Reading Time: 5 minutes The religious right’s legislative strategy of the moment is to restrict abortion and gender transition because some people might later regret them. But why don’t they apply that same logic to other major life decisions?
Marriage
Posted inStrange Customs with Sasha Sagan
Katie Lowes and Adam Shapiro—The Rock
Sasha Sagan sits down with actors KATIE LOWES and ADAM SHAPIRO to explore a common custom that seems rooted in antiquity but is actually younger than Cher.
We’ll also hear from author RACHAEL LENNON about the surprising origins of the custom, and how we might coax it away from its problematic features into the 21st century.
Posted inStrange Customs with Sasha Sagan
Brandon Kyle Goodman—The Paper
Sasha Sagan kicks off the Strange Customs podcast with actor, author, and activist BRANDON KYLE GOODMAN in a thoughtful and hilarious conversation about an ancient custom that is a major part of Brandon’s life—but one they couldn’t have participated in just a few years ago.
We’ll also hear from historian STEPHANIE COONTZ about how changeable and varied this “traditional” custom has actually been over the centuries.
Posted inMyth & Folklore
Marrying the other: What animal marriage in folktales tell us about gender
Reading Time: 4 minutes Folk tales are filled with stories of humans marrying animals. But the consequences are very different for men and women—a difference that illuminates longstanding attitudes toward gender.
Posted inLGBTQ News
Why the Christian Right tried (and failed) to kill the Respect for Marriage Act
Reading Time: 9 minutes The Respect for Marriage Act finally passed a its last vote. It’s now on its way to the president’s desk, where he’ll likely sign it into law on Tuesday. But it got there over the kicking and screaming of the Christian Right, a loose-knit assortment of hardline evangelical culture warriors and creepily-authoritarian hardline Catholics.
Posted inLaw
Youth pastor who was ‘betrothed’ to 14-year-old girl charged with sexual abuse
Reading Time: 4 minutes When Robert Fenton was 26 and a youth pastor at Abide In the Vine Fellowship in Owego, New York, he told a couple that attended the church that he was drawn to their daughter and “meant to be with her.” She was 14 at the time. The church didn’t allow them to get married because […]
Posted inParenting & Family
My big fat Christian wedding
Reading Time: 3 minutes If major religious differences doom a marriage, mine should have been toe-tagged at the altar. Our religious differences were arguably as major as they could get. By the time I approached that altar in a century-old church in San Francisco, I’d identified as an atheist for 15 years. I read the Bible critically at 13 […]
Posted inCulture
Can it work? 12 considerations for interfaith marriages
Reading Time: 3 minutes Let’s run through 12 problems facing people who desire to mate with others who don’t share their religious worldview. If you can’t address and deal with the following 12 items, cancel your next date and proceed no further with the wedding plans. 1. Will you acknowledge or confront the feelings of both families—grandparents, parents, […]
Posted inParenting & Family
Marriage advice to a half-believing couple: Hang on to each other
Reading Time: 8 minutes Not too long ago, a friend of mine unsubscribed from the Christian faith. His wife did nothing of the sort, however, and now she is worried about how their three small children will turn out. Their extended families are both devoutly evangelical, so you can guess how they feel about my friend’s apostasy. Sometimes the […]
Posted inGeneral
Evangelical Men’s Impossible Dream of Marriage
Reading Time: 8 minutes What these men want in marriage isn’t completely unreasonable. So (I wondered) why can’t they find it?