Religion Dispatches
…our Biblical heritage and bring God back to the center of American life.” Stemberger was undoubedly looking beyond the primary with this message. Florida, he reminded the audience, “is a key battleground state.”…
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…to continue to shrink into the insularity and disorganization that caused the Philadelphia Archdiocese to decline so precipitously? It remains to be seen. Meanwhile, faithful Catholics and others who want to see the Pope may be losing heart. 10,000 tickets for the Pope’s Speech at Independence Mall sold out in two minutes on Tuesday, with 394k people trying their best to get a few. Tickets are already being scalped at $100 and up on craigslist. I…
Read More…sing that the RNC members didn’t care what PFAW or the SPLC think of their trip—or even what the ADL has to say. The trip, organized by Christian Zionists, isn’t intended to make either left-leaning watchdogs or leading American Jewish organizations happy. It’s intended to continue to build a movement of Christians who uncritically support Israel—a movement from which, in the end, right-leaning pro-Israel American Jewish groups have a hard time di…
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…pstein speaking on natural law theory at the Federalist Society chapter of Florida International Law School; and Princeton’s ubiquitous Robby George talking about “Natural Law, God, and Human Dignity” at the Federalist Society chapter of Columbia University Law School. The Federalist Society never takes official positions on matters of jurisprudence and legal reasoning. It never participates in court proceedings, submits no amicus briefs and never…
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…, not the fourth century … You’re not free to practice your religion in my airline seat.’ ‘This is male entitlement .. the height of male arrogance.’ One comment referred to this as a ‘back of the bus’ issue; as in, women being asked to move in such circumstances was tantamount to assigning them a lesser status as citizens and lower dignity as human beings. Other readers proposed that airlines set aside special seating for men requiring such accom…
Read More…much of the conservative infrastructure. Even if Palin is not viewing her trip through an electoral lens, she is, I suspect, far more comfortable with an evangelical approach to her trip. She’s a Christian Zionist, to be sure, and like many of her co-religionists, the Jews are adorable pawns in God’s plan. Spiritually speaking, she’d be far more at home with a Christian tour. And if she is trying to appeal to Jewish Republicans, I’m guessing she…
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…if this bill included the avoidance of individual discomfort, not just to Florida’s teachers but to Florida’s athletic coaches? Florida, like most Southern states, is obsessed with football. But what kind of football teams would Florida schools produce if players could argue that they were being discriminated against if they were made to feel uncomfortable? When I was younger, I had dreams of playing soccer at the highest levels. I participated i…
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Adam Clayton Powell called it “cheap grace,” but we might call it “cheap atonement”: the effort by sinners to select which sins to acknowledge and repent. Pope Benedict XVI ended his heavily protested visit to England with a heartfelt apology for German bombings of England during the Battle of Britain; though he refused to accept Christian responsibility for the Holocaust, blaming it instead on pagans and atheists. Given that Cardinal Walter Kasp…
Read More…Herald, “one of the most plugged-in evangelicals you’ve never heard of in Florida:” She’s the founder and president of the Florida Prayer Network and she and husband Tenney are the pastors and founders of International House of Prayer in Tallahassee. A former higher-up at the Concerned Women for America of Florida, Olsen also served as southeast leader of the National Day of Prayer Task Force from 2001-09 and was co-chair of Gov. Rick Scott’s Ina…
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…way from the hard work of repentance, who tickle our ears with promises of cheap grace, and offer a vision of the cross of Jesus that has nothing to say to the crosses, and lynching trees, of history. But, if we do, we will be settling for the gospel of Caesar, not the good news of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is time to put down the chalk, stop drawing pyrotechnical conspiracy theories that play into our worst fears and listen, instead, for the diffi…
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