Religion Dispatches
…ld Reagan first sold the rhetoric of Republican de-regulation and trust in free markets is just that: the death of tomorrow-thinking, under the pressure of the desire for instantaneous and sophomoric gratification. The boys at Enron acted as if there were no tomorrow, quite literally up to the day tomorrow came crashing over their heads. They contented themselves with figuring out how to get theirs and get out before the empty coffers and fictiona…
Read More…are the Catholics in charge and women who want to participate equally are free to form their own church. I can assure him on good authority that the process of forming new models of church is well underway with Catholic women serving the needs of the world. I can also brief him on the fact that some of the nuns with whom he was speaking lead orders that include members who have lost so much respect for the institutional church that they barely ac…
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…harist, it included a restatement of a prohibition of totally wheat-gluten-free hosts. This was often reported as something of a snub of the Celiac sufferers (or gluten intolerant) among the faithful. But reading through the directive and the supporting documentation, I was struck by their attempts to accommodate communicants who can’t tolerate some essential aspect of the rite. The bread for the host can be so low in gluten as to qualify for “glu…
Read More…nsubstantiated claims such as “when you give money to groups that not only promote contraception but also promote abortion in an integrated way, you actually drive abortion rates up, not down.” Since 2000, Alvaré has taught law and brought her own brand of cherry-picked data tendentiously linked to the supposed dangers of abortion and contraception wrapped up as concern for women’s health and well-being to the Robert George/Witherspoon Institute/N…
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…ludes the following line (emphases mine): In reaffirming our heritage as a free nation, we must remember that America has always been a Christian nation. Time magazine’s transcript, meanwhile, reflects what the president actually said: In reaffirming our heritage as a free Nation, we must remember that America has always been a frontier nation. It’s entirely possible that the speech wasn’t deliberately edited; that Trump, who’s famous for ad-libbi…
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…at all Indians must appropriate and live under. Together, the RHC and Modi promote a narrow vision of Hinduism in the guise of Indian culture locally and abroad. Modi’s government has increasingly used the country’s broad and vague laws restricting free speech to stifle many forms of dissent, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch. In addition to providing vague “values” Trump allegedly shares with Hindu Americans—“hard work, education…
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…s of abortion rights and LGBTQ inclusion, can obtain “get out of criticism free” cards simply because they are outspoken opponents of Christian nationalism. Clearly we need better language to address anti-democratic Christian beliefs. So how does one responsibly cover Christian nationalists these days? To begin with, we must find language that doesn’t allow for the easy whitewashing of “respectable” Christians who hold authoritarian theological be…
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…repeating: not all Black people wish to be conscripted into this fight for freedom. Most wish to embrace anonymity, enjoying the mundane things other humans are afforded. Aren’t we in a strange hell then, that asserting the desire to live free from trauma and be seen as a human is considered more of an assault on America’s sacred institutions than, say, murdering a capitol police officer? As perverse as it is, even my aspiration for an ordinary ex…
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…y applied set of economic and political policies premised on the idea that free markets secure freedom and flourishing. Within this framework, nation-states ideally serve as subordinate enablers of capitalism as it forges a renewed multicultural village. This is the subtext for advertising campaigns that advance a not-so-subtle message that conspicuous consumption initiates subjects into an avant-garde multicultural global public. In a context in…
Read More…, not a religious rights issue, but it gets to one of the complications of free exercise rights. Some areas of law operate vertically, let’s say, since they’re mostly self-referential and one can acquire expertise in them without much reference to other areas of law. But religious rights work horizontally, as they come into interaction, and conflict, with many other categories of law. And it’s impossible to be expert in all types of law, even for…
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