Religion Dispatches
…t. Simple Googling of the “information sources” listed on the Zeitgeist website would reveal — to the filmmakers, obviously — the anti-Semitism embedded in these conspiracy theories and the ongoing resonance of the theories in the far right. Conservative writer Byron York might believe they “resemble far-right paranoia from many years ago,” but if he pays a visit to the John Birch Society table at CPAC next month, he may be able to discuss similar…
Read More…Media Companies to help women ease their financial anxieties. A cheery website offers articles, webinars, social networking forums, and promotional videos featuring Deseret Media executive (and former LDS Church official) Shari Dew with 1980s-style stock footage of apparently independent women jogging, counting money, and sitting at their kitchen tables with their children. And all of this about 30 years after the LDS Church helped torpedo the Eq…
Read More…culum. Because they are not subject to the same formal adoption process as official textbooks, supplemental materials used in local school districts could rely on some seriously dubious source matter. (Discovery Institute material, perhaps?) Expect the battles over this issue to take place in Texas and Louisiana. Well, last week, the Foundation for Thought and Ethics appeared on a list of publishers who plan to submit supplementary materials for r…
Read More…t, LifeWatch, a group that has roots in the United Methodist Church but no official standing, sponsored a worship service before the march. Reports indicate that a mere seventeen people were in attendance, including some who are pro-choice. It was a day for papal flags, banners like “Archdiocese of Chicago,” handmade life-size crosses, and even a gold crozier that someone brought along to add gravitas, or maybe just in place of a cane. It was hard…
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…re-sister was in Czechoslovakia). I fear they will be co-opted by the same officials who now denounce them. Already the churchmen use them. Instead of ignoring the women and letting the chips call where they may, Roman officials have found that by excommunicating women priests they have a convenient way to distract from the criminal activity of priest pedophiles and bishops who covered up their crimes. Note that while every woman priest has been e…
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…nceived advertising stunt, set off buzz and worry such that this Sunday an official correction was issued from the company. “We recently issued a press release on Zodiac signs and accident rates, which led to some confusion around whether astrological signs are part of the underwriting process,” the statement reads. “Astrological signs have absolutely no role in how we base coverage and set rates. Rating by astrology would not be actuarially soun…
Read More…course those who would not tell the truth about him,” said the White House official, who would not speak for attribution. “There are folks who have a misunderstanding of the president’s faith and who repeat that misunderstanding.” Joel Hunter, one of the president’s evangelical allies, is equally mild: “He needs to openly declare himself a Christian and not settle for people’s skepticism at that point,” said Hunter, who leads an evangelical church…
Read More…tivists, such as the organizers of the April 6th movement, but there is no official board, party or group that decides on behalf of the demonstrators. How would you present this revolt or uprising to American readers? First, I would like to stress that it’s a revolution, not just an uprising. I would also like to emphasize that politics in Egypt is no longer the simple binary of Government versus Muslim Brotherhood, but that there is a third way…
Read More…amic Relations, Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange wrote: the amendment conveys an official government message of disapproval and hostility toward [the plaintiff’s] religious beliefs, that sends a clear message he is an outsider, not a full member of the political community, thereby chilling his access to the government and forcing him to curtail his political and religious activities. Further, the Court finds the consequences – the condemnation – that pl…
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…e app be used as an incentive to go to church. Indeed, enough that Vatican officials were moved to issue a statement yesterday making clear that use of the Confession app—or any technological devise—cannot substitute for the sacrament properly offered by a Roman Catholic priest. Kreager is quick to affirm the Vatican’s statement, adding, in response to a wave of errant reporting, that neither the Vatican nor Bishop Rhodes has banned or otherwise r…
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