Religion Dispatches
…e. Fundamentalists may think they’ve found a clever way to bring the Commandments in through the back door by invoking a “free speech zone.” They have to understand what that means—free speech means free speech for everyone. Those courthouse plazas may get awfully crowded….
Read More…ly in place, the economy is his team’s, not Bush’s. So too with the wars. What is happening is that both of these theaters, in Iraq and Afghanistan, are in the process of becoming Obama’s wars, and Obama’s problems, not Bush’s or Cheney’s anymore. It is now that a final disturbing feature of the analogy also begins to come into sharper focus. The analogy reveals how both of these wars were, in strange ways, wars of religion. Ever since the Second…
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…s Gary Bass would later recount in The Blood Telegram, were so anti-India that they ignored what would become one of the 20th century’s forgotten genocides: the killing of over three million Bengalis (including many Hindus) and the displacement of more than 10 million. Among those who left what would become Bangladesh was Rukhsana Hasib, a young secular Muslim whose father—an East Pakistan military officer—was killed by West Pakistani forces. Hasi…
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…a Supreme Court with a conservative majority is uncertain. But rights and freedoms that are potentially at stake are concrete and bear directly upon the health of millions of Americans. At its core, Comstockery maintains that individuals cannot and should not be trusted when it comes to sexual and reproductive matters; they need state supervision, surveillance, constraint, and punishment. Comstock laws were named for their progenitor Anthony Coms…
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…s, he went on to found the US Catholic school system. The short answer is that his battle for “religious freedom” in the public schools was a strategy; the archbishop wanted a separate Catholic school system all along, and his fight against the King James Bible was part of an unsuccessful attempt to get the city to fund such a system. Catholic participation in a new “secular” school system was never part of Hughes’s plan, and on this, he was proba…
Read More…go down that path again. “I’m running to be a leader for all Kansans, so that we can continue our legacy as a Free State, where discrimination and bigotry – against anyone – is not tolerated.” Why is this so good (or at least why am I so excited by it)? Let me count the ways: It’s true. Check the Holland site for the citations, which are difficult to refute. Lou Engle has horrible politics. Brownback should have his judgment questioned for hangin…
Read More…hat these laws did not violate the Catholics’ — or any religious group’s — free exercise of religion, that in order for a law to violate somebody’s free exercise, it has to impinge — substantially burden — their religious practice. And there is no substantial burden on Catholics’ religious practice by providing coverage — insurance coverage for contraception for other people. No one is making Catholics who do not want contraception to take it. No…
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…ty. This didn’t stop the movement from continuing and sowing the seeds of what became “QAnon,” a group that believes President Trump was anointed by God to stop demonic Democrats from drinking the blood of children. Responding to this perceived crisis, QAnon members were instrumental in the insurrection attempt of January 6th. Which brings us to the present day. Trump himself declared at a 2024 rally in Waco, TX: “Either we surrender to the demoni…
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