Search for "peter laarman"

Cali Dept of Corrections v. Peter Laarman On Prison Crowding

By The Editors

…d Rehabilitation. Laarman’s response immediately follows. To The Editors, Peter Laarman waxes polemic in his ill-informed attack on California Gov. Jerry Brown, concluding that his “devilish deal” to address a federal court order on prisons is another example of the Governor’s “political expediency” (Jerry Brown’s Cynical, Unethical Prison Plan, op-ed, Sept. 3). But the truth, something Mr. Laarman and his readers no doubt value, is that Gov. Bro…

Talking Prop. 8: Of Rites and Rights

By Peter Laarman

…ut the implications surrounding Judge Walker’s discussion of gender roles. Peter Laarman will follow by discussing Judge Walker’s assertion that the belief in the difference (and inferiority) of same-sex couples is a belief formed solely by religious and moral ideas and will also comment on the contest between belief in the rule of law—a belief that self-adjusts—and fixed religious beliefs about what is right and “given.” I will close the discussi…

Refusing Religion, Claiming the Future: A Roundtable Discussion on “The Nones Are Alright”

By Peter Laarman

…fornia, and Sikivu Hutchinson, atheist scholar and author. _______________ Peter Laarman: Kaya and those whom she interviews cite a range of aspects of traditional religious life that clearly repel younger people and help fuel the unaffiliated phenomenon. On the one hand, they all cite what we might call a set of interrelated “definitional” problems: hierarchy, patriarchy, dogma, and homophobia. On the other hand, they almost all cite the huge “ex…

Fighting Demons, Raising the Dead, Taking Over the World

By Bruce Wilson

…in Upland, California, that was the genesis of his close partnership with Peter Wagner: When I arrived, I met Luis Bush, Dick Eastman, Peter and Doris Wagner and several other recognized leaders. From that meeting, New Life Church formed its mission for the 1990s—to support Luis Bush generally and Peter and Doris Wagner specifically… a calling that led to the creation of the World Prayer Center and much more. We as a team coordinated the Prayer T…

Paul for the People: John Dominic Crossan Imagines a “Letter to the Americans” In His New Video Series

By Peter Laarman

…gage with laypeople – and what that experience has been like. ______ Peter Laarman: You are doing these elaborate video projects with the Dykes Foundation. What’s that been like, and have you ever felt you need to oversimplify when you are working with laypeople who are completely new to this kind of material? John Dominic Crossan: From about 1970 to 1990 I was writing primarily, if not exclusively, for a scholarly audience up to and including The…

God’s Amicus Curiae on Town of Greece v. Galloway SCOTUS Case

By Peter Laarman

…ments it heard yesterday the editors are proud to re-present to RD readers Peter Laarman’s Amicus Curiae brief from the Lord. –eds. I was a little surprised on Friday to find a front-page LA Times piece indicating that the Obama Administration sides with conservative Republicans and the Religious Right in a Supreme Court case involving prayer at local government meetings. The itty-bitty town of Greece, NY, is appealing a Second Circuit ruling that…

“Give Me Your White, Your Rich… Yearning to Earn Fees”

By Peter Laarman

…of the shameful refusal to accept Syrian refugees, RD contributing editor Peter Laarman has rewritten Emma Lazarus’ sonnet, “The New Colossus,” best known as the poem carved into Statue of Liberty: Just like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land, Here at our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand A fearsome watcher with a torch whose flame Sparks paranoid frightening, and her name Purger of Exiles. From her…

I Volunteer to Root Out Christian Extremism

By Peter Laarman

…ee the faith that I love be stained by the actions of a few, and I’m more than willing to do my part! Yours sincerely, (Rev.) Peter Laarman Los Angeles…

Robbing Peter to Give Charity to Paul: The Dirty Secret Behind American ‘Giving’

By Peter Laarman

…es and to feel good about themselves. Really proud of themselves, in fact. Peter Buffett (son of Warren and thus no stranger to the ways of the wealthy) nailed this vanity factor in the explosive Times op-ed he published way back in 2013: As more lives and communities are destroyed by the system that creates vast amounts of wealth for the few, the more heroic it sounds to “give back.” It’s what I would call “conscience laundering”—feeling better a…

The Best Books Media of 2008

By Jeff Sharlet

…Díaz in his remarks for the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize, for which Peter was a finalist. Peter and I have been talking about the great American Yiddish novel (in English, of course) we both believed was was hidden somewhere amidst the thousands of Yiddish volumes at the National Yiddish Book Center, where we first met and began working together in the late 1990s. But I never thought for a second that Peter, the son of a Catholic priest and…