A group of Johnson County faith leaders gathered in an independent town hall on Tuesday, May 27 to speak against harm caused by the Trump of administration. Uniting under the name Voices of Faith, speakers in the group represented a variety of religious beliefs, primarily Christian denominations. The Voices of Faith Town Hall gathered at […]
religious liberty
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‘It was necessary to become activists’: LGBTQ-affirming Iowa religious groups find church in quiet rooms, loud rallies
Sunday services of the Ames Friends Meeting are held at their meetinghouse on S Maple Avenue, marked by a sign in the front yard declaring “All are welcome.” I visited on a sunny spring morning. Beams of sunlight seemed to make the houseplants against the walls glow. Occasional birdsong seeped through a barely open window. […]
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‘They said they’re going to break our spirits’: Summer campers toiled in the Iowa heat, endured abuse from church leaders at Shiloh
Titus Walker lived in Hawaii, but he flew to rural Iowa for summer camp. Growing up in an insular church community in the 1980s, it was a blast to hang out with kids his age, even if the Young Adult School of Prophets (YASP) wasn’t much of a vacation. “They would take us out into the fields below Shiloh,” the church’s township south of Kalona, Walker recalled. “At the time it was just plagued with these thorny-ass rose bushes. And we would remove rose bushes all day long.”
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State officials cancel Iowa Satanic Temple celebration, claiming it’s ‘harmful to minors’ without stating why
Last year on Dec. 14, the Satanic Temple (TST) of Iowa’s sanctioned holiday display in the Iowa State Capitol rotunda was vandalized. The culprit was a failed Republican congressional candidate from Mississippi who traveled more than 800 miles just to smash the display, which consisted mostly of electric candles and a cloaked mannequin with a […]
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After years defying United Methodist rules as an openly queer chaplain, Iowa City’s Anna Blaedel is out of the church and proud to be a ‘spiritual misfit’
Rev. Anna Blaedel is a chaplain, public theologian, writer and a graduate of the University of Iowa’s Religious Studies program. They earned a Masters in Divinity at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, and have been chaplaining students on the UI campus since 2014. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church (UMC) for 109 […]
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Can she get an amen? Flamy Grant, Christian drag musician, is set to perform at St. Andrew in Iowa City
There’s no shortage of drag shows or performers in Eastern Iowa, and with Pride Month on the horizon, they’ll no doubt be busy as can be. But North Carolina’s Flamy Grant isn’t like the rest. For one thing, her June 4 performance will be at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church. Jeff Charis-Carlson, director of communication and […]
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When the Saints went marching through southern Iowa
Long before I-80 cut a clear path through the state — and before any asphalt, rubber tires, railways or virtually any infrastructure existed to aid westward travelers — crossing the roughly 310 miles between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers was a long, arduous journey. The native landscape, wildlife and bacteria familiar to generations of indigenous […]
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Mississippi politician who smashed the Satanic Temple display at the Iowa Capitol seeks to have hate crime charge dismissed
The Mississippi politician who traveled to Des Moines in December to destroy the holiday display set up by the Satanic Temple (TST) in the rotunda of the Iowa State Capitol is seeking to have the hate crime charge for his actions dismissed. On Friday, the attorney for Michael Cassidy filed a motion in Polk County […]
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The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have entertained, aided and provoked for 45 years. Their habits began in Iowa.
In 2014, while the marriage equality movement worked to prove just how normal and nuclear LGBTQ families could be, Des Moines-born musician Perfume Genius released “Queen,” its lyrics glamorizing age-old stereotypes of queer men: “cracked, peeling,” “wrapped in golden leaves,” “riddled with disease” and, triumphantly, “No family is safe when I sashay.” The song quickly […]
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Mississippi politician charged with a hate crime for smashing the Satanic Temple display at the Iowa State Capitol
Court filings made public this week show Michael Cassidy has been charged with felony third-degree criminal mischief for vandalizing a holiday display at the Iowa State Capitol in December. Cassidy has said he traveled to Des Moines from his home in Mississippi specifically to smash the display from the Satanic Temple (TST). After the attack, […]
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A holiday display at the Iowa State Capitol sparks a small satanic panic
It’s been a basic part of the American legal landscape since the 1980s: if a government is going to allow private groups to put religious-themed displays on public property, then all religions must be welcome. That’s why along with more traditional Christian-themed holiday displays at the Iowa State Capitol right now, there’s one from The […]
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Sex offenders sue state after being denied leftovers from their Satanic feast
By Clark Kauffmann, Iowa Capital Dispatch A group of convicted sex offenders is suing the state of Iowa, claiming their right to worship Lucifer with a weeklong feast of fried chicken, doughnuts and ice cream is being violated. Lawsuits filed by prison and jail inmates are commonplace, and many of them allege violations of constitutional […]
