Religion Dispatches
…and even a university official giving a speech. The unnamed hospital has a sign that says “Hospital.” But it isn’t really universal, is it? It depicts what abortion would be like if women were all beautiful, tragic figures, living in a world run by men who treated them with, not respect, but a kind of indulgent kindness. Well, okay. In the real world of policy, poverty, pregnancy complications, and domestic violence are often important factors too…
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…he bill, helping organize letter and petition drives which garnered 40,000 signatures calling for the veto. At a rally Wednesday night at the Utah state capital, Hilary Brown, a Utah Mormon, carried a picture of the Virgin Mary with the caption: “Abstinence. Not Entirely Effective. Knowledge = Power. Veto.” Meredith Hudson LeSueur, a Utah Mormon and mother of two, converted Brown’s sign into an image that went viral on the internet. Other Mormon m…
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…look at those people who are unaffiliated and I say, ‘Wow, that to me is a sign of the transformation that we’re going through. More and more people understand that we’re moving into a new place and are willing to take the risk, freeing themselves up and exploring their spirituality in different ways.’ I think eventually a large number of those people will re-affiliate in some way, shape, or form—but when they do, the actual institutions of religi…
Read More…tal bonds of others” which Gingrich, Cain, Romney and Ron Paul declined to sign, but which Bachmann and Perry joined Santorum in signing. Cass says that Santorum “courageously put his name to some very bold, very Judeo-Christian, and extremely politically-incorrect statements about marriage and sexuality.” (Which, you know, is a euphemism for conspiratorial, fact-free claptrap.) So there you have it. Santorum should be president because he “recogn…
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…ences, I think, for American civil religion, where there has always been a significant undercurrent of religiously-informed modesty vis-à-vis our national destiny. Perhaps that undercurrent can begin to replace the blustering grandiosity that has occupied the main channel for far too long. The experience of accelerating national decline cries out for a much better civil religion than the cockamamie one we inherited. 8. The Council of Elders and Oc…
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…on itself. The Darfur-based Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) was set to sign onto the Declaration at the time, but withdrew because, as Ismail told RD, some elements of JEM “were not ready to abandon a role for Islam in public life.” The Political Declaration of the Alliance of Sudanese Revolutionary Front, announced in August 2011, indicates that they intended to draft a Constitution that would guarantee citizens the rights of freedom of expre…
Read More…e think it’s a good standard.” The Personhood pledge, which Romney did not sign, commits candidates to supporting legislation and judges who would declare fertilized eggs human beings with “unalienable rights.” The anti-Romney ad the group is running has been called misleading by FactCheck.org: An anti-abortion group is making the shocking claim that Mitt Romney “enforced a law which required Catholic hospitals to provide abortions.” To call this…
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…Dolan joined a coterie of evangelical and fundamentalist church leaders in signing the open letter “Marriage and Religious Freedom: Fundamental Goods That Stand or Fall Together.” It was latest epistle in the growing canon of hierarchical statements aimed at gaining exemptions from federal and state laws that protect the rights of same-sex couples. But as the church leaders fortify their culture-war defenses [see here for some of RD’s recent cover…
Read More…purely sectarian goals to offer comprehensive preventive health care. But from MSNBC to FOXNews, there has been little or no mention of this religious support for the new policy on television. I have seen a Cardinal on Morning Joe, but no sign of ministers or rabbis who don’t agree with the Cardinal. That tends to render the other religious viewpoints invisible. This is a matter of justice. To block access to birth control under the guise of relig…
Read More…showing that most Catholics agree with the Obama administration rule, and signals from David Axelrod and Obama spiritual advisor Joel Hunter that perhaps there was a compromise in the offing. But the primary compromise proposed, known as the Hawaii compromise, has been declared unacceptable by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The National Catholic Register reports: [A] key official in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says the Hawai…
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