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Is Christianity under attack in the United States? It depends on whom you ask. Some church leaders and politicians claim recent LGBTQ progress such as the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing same-sex couples the right to marry is an attack on Christianity.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis sought to understand whether that sentiment is widely shared by other Christians. Their findings from five separate studies conducted over 3 years shed light on the root causes and consequences of such zero-sum beliefs a belief that social gains for one group necessarily involves losses for the other about Christianity and the LGBTQ community, and offer possible interventions to reduce such all-or-nothing beliefs.

The findings are published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a leading empiricalsocial psychology journal. They show that zero-sum beliefs (ZSBs) are most common among conservative Christians, and are shaped by their understandings of Christian values, the Bible and in response to religious institutions.

Many Christians have come to see themselves as being on the losing side of the culture wars, said Clara L. Wilkins, principal investigator and associate professor of psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences. Christians may perceive that an America where same sex marriage is legal is one in which they have lost their sway and are now victimized.

This is especially common among conservative Christians, who also are more likely to believe that Christianity is a defining feature of being American. As a result, they see themselves as being at odds with LGBTQ individuals, who are perceived as having increasing social influence.

Wilkins and Lerone A. Martin, co-principal investigator and director of American culture studies at Washington University, conducted five studies between July 2016 and December 2019 to explore the extent to which Christians endorse ZSBs about their relationships with LGBTQ individuals. For four of the five studies, they surveyed approximately 2,000 self-identified, heterosexual, cisgender and predominately white Christian Americans.

The February 2019 United Methodist Church (UMC) vote on language regarding human sexuality provided an opportunity for Wilkins and Martin to examine the role of church authorities in shaping attitudes. For this naturalistic experiment, they collected data in a sample of 321 United Methodists recruited at churches in St. Louis County and at the UMC General Conference.

The research was funded by the Templeton Religion Trust and as part of the Self, Virtue, and Public Life Project, a three-year research initiative based at the Institute for the Study of Human Flourishing at the University of Oklahoma.

Key findings from the studies include:

The church is a strong moral authority with the potential to shape norms and attitudes toward sexual minorities like court rulings have shifted attitudes on same sex marriage, the authors wrote.

We found this take-away very interesting in light of how religion, evangelicalism in particular, is often associated with strict definitions of civic belonging. Our research found that biblical faith can also lead to broad civic acceptance, said Martin, who also is an associate professor in the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics.

Our research found that biblical faith can also lead to broad civic acceptance.

Since taking office, President Joe Biden has reversed bans on transgender peoples participation in the military and has reaffirmed protection for LGBTQ federal employees. He also made historic appointments, including Pete Buttigieg as the first openly gay secretary in the presidential Cabinet and Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender federal official. In Delaware, Sarah McBride also made history as the first openly transgender state senator in U.S. history.

Applauded by LGBTQ people and advocates, these momentous changes have sparked outrage by opponents. They argue that the growing acceptance of LGBTQ individuals impedes the ability of Christians to practice their faith as if gains for one group necessarily involved losses for the other. For example, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions described the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling as an effort to secularize the country by force and intimidation.

That outrage has political implications. While the number of white evangelical Christians has decreased significantly in recent years from 23% in 2006 to 14% in 2020, according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey their political influence continues to grow.

The politicalinfluence of white evangelicals goes beyond their numerical representation, in part because of their historic willingness to Americanize Christianity through mass media, laissez-faire capitalism and pragmatic political partnerships. This blending of Christianity and Americanism has helped white evangelicals create abroad community that extends beyond their stated theological and institutional commitments, Martin said.

Whether with the phonograph, radio, television or the internet, whiteevangelicals have traditionally used mass media as a bullhorn. Theseelectric pulpits have enabled white evangelicals to disseminate their messages of Christian nationalism, culture wars and cultural grievances and political conservatism to afar-reachingconstituency.

These gospel seeds often find fertilegrounds amongst politicalpartners beyond the narrow theological confines ofwhiteevangelicalism.Politicians, many of which are not evenevangelicals or committed toevangelical theology, pick up the cause andtrumpet evangelicalcultural andsocialconcerns during theircampaigns in an attempt to cater to whiteevangelical voters.These voters in turn crown such political actors as their leaders in a political bargain where the ends justify the means. In this way, the numbers of self-proclaimed evangelicals may be small, but their political influence issizable. The election of President Donald Trump, the January insurrection and the increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation are just a few examples.

