used for either men or women. Professor Karla Bombach says one study produced a total of 3000-3100 names, 2900 of which are men with 170 of the total being women. However, the possibility of duplication produced the recalculation of a total of 1700 distinct personal names in the Bible with 137 of them being women. In yet another study of the Hebrew Bible only, there were a total of 1426 names with 1315 belonging to men and 111 to women. Seventy percent of the named and unnamed women in the Bible come from the Hebrew Bible.[26]:33,34 "Despite the disparities among these different calculations, ... [it remains true that] women or women's names represent between 5.5 and 8 percent of the total [names in the Bible], a stunning reflection of the androcentric character of the Bible."[26]:34 A study of women whose spoken words are recorded found 93, of which 49 women are named.[27]

All Ancient Near Eastern societies were patriarchal, and the Bible is a patriarchal document, written by men from a patriarchal age. Many scholars see the primary emphasis of the Bible as reinforcing women's subordinate status. However, there are also scholars who claim there is a kind of gender blindness in the Bible as well as patriarchy. Marital laws in the Bible favored men, as did inheritance laws. There were strict laws of sexual behavior with adultery a crime punishable by stoning. A woman in ancient biblical times was always under the authority of a man and was subject to strict purity laws, both ritual and moral. However, women such as Deborah, the Shunnemite woman, and the prophetess Huldah, rise above societal limitations in their stories. The Bible contains many noted narratives of women as both victors and victims, women who change the course of events, and women who are powerless and unable to affect their own destinies.

In all three synoptic gospels, Mark, Matthew and Luke, Mary and Jesus' brothers are disowned by Jesus. The Matthew version has it as "Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." [84] In Luke the repudiation is even stronger, there Jesus says his disciples have to hate their mothers. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."[85]

There are hundreds of examples of women from the Bible as characters in painting, sculpture, opera and film. Historically, artistic renderings tend to reflect the changing views on women from within society more than the biblical account that mentions them.

Eve is a common subject. Art historian Mati Meyer says society's views of women are observable in the differing renderings of Eve in art over the centuries. Meyer explains: "Genesis 2–3 recounts the creation of man and the origins of evil and death; Eve, the temptress who disobeys God’s commandment, is probably the most widely discussed and portrayed figure in art."[100] According to Mati Meyer, Eve is historically portrayed in a favorable light up through the Early Middle Ages (AD 800's), but by the Late Middle Ages (1400s) artistic interpretation of Eve becomes heavily misogynistic. Meyer sees this change as influenced by the writings of the 4th century theologian Augustine of Hippo, "who sees Eve’s sexuality as destructive to male rationality".[100] By the seventeenth century, the Fall of man as a male-female struggle emerges, and in the eighteenth century, the perception of Eve is influenced by John Miltons Paradise Lost where Adam's free will is emphasized along with Eve's beauty. Thereafter a secular view of Eve emerges "through her transformation into a femme fatale—a compound of beauty, seductiveness and independence set to destroy the man."[100]

Startling new data released Monday shows that the rate of hate crime murders in the U.S. is the highest it’s been in at least 27 years.

The FBI’s definition of a hate crime includes “criminal [offenses] against a person or property, motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) claimed the total is the highest recorded by the FBI since the bureau first began tracking hate crimes in 1991.

Voting Republican has become an activity analogous to reminiscing about air-raid drills or complaining incessantly about back pain: ordinary for boomers, but a marker of eccentricity among the young.

In 2016, Donald Trump commanded the support of only 28 percent of voters under 30, according to Pew Research. His disapproval rating among Americans under 35 currently hovers around 70 percent. And millennials’ antipathy for our Republican president isn’t personal; the Fox News grandpa-in-chief might be especially unappealing to the rising generation, but the kids don’t have much use for the GOP’s kinder, gentler reactionaries, either. Less than 30 percent of millennials wanted Republicans to retain control of Congress last year. And in broader measures of generational opinion, both millennials and Gen-Zers evince higher levels of support for liberal ideological premises and policy proposals than any older cohorts.

This is a big problem for the GOP. For a while, a rightward drift among boomers — combined with millennials’ woeful turnout rates — kept Republicans from paying much of a price for refusing to update its agenda for the rising generations. But in 2018, the oldest Gen-Zers entered the electorate, and millennial turnout surged. As a result, for the first time ever, millennial, Gen-Z, and Gen-X voters collectively cast more ballots than boomers or “silent types” for the first time ever in a midterm election.

This state of affairs leaves the Republican Party with three options for preserving its medium-term competitiveness in national elections: Adjust its platform to better meet the demands of younger voters, ramp up voter suppression efforts, or pray that the kids will age out of their liberalism.

