Heather Purser set out to win gay marriage rights within the Suquamish Tribe and found herself on a personal journey toward self-acceptance.

Hint: it's not the breast-feeding -- it's the contempt. (I did think it was a little titillating. –B)

I was one of the world's top 50 church members -- then one mistake changed my life.

The anti-gay-rights movement's claims about homosexuality are based on the worst kind of junk "science."

Analytical thinking and religion aren’t quite mutually exclusive, but when religious people exercise their brains, they tend to reach some conclusions that are antithetical to what their religions teach. A prominent example is in their attitudes toward women.

If you can spell Catholic, you are probably asking: how dare they go after 57,000 dedicated women whose median age is well over 70 and who work tirelessly for a more just world?

The suicide of a Moroccan teen who was forced to marry her rapist has sparked outraged calls for reform, but the weight of tradition and the inertia of the justice system can make change slow here.

Kids are coming out at younger and younger ages -- and parents need to help them. Here's how.

The legislation, which largely bans the procedure after 20 weeks, follows similarly strict laws in Virginia and Mississippi. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer says it protects 'the health and safety of women.'

What about all the other people in Galilee?

U.S.-style protests and Breitbart-like tactics have given the British anti-abortion movement new life.

Life has gone from bad to worse since Donna Sturdivant’s husband was laid off four years ago and now she feels that the thing which brings her the most comfort — her faith — is under threat.

How many so-called Biblical literalists have actually read the whole Bible? Let's see what God really has to say about marriage.

A new round of bills is making its way through Republican controlled legislatures with almost identical language that will allow teachers to “teach the controversy” about accepted scientific facts. Tennessee just passed theirs and now Oklahoma is next up to the plate of scientific illiteracy.

Does exposing children to alcohol make them more or less likely to abuse it when they grow up?

In Afghanistan, if NATO forces kill a member of your family, it is better in terms of money if they come from Germany or Italy than the United States or Britain.

Ours is a society that cannot afford to do without a postal service, daily newspapers, and expertly edited sources of public knowledge. The notion that all knowledge is available online within six clicks is both exciting and a bit frightening.

Afghanistan’s Islamic Council issued an edict that saying  “Men are fundamental and women are secondary. ”

Remember when showing your privates to a stranger was a sin?

What happens when child 'indoctrination' is not being pursued by a Gay or Liberal agenda, but rather a Christian agenda?

The bill would have allocated $16,000 for a panel of legislators and emergency managers to study various measures, including a new state-issued currency, for handling a range of apocalyptic scenarios.

Story of Stuff creator Annie Leonard talks about why the commons are so integral to our lives.

The Catholic Church officially opposes capital punishment. So why wasn't the Conference of Catholic Bishops outraged over Davis's execution?

The Republicans showed how out of touch they are with Americans when House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing on the birth control mandate in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

According to new research, a woman is more satisfied in her relationship when her partner feels the same about her pet as she does. If she's close to her dog, he'd better be, too.

Admit it—there is something akin to hate for those who have rejected what is perceived as precious and inarguable truth.

In the United States, nearly 50 percent of pregnancies are unintended. A new health care rule — which stirred controversy due to its implications for church-affiliated organizations' coverage of contraception — has the potential to significantly reduce accidental pregnancies by increasing access to birth control, according to public health experts. (Something that is logical and makes sense and therefore is being criticized by conservatives. –B)

Right-wingers claim Obama and Democrats across the country are waging a war on religion -- and of course, conservatives are the civilian casualties.

With a little pharmaceutical ingenuity, the double standard relaxed its clawing grip on female humanity.

We've somehow turned watching a sport into eating (and drinking) like it's a sport.

New data run contrary to what many might think: Overall homelessness actually dropped from 2009 to 2011 in states with high unemployment and foreclosure rates.

The Catholic Church is fighting mad with the Obama Administration, and nearly every Catholic sitting in a pew this weekend heard the reasons why.

Tennessee state Sen. Stacey Campfield (R) falsely claims that it was nearly impossible for someone to contract AIDS through heterosexual contact.

A Washington state senator's change of heart on same-sex marriage offers a lesson in humanism.

In interviews, people in open marriages say that although it is not for everyone, it is absolutely possible for adults to be in committed, emotionally satisfying relationships with more than one person at a time.

Whether you’re worried about hunger, social crises, or climate change, the solution is the same: small-scale farming.

Psalm 109 is a wish for someone’s death.

Apparently it’s that time of year when every Republican controlled legislature introduces bills designed to force Christianity upon us.

Rick Santorum’s stated policy positions, which include not only his well known obsession with abolishing legal abortion, but also his opposition to birth control and all nonprocreative sexual acts, are greatly out of step with the lives of the vast majority of Americans.

The Supreme Court gets the full-monty treatment.

Why is it that when people hoard things, they are a scourge on society and when they hoard money, they are job creators? In fact, aren’t the people that buy things the true job creators?

I want to challenge my own anxiety about nudity. But can I really handle downward dog without any clothes on? (Don’t worry, this is not about me. Not only am I expressly forbidden by special law to be naked outside my own bathroom, I must also wear a potato sack over my head when in public. –B)

She stumped as much as Santorum, had staff problems no worse than Gingrich’s, and made lesser gaffes than Perry—but Bachmann finished dead last in Iowa because she’s such a perfect product of the Christian right. (I for one will miss her bumbling delusional tirades. She did have one thing going for her: still hot at 55. –B)

The party that loves to talk about Jesus has been defying His Word this season.

Pretty much ALL conservative politics are selfish at their core.  Take any conservative position on a social or economic issue and boil away all the rhetoric and what you are left with is “I got mine, screw you.”

In 1994 Rush Limbaugh declared, “There is no global warming going on,” adding that scientists “admit” they “may need 20 years more data to prove it.” Since then, Limbaugh has managed to shield his brain from 18 years of mounting evidence that humans are changing the climate.

Family, kids, minivan—and drug dealing. How the recession has driven average Americans into the game.

2011 was not a good year for hardliners of either stripe.

The goals of the “workplace spirituality” movement dovetail with a conservative Christian corporate ethos.