Indeed, recent social advancements have spurred an increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation fueled in part by conservative Christian groups. According to Wilkins and Martin, the Human Rights Campaign predicted that this will be a record-setting year for anti-LGBTQ legislation with as many as 250 bills introduced in state legislatures in 2021 alone.

While the research may seem disheartening at first glance, Wilkins and Martin insist it contains a hopeful message.

In particular, our data suggests that perceived conflict between groups is not inevitable, they said. In fact, we were able to successfully lower the extent to which mainline Christians perceive that LGBTQ gains come at a cost for Christians by having them reflect on biblical acceptance. According to recent analyses, mainline Christians now outnumber more conservative groups.

In other words, we identified an intervention to successfully lower ZSBs formostChristians.

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Cultural backlash: Is LGBTQ progress an attack on Christianity? | The Source - Washington University in St. Louis Newsroom

Police vans were lined up early Friday evening outside Warsaws Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art, as protestors gathered to demonstrate against the cultural institutions decision to proceed with an exhibition that critics say platforms antisemitic, racist, and Islamophobic messages under the guise of freedom of expression.

Exhibition organizers claim the show, which is titled Political Art and features many controversial and political artists, is designed to confront cancel culture on the political left. It is the second exhibition since Piotr Bernatowicz was controversially appointed as the museums director by Polands populist conservative ruling Law and Justice party in 2019.

Since the party came to power in 2015, Law and Justice government officials have corralled many of the countrys leading cultural institutions, including museums and theatres, into its conservative ideological orbit.

Kristian von Hornsleth, Head (2019). Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.

The exhibition at Ujazdowski Castle is quickly proving to be a major flashpoint in Polands highly divisive culture wars. On the night of the opening, the institution braced for large protests by groups including Polands anti-fascist league and various LGBTQ+ and Jewish organizers. Photos posted to social media hours before the opening on August 27 showed at least six police vans parked outside the institution.

The newest exhibition under Bernatowiczs stewardship includes works by nearly 30 artists, one of whom is the controversial Swedish artist Dan Park, who was arrested in 2009 for a stunt that saw him placing swastikas and boxes labeled Zyklon Bthe gas used in the mass murder of Jews during the Holocaustin front of a Jewish community center in Malmo.

Parks contribution to the show is a poster that depicts the convicted Norwegian criminal Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people, mostly children, in a series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Norway.Alongside Parks work is a piece by Danish artist Uwe Max Jensen consisting of a large flag constructed from several smaller LGBT rainbow flags that the artist has fashioned into the shape of a swastika.

One of the most controversial works in the show is by Kristian von Hornsleth from Denmark, who made a work depicting Ugandan villagers who were given pigs and goats in exchange for changing their last names to his own, a move the Ugandan government condemned as racist and disrespectful. The Political Art show includes photos of several of the villagers holding up their changed IDs. Artnet News reached out to all three artists, but did not hear back by publishing time.

Von Hornsleth told the Associated Press earlier this week that he believes his work is a celebration of free speech. Even if this show was right-wing and crazy, it should be allowed because its art. But its not [right-wing and crazy]its really about creating a space in which anybody can disagree about anything.

Some of the works appear to straddle left-wing political movements. The work of Hong Kong-Chinese photographer Tam Hoi Ying, for example, included in the exhibition, shows numerous human rights abuses in Hong Kong.

Tam Hoi Yings Being Disappeared 1. Human rights defender: Liu Xiaobo, Case: Co-authoring. Charter 08, a call for democratic reforms in China, Crime: Incitement to subvert state power, Punishment: 11-year sentence (2016). Courtesy Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art.

Co-curator Jon Eirik Lundberg, a Norwegian who oversees the Laesoe Kunsthal gallery in Denmark, agreed with von Hornsleths statement. If you dont have free speech, you dont have political freedom. If you dont have political freedom, you dont have any protection, he told the Associated Press. The best way to protect any minority is to make sure there is freedom of speech.

Many in Poland claim that the exhibition platforms problematic views that hark back to dangerous ideas emulating during the countrys Nazi occupation.A Ujazdowski Castle employee who wished to remain anonymous due to fear of reprisals told Artnet News:Under the guise of freedom of expression and bizarrely understood pluralism, Bernatowicz is admitting into the institution people associated with the neo-Nazi movement, at the same time canceling and stigmatizing projects inconsistent with his worldview.

