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Sarah Posner

Sarah Posner is a Prospect senior correspondent and associate editor of Religion Dispatches, where she writes a blog about religion and politics. The author of God's Profits: Faith Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters (PoliPoint 2008), her work has also appeared in the Nation, Salon, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, and other publications.

Recent Articles

HARD RIGHT CATHOLIC HOMOPHOBIA AND RE-ELECTION SCARE TACTICS.

Sarah PosnerMay 13, 2009

The Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody says Obama's alleged anti-Catholicism will be a serious 2012 campaign issue. Brody posts a letter from hard-right Catholic leaders to President Obama, demanding that he remove the Human Rights Campaign's Harry Knox from his faith-based advisory council. Knox is the director of the Religion and Faith Program at the Human Rights Campaign Foundation and the only LGBT rights activist on the council.

The FundamentaList (No. 80)

This week in religion and politics: Religious leaders react to evangelicals' permissive attitudes toward torture, and the Notre Dame commencement controversy stokes the abortion-reduction debate.

Sarah PosnerMay 13, 2009
U.S. Army soldiers bow their heads in prayer at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

1. Evangelicalism and Torture: Is Repentance the Answer?

Last month's Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll showed that the more religiously observant one is, the more likely one is to justify torture. In response to the finding, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) hosted a conference call for reporters, where representatives offered a mix of dismay and repentance, plus a pledge to better educate their flocks.

PENTAGON DENIES EVANGELISM AT BAGRAM.

Sarah PosnerMay 06, 2009

A quick update to the piece of this week's FundamentaList on the Al Jazeera story which showed a top military chaplain, Lt. Colonel Gary Hensley, urging military personnel at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan to "hunt people for Jesus." The Pentagon is denying that proselytizing or anything improper took place. It further claims that the Bibles written in Dari and Pashto for distribution to Afghans were not distributed but rather were destroyed.

BIDEN'S CHRISTIAN REFERENCES AT AIPAC NOT AIMED AT CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS.

Sarah PosnerMay 06, 2009

At his God and Country blog, Dan Gilgoff thinks he smells a whiff of Christian Zionism in Vice President Joe Biden's AIPAC speech.

I don't think so.

Gilgoff notes how the vast majority of American Jews are Democrats and wonders if Biden were trying to tap into Republican ties with evangelicals. "It sounded as if the vice president were trying to break the GOP lock on the evangelical-Israel alliance, sometimes speaking in 'Christianese'" with comments like "my commitment [to Israel] began at my father's dinner table. My father was what you'd refer to as a righteous Christian."

NEW DEMOCRAT SPECTER IS AN ABSTINENCE-ONLY EARMARKER.

Sarah PosnerMay 06, 2009

As the White House and congressional Democrats begin the process of eliminating federal funding for scientifically debunked abstinence-only sex-education programs, it turns out that newly minted Democrat Arlen Specter seems to like them very much.

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