Tag Archives: religion
Texas Republicans’ Push for a Religious ‘License to Discriminate’ is Depressingly Familiar
Today’s targets of religious discrimination are members of the LGBTQ community. Not long ago they were African Americans and women.
One of the landmark constitutional questions of our day is being fought at the Texas Capitol: Does the right to religious freedom give people license to discr...Read More
‘Hurdle’ Is a Gritty Tale of Hope and Survival
The new documentary intimately captures the pressure, pain and aspirations of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
On May 2, 2017, crowds of Israelis flow through East Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter, clad in blue and white to celebrate the country’s 69th independence day. Th...Read More
‘When I Spoke in Tongues’ Chronicles a Long Walk Away from the Church
For readers who’ve wrestled with their religious upbringing, Jessica Wilbanks evokes a powerful sense of loss: the loss of the person she used to be, and of the person she might have become, had she stayed inside the fold.
On a research trip to Nigeria, Houston writer Jessica Wilbanks fills out a questionnaire after attending a Pentecostal church service. The form asks a series of...Read More
A New Pray-the-Gay-Away Drama Suggests Conversion is Possible (Just Not the Kind You Think)
Poignant awards-season fare, Boy Erased makes the case against the Christian “cure” for homosexuality.
What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object? That, more or less, is the question asked by the new Joel Edgerton-directed film Boy Erased, w...Read More
The Christian Right’s Politics of Cruelty
The policies pushed by politicians like Donald Trump and Dan Patrick are anything but Christ-like.
It’s an especially bitter irony. You might expect that the rise to power of politicians who either are outspokenly Christian or have overwhelming support from...Read More
Under Trump, Islamophobic Pastor John Hagee’s Star Rises Again
Despite closing in on 80 years old, San Antonio megachurch pastor John Hagee may be a man in renaissance.
On a Sunday morning in late June, John Hagee took the stage in his palatial north San Antonio megachurch, his white hair slicked back and his imposing jowls ob...Read More
Professor Trill
Rapper Bun B on Port Arthur, resilience and the meaning of trill.
The Bayou City loves Bernard “Bun B” Freeman so much that he’s been given the title “Houston’s unofficial mayor.” But the Grammy-nominated renaissan...Read More
‘I Can’t Date Jesus’ Chronicles Growing up Black, Queer and Catholic in Houston
Michael Arceneaux’s first book is a logical extension of the polemic, confessional style he’s perfected online.
The book begins, “Before that day, I hadn’t been to church in five Beyoncé albums.” Some people measure time in years; others, like Houston-born, Harlem-...Read More
Loon Star: Ken Paxton and Scripture
Ben Sargent To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section, or find Observer political reporting here....Read More