The cancelled programming includes a Miet Warlop show that was originally scheduled for earlier this year, as well as the museums participation in an anti-fascist program, both of which were axed by Bernatowicz, allegedly due to budget shortfalls.

One anti-fascist network in Poland, the Anti-Fascist Year, accused the curators of using democratic principles to convey and justify right-wing hate speech. In a statement, the group said that the art in the show only strengthens the electoral prospects of authoritarian parties everywhere.

Bernatowicz doubled down on his commitment to the exhibition, stating his belief that despite the controversial nature of the works, the call to censor them is worse. In a letter published on the institutions website in response to concerns raised Warsaws Jewish community, Bernatowicz wrote that calls to censor the exhibition are misguided, coming from the well-educated circles and elites that, rather than engaging in dialogue with artistic attitudes that seem surprising or offensive, prefer to expunge them from the public sphere.

A statement posted to Instagram by the workers union at the cultural institution decried what it sees as hate speech. We express our opposition to the people who promote hatred in the walls of our institution [] This should not happen, especially in a country as severely experienced by Nazism as Poland.

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Crowds Gather to Protest Warsaws Leading Contemporary Art Museum, Which Just Mounted an Anti-Cancel Culture Art Show - artnet News

Arlene Glantzs evidence burst from her accordion folders.

Sitting before a crowd that had been promised proof of critical race theory in Hernando schools, she carefully stacked the public records she had requested.

The papers proved the school district is indoctrinating students, she said at an unofficial town hall that shed set up with her husband, School Board candidate Mark Johnson.

If we dont speak up, if we dont stop this craziness now, were gonna lose this country, Glantz told the crowd.

The national controversy over a once little-known academic framework about race is playing out in the 23,000-student Hernando County School District, with the debate at times becoming a proxy for larger culture wars within the community and across the country.

School administrators have repeatedly said critical race theory which is centered on the impact of legally codified racial discrimination in America has never been taught in Hernando schools and wont ever be. Officials in other Florida districts have made the same point, noting that the theory is largely a college-level topic.

Still, its recent emergence as a political issue has made Hernando County a case study in how issues like critical race theory, mask mandates and vaccinations have driven a wedge in many communities over the past year, at times becoming a platform for political candidates.

In June, the State Board of Education, following the lead of Gov. Ron DeSantis, moved to ban critical race theory from Florida schools, even though officials said it already wasnt included in school curricula.

Some have criticized DeSantiss efforts as a political attempt to whitewash and suppress discussions about race.

The discussion set off a series of spirited public meetings in Hernando County, with worried residents on both sides of the issue with some feeling their children are being indoctrinated and others fearing the outcry could stifle equity efforts in the district.

Glantz and Johnson have been at the forefront of some of the debate. The couple, who spoke at a contentious School Board meeting earlier this month, alleges critical race theory is entering the school district through a plan to include more students in advanced courses and equity training programs for teachers.

Some Hernando County school district officials say the indignation is in part a political effort to get Johnson elected. Johnson was previously elected to the Hernando County School Board in 2014 but lost reelection in 2018.

There are people here who want to make an issue out of something that doesnt exist for their own benefit, School Board member Jimmy Lodato said.

As over 70 people walked into the family center of Spring Hills Northcliffe Church for the town hall, they passed a sign-in table with Mark Johnson campaign stickers and a petition to get him on the ballot.

Johnson spoke first.

He called the Equity in Education training program used twice by the school a Marxist attempt to create a rift for revolution and a scenario of oppressors versus oppressed.

That trickles down into the classroom, Johnson said.

He and Glantz pulled examples from a manual that accompanied the training to present their case. Glantz, who confirmed the trainings took place by requesting records related to them from the school district, took particular issue with the manuals use of the word minoritized. The word referred to students affected by mistreatment and prejudice resulting from situations outside ones control, it said.

She raised the manual as she spoke, decrying its critique that teachers often unfairly hold unequal expectations of students, as well as its advocacy for collaborative, student-led learning.

She also took aim at the Crucial Conversations training that sought to teach educators how to have conversations about equity without offending others or becoming defensive. Then she criticized the school districts effort to address achievement gaps among identity groups by including more students in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses who might typically be considered unqualified.

For the sake of equity, we are dumbing down the best and the brightest, she said.

To Glantz, a focus on equity functions as a Trojan horse to get critical race theory into classrooms.

Murmurs of surprise and agreement flowed from most of the apparently all-white crowd as Glantz and Johnson spoke. A mic was passed around and listeners shared outrage and questions.

