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Religion Dispatches - Religion Dispatches Religion Dispatches
  • Racial Justice
    • What The Roman Catholic Church needs is a wholesale reset, not a new Pope
      What The Roman Catholic Church needs is a wholesale reset, not a new Pope
    • “I Don’t Do Horror, Ryan Coogler” — Black Magic’s Dr. Yvonne Chireau on Sinners and Bringing Hoodoo to Life
      “I Don’t Do Horror, Ryan Coogler” — Black Magic’s Dr. Yvonne Chireau on Sinners and Bringing Hoodoo to Life
    • Once Again the ADL Antisemitism Audit Overreaches — Including an Embarrassing Failure to Recognize a Jewish Ritual
      Once Again the ADL Antisemitism Audit Overreaches — Including an Embarrassing Failure to Recognize a Jewish Ritual
  • Sex/Gender/Justice
    • What The Roman Catholic Church needs is a wholesale reset, not a new Pope
      What The Roman Catholic Church needs is a wholesale reset, not a new Pope
    • Francis, the Roman Catholic Church’s First Latin American Pope, Leaves Behind a Complicated Legacy
      Francis, the Roman Catholic Church’s First Latin American Pope, Leaves Behind a Complicated Legacy
    • RFK Jr’s Campaign Against Seed Oils Isn’t Just Junk Science — It’s Misogynist Identity Politics
      RFK Jr’s Campaign Against Seed Oils Isn’t Just Junk Science — It’s Misogynist Identity Politics
  • Christian Nationalism
    • My Book on The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity Was One of Hundreds Just Banned by the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
      My Book on The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity Was One of Hundreds Just Banned by the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
    • Why Authoritarianism Needs Gender Stereotypes – and Democracy Needs Gender Justice
      Why Authoritarianism Needs Gender Stereotypes – and Democracy Needs Gender Justice
    • Defense Secretary Hegseth’s New ‘Kafir’ Tattoo is the Perfect Encapsulation of Trumpish Foreign Policy
      Defense Secretary Hegseth’s New ‘Kafir’ Tattoo is the Perfect Encapsulation of Trumpish Foreign Policy
  • Politics
    • Once Again the ADL Antisemitism Audit Overreaches — Including an Embarrassing Failure to Recognize a Jewish Ritual
      Once Again the ADL Antisemitism Audit Overreaches — Including an Embarrassing Failure to Recognize a Jewish Ritual
    • We Called For Better Responses to Campus Antisemitism—and the ADL Threatened to Withdraw Sponsorship
      We Called For Better Responses to Campus Antisemitism—and the ADL Threatened to Withdraw Sponsorship
    • Amber Ruffin Wasn’t Cancelled by the WHCA Just Because She’s a Queer Black Woman Who Rejects ‘Both-Sidesing’
      Amber Ruffin Wasn’t Cancelled by the WHCA Just Because She’s a Queer Black Woman Who Rejects ‘Both-Sidesing’

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, Election 2024, OMFG, Politics/Law, Racial Justice, Sex/Gender/JusticeJanuary 15, 2025

As the Old White South Rises Again Will Democrats Wilt For the Sake of National ‘Reconciliation’?

By Peter Laarman

Let me spare you the suspense: Yes, the Democrats will someday come to be ashamed…

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Archive, Books, Christian Nationalism, New Books, OMFG, Racial JusticeSeptember 9, 2024

Historian Matthew Stewart Upends the Widespread Belief that 19th Century U.S. Christianity Was On ‘The Right Side of History’

By Peter Laarman

Might as well say it up front: I am one of many progressive Christians who…

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Archive, Culture, OMFG, Politics/LawJuly 2, 2024

Grab ‘n Go – Investigative Thriller Follows Covert Efforts to Control the Source of Life But Comes Up Short on Analysis

By Peter Laarman

Mainly curiosity—along with a nudge from RD—got me to pay my eight bucks to watch…

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President Joe Biden at a podium with a microphone in hand.
Archive, Christian Nationalism, OMFG, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeOctober 31, 2023

Biden’s Embrace of ‘Victory Culture’ is a Victory for Toxic White Christianity

By Peter Laarman

Every new day reveals fresh hints of Joe Biden’s wish to be remembered as a…

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Archive, BooksDecember 29, 2022

When ‘Church Business’ Yields a Real Page Turner

By Peter Laarman

I have to admit that Michelle Huneven’s new novel was almost too delicious for me,…

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(A)theologies, Archive, Media Analysis, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeSeptember 1, 2022

Evangelicals Clutching Pearls Over Student Debt Relief: Lord Have Mercy!

By Peter Laarman

What with Ukraine, Mar-a-Lago, Jerome Powell, and what-not, I suppose we can be forgiven (ha!)…

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Archive, Books, Christian Nationalism, New Books, OMFG, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeAugust 3, 2022

Breaking Up With Marilynne Robinson Over Her Refusal to Acknowledge the Dark Side of Puritanism

By Peter Laarman

Breaking up is hard to do, and I am not at all prepared to discard…

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Archive, Racial Justice, Religious Liberty, Sex/Gender/JusticeMay 9, 2022

The End of Roe May Have Something Important to Tell Us About the Decline of Mainline Protestant Churches

By Peter Laarman

As we gnaw on the paws of our grief and foreboding regarding the Supreme Court…

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Archive, Christian Nationalism, Media Analysis, OMFG, Racial JusticeApril 12, 2022

Douthat, Do Tell! Some Questions for a Columnist Longing for the Good Old Days of American Religion

By Peter Laarman

Sometimes it’s as necessary as a bowel movement to point out how some very smart…

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Archive, OMFG, Racial JusticeApril 4, 2022

Honoring and Renewing Dr. King’s Other, More Challenging, Dream — 55 Years Later

By Peter Laarman

Fifty-four years ago—on April 4, 1968—Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Exactly one…

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