Sexuality & Gender

A Project of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics

The Table

Why My Church Avoids Taking Political Positions

It’s surprisingly tempting for pastors like me to devalue, of all things, Jesus. I was in a conversation just the other day with an awesome, …

By Dave Schmelzer

Interview

Roe v. Wade at 40: An Interview with Legal Scholar and Theologian Cathleen Kaveny

As of this month, it has been 40 years since the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. To mark …

By Marie Griffith

Essay

2012: The Moment of Mormon Diversity

While he officially secured the Republican nomination last March, Mitt Romney’s primary victories in January 2012 all but guaranteed that, for the first time in …

By Max Perry Mueller

Profile

Crossing Boundaries: A Transgender Priest Becomes a University Chaplain

In December of 2001, Cameron Partridge was a 28-year-old candidate for the Episcopal priesthood in Massachusetts when he informed his bishop he would be transitioning …

By Becky Garrison

Report

Can There Be a Religious Response to Planned Parenthood’s Critics?

On most days, when she arrives at the Planned Parenthood clinic she directs in Washington, D.C., Dr. Laura Meyers passes through a wall of Operation …

By Mara Willard

Report

The Nuns Not on the Bus

Last April, the Vatican issued an 8-page document addressed to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the major association of American nuns. The “doctrinal assessment” …

By Mark Oppenheimer

Review

To Be Straight, Thin, and “Healthy”

Seeking the Straight and Narrow: Weight Loss and Sexual Reorientation in Evangelical AmericaBy Lynne GerberUniversity of Chicago Press, 2011 Last month, California Governor Jerry Brown signed …

By Amy Frykholm