Susanne Dockery sat in the second row, holding her own evidence another copy of the Equity in Education manual. As Glantz spoke, Dockery flipped through pages, eager to defend the training and argue critical race theory is not taught in Hernando schools.

When she got the mic, she, too, raised up the manual.

This benefits every student, said Dockery, who raised four kids in Hernando schools and now has two grandchildren in the system. You meet them where they stand.

She argued that the manual wasnt just about race. Physically and mentally handicapped students, poor students and others deserve equitable treatment too, she said.

Glantz stopped her to respond, drawing applause from the crowd. Then Johnson cut in before moving on to another question. The couple requested donations to defray the $500 cost of running the town hall.

It was nothing more than a political rally, Dockery said afterward. Fear sells. Critical race theory is a dog whistle.

Hernando County superintendent John Stratton said he thinks some phrasing in the equity training program triggered the critical race theory claims.

Thats not what equity in education means to those in education, he said in an interview. Its bringing awareness to our staff that although everybody has equal access, not everybody has equal footing.

The 82-page training manual includes three direct references to race or racism in its main pages, according to a Tampa Bay Times review of the document, including a prompt asking educators to reflect on if they were raised with a sense of racial identity. The manual broadly encourages educators to more deeply consider their students as individuals, noting that not everyone is served equally well by the school system.

The school district is required by the federal and state government to address achievement gaps among subgroups, defined by race, income, disabilities and language, Stratton said. Focusing on equity allows schools to make sure all students have equal access to education, he added, but its also mandated by law.

He argued that the effort to include more students in advanced courses doesnt dumb down the courses because all students are still required to pass standardized tests.

Stratton said the district offered the Equity in Education training twice, once to a group of guidance counselors and social workers and another time to members of the districts equity task force. The material shared with teachers isnt critical race theory, he said, and also wasnt directly taught to students.

During a recent contentious School Board meeting, at which about a dozen residents spoke to decry the training as critical race theory and a handful of others defended it, Stratton urged those with complaints to volunteer for the school system and see what goes on inside classrooms.

Stratton said no teachers complained to him about the training. Vince La Borante, president of the Hernando Classroom Teachers Association, said the same. Sign-in forms obtained by Glantz via a public records request show 65 teachers attended the training.

Its extremely important that you get to know your students, get to know your students backgrounds, said La Borante, who taught for 35 years.

Pam Everett, a student resources advocate and School Board candidate who has also criticized the equity trainings, said more than 45 teachers have complained about the training to her, although she didnt provide names.

All the kids are the same. When youre pointing it out, youre causing a divide, Everett said.

Board member Lodato said the equity training program was about lifting up all students, not creating racial divide. The program helps teachers learn how to treat people with kindness and move past preconceptions, he said. He couldnt find any instances of critical race theory.

I read the book and I questioned all the teachers. That is not what it is, Lodato said. Theyre making an issue that doesnt exist here.

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Critical race theory sparks debate in Hernando schools - Tampa Bay Times

This article represents the opinion of the Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board.

Big step on Piney Point. The appointment of an independent receiver for the old Piney Point fertilizer plant property marks a major step toward shutting down this environmental threat. The state Department of Environmental Protection had sought a receiver as part of the lawsuit it filed earlier this month against the property owner, HRK Holdings. The appointment means that day-to-day management of the property will shift to the receiver, which officials hope clears the way to shutter the site near the Manatee-Hillsborough County line. This spring, a leaky reservoir at the site prompted the release of 215 million gallons of polluted wastewater into Tampa Bay. While workers patched the torn seam, the state fears that the summer rainy season could spark another release. Piney Point has received more than 24 inches of rain since the start of June. It has room for roughly another 11 inches, and is expected to receive at least another 9 inches by the end of September. The receiver will need to get going, involve area agencies and environmental groups and have the states full support to close Piney Point before another environmental crisis erupts.

Hell need a small box. Gov. Ron DeSantis office announced this week that Dr. Scott Rivkees will depart next month as the states surgeon general. Floridians might think this is old news; after all, Rivkees has hardly been seen since an aide to the governor yanked him from a press briefing on the coronavirus in 2020 after the surgeon general suggested that Floridians might have to social distance for up to a year. He emerged from protective custody earlier this month to issue a rule at the governors directive mandating that parents be allowed to excuse their children from masking requirements at school a measure a state judge on Friday struck down as unlawful. We realize that gubernatorial appointees are expected to carry some polluted political water. But Floridians deserved much better.

