Religion Dispatches
…he President at his word that two people were shot at a political event in Chicago, or that a protestor at one of his own rallies was actually an agent of ISIS. When commentators on the right cautioned, during the campaign, that Trump’s statements should be taken seriously but not literally, they were laying the groundwork for the birth of alt-facts out of a language of hyperbole which was simultaneously a language of smokescreen and plain-spoken…
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…ses here. – eds. I recently moved back to my hometown: a western suburb of Chicago that borders a town that is home to one of the largest and most influential evangelical Christian colleges in the country. As with most college towns, graduates often settle nearby. This makes my neighborhood a hub for evangelicalism and means that my neighbors tend to have followed the injunctions of their pastors to “keep themselves pure” from culture that is not…
Read More…manner possible. Governor Lincoln Chafee reluctantly signed the bill. The Chicago Tribune noted that he had wanted full marriage equality for gay and lesbian citizens of his state: Describing the proposal that passed the tiny New England state’s Senate this week as “a step forward,” he said it did not fully achieve its goals of giving same gender pairs the same rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities as married couples. The new law inc…
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…rom Tennessee, evangelicals from Nebraska, and progressive Christians from Chicago. In fact, my wall sometimes feels like a mashup of Bill Gaither, Rob Bell, and Amanda Palmer—a quality I liken to our wonderfully pluralistic public square (whatever is left of it, at least). Among the multiple comments that were made, there was one that especially caught my eye. A friend of mine linked to this article by Stephen Smith of the University of San Diego…
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…s and what we want to experience. In his 2005 book on urban blues clubs in Chicago, David Grazian writes: “authenticity itself is never an objective quality inherent in things, but simply a shared set of beliefs about the nature of things we value in the world.” Arguments both for authenticity and claims of authority can help us understand which ideas a culture values most. Uncovering the truth about Shetty’s life loses its power once we realize…
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…re grad students in a social science master’s program at the University of Chicago when we started dating.) When we got around to actually designing the research project we were about to become first-time parents, and we wanted to know if there was anything we needed to be aware of to raise our kids! What’s the most important take-home message for readers? Families that combine Jewish and Asian heritages create homes marked by strong Jewish identi…
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…rn realities and Islamic principles. For example in the United States, the Chicago-based Taqwa Eco-Core Cooperative provides sustainable, family-farm raised, and organic halal meat to comply with Islamic dietary rules while bringing the religious rulings for humane and respectful treatment of animals and the environment into a modern context. In DC, the “Green Muslims” seek to help “understand and implement sustainable and eco-conscious ways of li…
Read More…bama forged a profound connection with the people of these communities [in Chicago]. At their encouragement, he visited a local church one Sunday. That day Obama felt a beckoning of the spirit and accepted Jesus Christ into his life.” On his South Carolina material, a section suggestively titled, “Called to Bring Change,” declares, “We do what we do because God is with us.” Finally, a large panel, entitled “Called to Christ,” states: “Kneeling ben…
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…that it has garnered the attention of black churches in other cities like Chicago and Dallas. There has been a feeling that the church needs to be a genuine driver of change—not another server of empty rhetoric, and definitely not another actor complicit in a white supremacist system. (Our politicians have already done a fine job of that.) In this void, Black Lives Matter has evolved as a movement free of monoliths—as RD’s interview with #BlackLi…
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…Coyne, a respected professor of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago, reviews two books that attempt to reconcile science and religion: Karl Giberson’s Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution (HarperOne, 2009) and Kenneth Miller’s Only A Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul (Viking, 2009). Coyne’s own contribution to the conversation was also just published, and its title is self-explanatory: Why…
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