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Religion Dispatches - Religion Dispatches Religion Dispatches
  • Racial Justice
    • Manslaughter Conviction of Brittney Poolaw Represents Pattern of White Christian Policing of Black and Brown Women’s Bodies
      Manslaughter Conviction of Brittney Poolaw Represents Pattern of White Christian Policing of Black and Brown Women’s Bodies
    • America’s ‘Jesus Problem’ is Making Progressive Christians Complicit in Christian Supremacy
      America’s ‘Jesus Problem’ is Making Progressive Christians Complicit in Christian Supremacy
    • The Last Licks of Liberal Zionism in America
      The Last Licks of Liberal Zionism in America
  • Politics/Law
    • North America Has a Hindu Nationalist Problem, and Scholars are On the Frontlines of These Right-Wing Attacks
      North America Has a Hindu Nationalist Problem, and Scholars are On the Frontlines of These Right-Wing Attacks
    • America’s ‘Jesus Problem’ is Making Progressive Christians Complicit in Christian Supremacy
      America’s ‘Jesus Problem’ is Making Progressive Christians Complicit in Christian Supremacy
    • Vaccine Mandates are Constitutional; Religious Exemptions are Unnecessary and Harmful
      Vaccine Mandates are Constitutional; Religious Exemptions are Unnecessary and Harmful
  • Sex/Gender/Justice
    • Manslaughter Conviction of Brittney Poolaw Represents Pattern of White Christian Policing of Black and Brown Women’s Bodies
      Manslaughter Conviction of Brittney Poolaw Represents Pattern of White Christian Policing of Black and Brown Women’s Bodies
    • America’s ‘Jesus Problem’ is Making Progressive Christians Complicit in Christian Supremacy
      America’s ‘Jesus Problem’ is Making Progressive Christians Complicit in Christian Supremacy
    • The Quiet Passing of Fundamentalist Mormon Prophet Lynn A. Thompson Suggests Polygamy Recognition Remains a Distant Hope
      The Quiet Passing of Fundamentalist Mormon Prophet Lynn A. Thompson Suggests Polygamy Recognition Remains a Distant Hope
  • New Books
    • Savoring the Haterade: Why Jews Love Dara Horn’s ‘People Love Dead Jews’
      Savoring the Haterade: Why Jews Love Dara Horn’s ‘People Love Dead Jews’
    • A New Book By Esteemed Sociologist Robert Wuthnow Struggles to Show ‘Why Religion is Good for American Democracy’
      A New Book By Esteemed Sociologist Robert Wuthnow Struggles to Show ‘Why Religion is Good for American Democracy’
    • Pittsburgh Paradox: A City Haunted by God and Steel
      Pittsburgh Paradox: A City Haunted by God and Steel
  • Christian Nationalism
    • Manslaughter Conviction of Brittney Poolaw Represents Pattern of White Christian Policing of Black and Brown Women’s Bodies
      Manslaughter Conviction of Brittney Poolaw Represents Pattern of White Christian Policing of Black and Brown Women’s Bodies
    • North America Has a Hindu Nationalist Problem, and Scholars are On the Frontlines of These Right-Wing Attacks
      North America Has a Hindu Nationalist Problem, and Scholars are On the Frontlines of These Right-Wing Attacks
    • A New Book By Esteemed Sociologist Robert Wuthnow Struggles to Show ‘Why Religion is Good for American Democracy’
      A New Book By Esteemed Sociologist Robert Wuthnow Struggles to Show ‘Why Religion is Good for American Democracy’

Peter Laarman

Peter Laarman is a United Church of Christ minister who served as senior minister of New York's Judson Memorial Church and then as executive director of LA's Progressive Christians Uniting before retiring in 2014. He remains deeply involved in national and regional social justice projects touching on race, class, and religion.

Archive, Christian Nationalism, New Books, New Books, OMFGOctober 14, 2021

A New Book By Esteemed Sociologist Robert Wuthnow Struggles to Show ‘Why Religion is Good for American Democracy’

By Peter Laarman

At a time when Christian Nationalism is finally being recognized as a threat to democracy,…

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Archive, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeJuly 20, 2021

How Far Will White Christians Go to Maintain Power? An Interview with Robert Jones

By Peter Laarman

Robert P. Jones is CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and…

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Archive, OMFG, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeJune 7, 2021

UPDATED: The Coup That Never Ends: ‘Whitemanism’ and the Perils of a Flimsy Liberalism

By Peter Laarman

  The following piece has been updated with an adendum titled: Is a Fixation on…

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(A)theologies, Archive, OMFG, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeMay 4, 2021

How the Right’s War on ‘Critical Race Theory’ Taps into the Powerful Religion of American Innocence

By Peter Laarman

I would never pick a fight with the formidable Michelle Goldberg, but I must pick…

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(A)theologies, Archive, OMFG, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeMarch 31, 2021

The Radical Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Left’s Challenge Today

By Peter Laarman

A dream shared by many will finally come to fruition Sunday night when the April…

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(A)theologies, Archive, Politics/Law, Racial Justice, Sex/Gender/JusticeJanuary 20, 2021

Today’s Inauguration Was a Reconsecration of Sacred Space

By Peter Laarman

C’mon, admit it: you had the Kleenex handy while you watched the swearing-in of the…

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(A)theologies, Archive, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeDecember 27, 2020

Not Breathing Much Easier … But Still Breathing: A Modest Plea For Hope to End 2020

By Peter Laarman

Especially for people deemed “too political” (a label I’ve worn proudly for decades), this has…

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(A)theologies, Archive, OMFG, Politics/LawDecember 2, 2020

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

By Peter Laarman

Just about every year at this time we’re invited, even hectored, to participate in the…

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(A)theologies, ArchiveNovember 24, 2020

Why America’s Whitewashed Thanksgiving Needs to Go: A Short Study in the Power of White Christian Mythmaking

By Peter Laarman

Readers of RD don’t need to be told that the image of “The First Thanksgiving”…

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Archive, Politics/Law, Sexuality/GenderNovember 4, 2020

Record Numbers Voted for More Death and More Racism; Can We Really Just Come Together as a Nation?

By Peter Laarman

In July I wrote in these pages about the necropolitics revealed by the actions of…

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Religion Dispatches

Religion Dispatches

Religion Dispatches is your independent, non-profit, award-winning source for the best writing on critical and timely issues at the intersection of religion, politics, and culture.

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