Inside the movement of LGBTQ Christian activists, who are challenging America’s most conservative religious ideologies — Brittany Barron’s faith was invincible. When evangelical megachurch Fellowship Monrovia hired her in 2013, the young preacher took comfort in the fact that God’s plan was working. And why wouldn’t it be? God had watched over Barron her entire life and was present for every moment of her happy, religious…

A journey into Reality L.A., Hollywood’s hippest evangelical church — Listen to a Q&A with Jonathan on Medium Playback by pressing play on the audio player above. If ever you wish to witness the sort of existential panic that Hollywood can inflict upon its denizens, I suggest attending the birthday party of a former child star. Last winter, I found…

Walt’s ‘Ghost House’ is the granddaddy of today’s Halloween Industrial Complex — As Halloween quickly approaches, people across the country will board ghost-driven hayrides, enter the lairs of serial killer clowns and brave zombie-populated cornfields in search of a good seasonal scare. But of all the haunted attractions in the United States, none is quite as beloved as the one you can…

Inside the strange theology of the Aetherius Society — In 1954, a London cabbie named George King received a telepathic communication from an extraterrestrial intelligence named Master Aetherius: “Prepare yourself! You are to become the voice of Interplanetary Parliament.” This message, delivered from the planet Venus, was the first of hundreds of similar communications King allegedly received over his…

Or, introducing the Adam Sandler Evil Score Card — Political philosopher Karl Marx, in his 1843 manuscript Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, famously concluded that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” But more than a few things have changed since then, and it is safe to say that the proletariat has largely abandoned God and traded Him…

Illustrated by Elliot Salazar. We were Jonathan & Alex. Referenced as a unit and joined by an ampersand; Alex was my first love. True, he wasn’t the first one to whom I’d said, “I love you.” That was my high school boyfriend, but we also used grape-flavored condoms, so I…

A Recap There are two types of people in this world: People who see Jem and the Holograms on opening weekend, and people who have self-respect. I fall into the former category. This Saturday I walked into a showing of Jem with three of my friends, after consuming a giant…