Religion Dispatches
…than 300 USD per month, so some of the machines would dispense as little as 50 dollars US maximum, and from that I still paid the five dollar transaction fee. Better to go to the places where the ATM machines dispensed something closer to my U.S. limit. I’m sorry, but in almost 40 years of travel to 40 countries, I have only once used travelers checks. They are supposed to be better protected. You can get them 100% replaced if lost or stolen, but…
Read More
…debate pointed to the eerie symmetry between the two VP nominees: both are 58, both are married (to their first and only wives) with three kids, including one son apiece currently serving in the Marines, both studied law, and each weighs precisely 208 pounds. But it’s their similarity in their religious upbringing and how that diverged that tells us something critical about how Catholicism—and the larger religious landscape—has evolved over the p…
Read More
…perform an interesting thought experiment. Let us place ourselves on Gliese 591g and turn those same telescopes around and observe us observing the universe. What a strange, strange sight. What a wonder. Clearly, it is we—not black holes, not dark energy, not quasars—that are the strangest things in the cosmos. Through this reversed telescope we see many interesting beings on that small blue planet set squarely in the midst of the habitable zone o…
Read More…ous left. It means we’re doing our job. And just in case anyone missed the number of religious progressive groups endorsing the rally, here’s a list culled from One Nation site. Their list of endorsers is pretty long, so I apologize if I missed somebody: Rainbow PUSH Coalition The Shalom Center Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Sikh Coalition The Religious Institute The Community Church of NY Unitarian Universalist Pennsylvania C…
Read More
…ism must be evil is ignored; as is that fact that Halloween incorporates a number of elements and influences that have accrued during its journey through various cultures. In truth, some of these elements are Christian, like the feast of the dead that attempted to maintain communion with the saints, both living and deceased. The Roman Catholic Church continues to include this element in its festivities, and thus, as historian Ronald Hutton argues…
Read More…was African-Americans. Ours is the story still not well known, despite our numbers. For one thing, after September 11th we were given a small reprieve. American prejudice and intolerance floated from us as African Americans, who happen to be Muslim, and focused on Muslims who happen to be Americans. Therefore the hatred built up against foreign Muslims immigrant and their offspring. More than a few African-American Muslims were content to sit back…
Read More
…e of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. I cannot count the number of times I have heard well-meaning, good-hearted people respond to this appeal, saying, “Things are a lot better for gay people today than they were several years (or decades) ago. In time, our society (or churches) will come around on this issue.” To these friends and others, I must say, “It’s time.” For Lucas, Brown, Clementi, Walsh, and Chase the time is up. For t…
Read More…sheet on the psychological damage caused by corporal punishment. MAY On May 5, the Supreme Court ruled in Town of Greece v. Galloway that the town of Greece, New York, could use explicitly Christian prayers to open its council meetings. For many the ruling represented an erosion of the establishment clause. Greaves rejoiced at another opportunity for public displays of Satanism and even composed a Satanic prayer for future council meetings. Also i…
Read More…have dismissed the film as blatantly false. But what I’m hearing from a number of Mormons deeply familiar with the Proposition 8 campaign is that the film gets it mostly right. [See also Holly Welker’s review here. – Eds] Some take exception to editing choices that sequence events out of context for dramatic effect; others wish that the filmmakers had not been so cartoonish in their depictions of anti-gay-marriage standpoints, using only notori…
Read More
…itically. One source of dismay for some Catholics is that so many of their number broke decisively toward Trump and were critical to his victory in the Rust Belt swing states. “The Catholic vote went for Trump and many Catholics joined the non-voting defectors. That’s a scandal that calls into question the moral standing and integrity of most—not all—Catholics today,” Marquette University moral theologian Dan Maguire told RD. To many, Catholic sup…
Read More