Religion Dispatches
…n McCain does use religious metaphor, it is language cribbed from another belated believer. McCain likens himself to Reagan, a man whose faith made a surprise appearance only once he achieved elected office. In his 2008 convention speech, McCain called upon his party to return to the “party of Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan.” In 2000, McCain separated that same party from the party of the religious right, fatefully remarking: “My friends, I am a R…
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…in the 1980s and 1990s. Wagner and his close associates both introduced novel beliefs and practices, and revised others—steps which remain controversial and consequential to this day, such as the notion of “strategic level spiritual warfare” (see Glossary). For Wagner all of these 20th century movements are to be understood as “components of the NAR,” as he wrote in a 2012 anthology on Apostolic Alignment. Most of what he would call NAR before and…
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…ntwined with the Trump Administration and Trump 2020 Campaign. […] In the helter-skelter season between the 2020 election and the January 6 attempt to forcibly interfere with the result, the Appeal to Heaven flag had become a ubiquitous symbol adopted by charismatic Christians to exhibit their faith in these Trump prophecies. What this flag stands for, as Matt Taylor told me in an interview about his upcoming book, is, “You go to war and you let G…
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…with free will (though this may still be an illusion of free will, as the code for the game is likely to be quite deterministic). Since she is the only one in the game that suffers pain but no death, it will be interesting to see the evolution of her ethical code within the virtual world. The transformation of Tamara from a helpless lost soul to a gun-toting avenger sets up the stage for her probable showdown with Zoe—a continuation of Adama-Gray…
Read More…characteristics like race and gender, the armed forces will cast the sincerely held religious beliefs of many chaplains and Service members as rank bigotry comparable to racism.” On this point they are absolutely right. You see, back when blacks were being integrated into the military their race was not an “innocuous characteristic;” it was seen as many military chaplains as an outright sin, and their preaching against it would be seen as “rank bi…
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…live buzzards by jet 1,000 miles from Laredo to Amarillo and wire them for electronic release on cue. “As soon as they were wired to the tree they all began to try and fly away. The wires prevented that, of course, but did not prevent them from falling off the limbs, where they dangled upside down, wings flapping, nether parts exposed . . .” This was “unaesthetic,” and unlikely “to beguile a movie-going audience.” Finally [the buzzards] abandoned…
Read More…ital counseling with a religious leader or secular counselor, and preemptively eliminates certain grounds for divorce. Many more states have considered enacting covenant marriage laws, and while the movement has largely waned, it hasn’t died completely: the Texas 2018 GOP platform “urge[d] the Legislature to rescind no-fault divorce laws and support covenant marriage.” Unsurprisingly, covenant marriage laws have primarily been advanced by the Chri…
Read More…groups tried to claim that they, too, were targeted by the IRS for their religious beliefs. IRS movement on the audit procedures will likely trigger more complaints from conservative legal and religious groups that the agency is attempt to stifle their free speech. Through efforts such as Pulpit Freedom Sunday, pastors openly flout the law. Enforcement of the rule, and the revocation of a partipating church’s tax-exempt status, though, could trig…
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…rist.”—Charles Colson, author, founder of Prison Fellowship and Watergate felon Religion or Politics? It’s come up a number of times both in the book and in this roundtable; whether The Family is a religious or a political movement; “a political theology”? Randy wrote that: “The author parses this group as a political movement, but that scheme… doesn’t hold. What if he looked at The Family as a religious movement instead, as I think it is?” Jeff j…
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…. Yet it deepened my understanding of several secondary characters. I was relieved to see Lacy relaxed and showing some competency (who knew she could repair a bike better than a boy), and I felt equivocal about Duram, whom I previously liked, exhibiting a nasty political streak. It was shocking to see Sister Clarice lolling in the family bed (talk about misleading packaging; her clothes had me convinced she was a virgin priestess). And, as many o…
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