Welcoming Afghans to Tampa Bay. Many watching the chaos of Afghans fleeing Kabul are left with a simple question: Where are those lucky enough to get out actually going? Some are ending up in Tampa Bay. Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services has settled six people from Afghanistan and is preparing for four more next week. As the Tampa Bay Times Michaela Mulligan reports, the group settles up to 100 refugees each year. Now they are opening up for Afghans fleeing from the Talibans takeover of the country in advance of the Aug. 31 deadline for Americas withdrawal. Another local nonprofit, Radiant Hands, is also poised to help with refugees from Afghanistan. The group helps resettle and integrate refugees from Muslim and Arabic-speaking countries. Aside from meeting an immigrants immediate needs, these groups also help orient refugees to navigate everyday life catching a bus, for example and provide training in life skills, such as driving or opening a banking account. As much as these groups give, refugees give back in many ways, opening businesses, adding character and contributing to the diversity and fabric of a community. We all have a stake in making Tampa Bay a welcome and thriving place to settle. To help, contact Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services and Radiant Hands.

Step right up. Hernando County School Board candidate Mark Johnson and his wife, Arlene Glantz, took their push against critical race theory on a road trip recently, hosting an unofficial town hall that doubled as propaganda and a campaign event. Spinning conspiracy theories from cherrypicked records, they derided the theory as a Marxist effort to create division in the classroom and to dumb-down academics. Leaving aside that interpretation, Hernando doesnt teach critical race theory, which examines the impact of racism across American life. No school district in Florida does. Yet its become a dog whistle in the culture wars thats putting school children and teachers in the cross hairs. If we dont stop this craziness now, Glantz told the audience, were gonna lose this country. Glantz and her husband should take that advice to heart.

Setting COVID records. The final item this week comes via a graphic.

Editorials are the institutional voice of the Tampa Bay Times. The members of the Editorial Board are Editor of Editorials Graham Brink, Sherri Day, Sebastian Dortch, John Hill, Jim Verhulst and Chairman and CEO Paul Tash. Follow @TBTimes_Opinion on Twitter for more opinion news.

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From Piney Point to COVID deaths, the highs and lows across Tampa Bay and Florida - Tampa Bay Times

A new podcast from NBC News takes a deep dive into the fight over diversity and inclusion in Southlake schools.

The affluent, mostly white Carroll school district has become a symbol of the firestorm over how this country deals with race and racism in the classroom.

The series, Southlake, chronicles how it all unfolded. The six-part podcast is hosted by national investigative reporter Mike Hixenbaugh and NBC News correspondent Antonia Hylton.

In 2018, a 9-second video blew open some very old divides and exposed an uncomfortable truth, the audio trailer describes. Your experience at school has a lot to do with your skin color.

That was the year a video of Southlake students chanting the N-word went viral. Afterward, the district convened a group of more than 60 students, parents and staff to discuss how students of color are treated in the district and to assemble recommendations on how to improve the school environment.

The resulting Cultural Competence Action Plan includes a wide-ranging set of recommendations such as: hire a director of equity and inclusion; establish a grievance system through which students can report discrimination; require cultural competency training; and audit the district curriculum through an equity lens.

But many families quickly turned against the groups work and rallied to oppose the proposals. At tense school board meetings, parents accused the district of promoting a left-wing agenda and creating diversity police. Meanwhile, students of color stood up to testify about the racism they faced at school.

A mother in the district sued over the plan. Two trustees were indicted on charges of violating the Texas Open Meetings Act by discussing the diversity work privately. A heated election season resulted in major change on the school board, with candidates opposed to the diversity plan sweeping in.

As tensions in Southlake escalated, so did the national culture wars over the idea of critical race theory in schools, fueling the fire in Carroll ISD.

We basically stumbled into a town that had a two-year head start on the fight that is now spread across the country, Hixenbaugh told the Houston Chronicle.

Carroll ISD spokeswoman Karen Fitzgerald said the district has been listening to families concerns and will roll out a new system for students and parents to report incidents to the administration.

Because of a temporary restraining order, she said, the district cant implement or discuss anything related to our diversity plan.

The first two episodes will be available Monday, with new episodes following on successive Mondays.

The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.

The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from The Beck Group, Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, The Meadows Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University and Todd A. Williams Family Foundation. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Labs journalism.

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NBC News podcast dives into Southlake Carroll schools fights over race and education - The Dallas Morning News