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Religion Dispatches - Religion Dispatches Religion Dispatches
  • Racial Justice
    • After Orthodox Priest Suspended for ‘Stop the Steal’ Activity, a Renewed Spotlight on the Orthodox Far-Right
      After Orthodox Priest Suspended for ‘Stop the Steal’ Activity, a Renewed Spotlight on the Orthodox Far-Right
    • Making Muffins and Troops for Spiritual Warfare: The Godly Women of Instagram
      Making Muffins and Troops for Spiritual Warfare: The Godly Women of Instagram
    • Because We Dared to Exist: After Generations of Trauma Black Gun Ownership is on the Rise
      Because We Dared to Exist: After Generations of Trauma Black Gun Ownership is on the Rise
  • Politics/Law
    • After Orthodox Priest Suspended for ‘Stop the Steal’ Activity, a Renewed Spotlight on the Orthodox Far-Right
      After Orthodox Priest Suspended for ‘Stop the Steal’ Activity, a Renewed Spotlight on the Orthodox Far-Right
    • Making Muffins and Troops for Spiritual Warfare: The Godly Women of Instagram
      Making Muffins and Troops for Spiritual Warfare: The Godly Women of Instagram
    • How the Pro-Life Movement Gave us Donald Trump — and Why It Could Bring Worse
      How the Pro-Life Movement Gave us Donald Trump — and Why It Could Bring Worse
  • Religious Liberty
    • The Inauguration’s Beautiful Call for Unity Was Undermined by the Invocation of Religion
      The Inauguration’s Beautiful Call for Unity Was Undermined by the Invocation of Religion
    • We Can’t Have Religious Freedom Without Reproductive Freedom
      We Can’t Have Religious Freedom Without Reproductive Freedom
    • As We Survey the Damage of Yesterday’s Violence, What Will Christian Nationalist Politics Look Like in 2021? New Report Offers Clues
      As We Survey the Damage of Yesterday’s Violence, What Will Christian Nationalist Politics Look Like in 2021? New Report Offers Clues
  • Sex/Gender/Justice
    • It’s Time for Democrats to Read the Bible Verses on the Wall and Stop Courting White Evangelicals
      It’s Time for Democrats to Read the Bible Verses on the Wall and Stop Courting White Evangelicals
    • We Can Finally Put the Lie to Trumpism: 5 Myths Debunked By a Biden Victory
      We Can Finally Put the Lie to Trumpism: 5 Myths Debunked By a Biden Victory
    • 11 Election Tweets to Amuse, Infuriate, Enlighten, and Amuse You
      11 Election Tweets to Amuse, Infuriate, Enlighten, and Amuse You
  • New Books
    • Watch: Is The Religious Left a Mirage or Are Journalists Just Missing the Story?
      Watch: Is The Religious Left a Mirage or Are Journalists Just Missing the Story?
    • Pulitzer-Prize Winning Historian’s Latest Reveals the Problem with Today’s ‘Religious Freedom’
      Pulitzer-Prize Winning Historian’s Latest Reveals the Problem with Today’s ‘Religious Freedom’
    • ‘God Made Them Male and Female…and Eunuch’: Why the Biblical Case For Binary Gender Isn’t So… Biblical
      ‘God Made Them Male and Female…and Eunuch’: Why the Biblical Case For Binary Gender Isn’t So… Biblical

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.

(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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Archive, Politics/Law, Sexuality/GenderOctober 29, 2020

Even if Biden Wins Will We Reckon With ‘Virtuous Republic Syndrome,’ the Persistent Belief that America is a Blessed Nation?

By Peter Laarman

Most white Americans of a certain age hew to a civil religion that holds that…

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(A)theologies, Archive, New Books, Politics/Law, Racial Justice, Sex/Gender/Justice, Sexuality/GenderOctober 20, 2020

How U.S. Conservatives Conjured the Jesus of Their Dreams

By Peter Laarman

It seems that when Donald Trump and his Republican enablers are able to seat a…

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Archive, OMFG, Politics/Law, Racial JusticeSeptember 3, 2020

And the Violent Bear It Away? Disciplined Nonviolence and the Coming Election Emergency

By Peter Laarman

A few weeks back I reached out to around 60 friends and colleagues whom I’ve…

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Archive, New Books, OMFGAugust 24, 2020

The Revelation of Kurt Andersen: With ‘Evil Geniuses’ a Media Mandarin Discovers Plutocracy

By Peter Laarman

When I showed up at New York’s Judson Church in 1994 at least some of…

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(A)theologies, Archive, OMFGJuly 22, 2020

The Non-Mask of the Red Death: A Deadly Necropolitics Hits Home

By Peter Laarman

The shade of Edgar Allen Poe will perhaps forgive me for misappropriating the title 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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