While working at a Billings, Montana, auto dealership in 2016, Kathleen O’Donnell said mechanics would frequently sling insults behind her back, calling her “faggot” and referring to her as “Bob” or “Joe” because of her closely cropped hair. A few days before her six-month probationary period at the dealership ended, O’Donnell recalled, her manager, with tears in his eyes, told her he had to fire her because she was gay. It was the first time O’Donnell had been fired from a job.

A North Carolina police officer is suing for religious discrimination after he said he was fired for refusing to spend extended time with a woman who isn’t his wife, a practice commonly known as the “Billy Graham Rule.”

Manuel Torres, 51, worked as a deputy for the Lee County Sheriff for five years when his boss asked him to train a female deputy in July 2017. Torres requested a religious accommodation, the suit alleges, saying he “holds the strong and sincere religious belief that the Holy Bible prohibits him, as a married man, from being alone for extended periods with a female who is not his wife.”

Torres, a Baptist who serves as a deacon at his local church, said in the suit that training his colleague would leave the appearance of “sinful conduct.”

An Indiana high school student has faced ridicule after being attacked in a locker room for being gay. After other students started circulating video of the incident around school, the teenage boy’s mother shared the story with Indianapolis TV station WTHR.

“I’m not OK, but I will be,” the student told the news outlet.

And he’s telling anyone else who ever finds themselves the victim of a hate crime to stay strong in spirit.

"Stay true to yourself,” he said, “and if you get hit, do the best you can to make sure it never happens again."

A report released Thursday by Vermont's Roman Catholic Church found there were "credible and substantiated" allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against 40 priests in the state since 1950.

All but one of those allegations occurred prior to 2000, and none of the priests is still in ministry, the report said. Most of the priests who were named in the report are now dead.

"While most of these allegations took place at least a generation ago, the numbers are still staggering," said Bishop Christopher Coyne, who leads the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, which covers the entire state.

Finally, a priest I can really get behind.

Father Joseph McLoone of the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, has been arrested for allegedly stealing over $100,000 in donations made to the church between 2011 and 2018. According to a statement from the Chester County District Attorney’s Office (via The Hill), McLoone used the cash to fund a cushy lifestyle that included “a beach house, travel, dining, and spending on adult men with whom he maintained sexual relationships.”

A man arrested by the FBI on suspicion of threatening to kill Hispanic people in Miami allegedly wrote that he thanked God every day that Donald Trump was president.

Eric Lin, 35, made a series of threats against the Hispanic community in the Miami area before being arrested in Seattle.

An FBI complaint in Miami says Lin sent Facebook messages to a Hispanic woman threatening her and her family between May and August. The messages praised Adolf Hitler, used racial slurs, and called for the extermination of the Hispanic community, other non-white groups, and “Spanish-speaking groups”.

The home of a Catholic priest was the last place LaShundra Allen ever would have expected to be denied work because of her skin colour, she said.

Allen, who is black, arrived with her white colleague the morning of May 3 for what was supposed to be her first day cleaning Reverend Jacek Kowal’s rectory at the Catholic Church of the Incarnation in Collierville, Tennessee.

The colleague from the cleaning company who accompanied her, Emily Weaver, was quitting and came along to introduce Allen as her replacement.
But the women wouldn’t get far. The secretary stopped them, Allen recounted, and said she would have to go ask Kowal if the new arrangement was OK.

The secretary soon informed them it was actually not OK – because of the priest’s “racist” dog.

A pastor who is a member of a Christian rock band was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two girls under the age of 14.

Emanuel J. Rodriguez of the group 70xForgiven was set to play a gig at the Wood City Music Festival in Minnesota this past Saturday when he was arrested. Police in Omaha, Nebraska, had a warrant for Rodriguez and they asked police in Minnesota for help since he was going to play there.

The Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing two children of his Washington, D.C., parish has been found guilty.

Urbano Vazquez was convicted Thursday on four felony counts of child sexual abuse.

Vazquez groped a 9-year-old girl and 13-year-old girl in 2016, two years after he was ordained as a priest in the Capuchin Franciscan religious order.

Marty Sampson — an Australian worship music songwriter known for his work with Hillsong — said, "All I know is what's true to me right now, and Christianity just seems to me like another religion at this point."

Sampson wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post that "I'm genuinely losing my faith...and it doesn't bother me...like, what bothers me now is nothing...I am so happy now, so at peace with the world.. it's crazy." It also appears he's cleared his Instagram account of all posts.

Sampson added, "How many preachers fall? Many. No one talks about it. How many miracles happen. Not many. No one talks about it. Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it. How can God be love yet send 4 billion people to a place, all coz they don't believe? No one talks about it. Christians can be the most [judgmental] people on the planet — they can also be some of the most beautiful and loving people...but it's not for me. I am not in anymore."