Religion Dispatches
…ainty holds out a small thread of optimism for citizens who, like our president, “might be closet Christians” or unlikely candidates for rapture. If LaHaye continues to be slightly embarrassed spinning his theories in public, most likely because he fears how they will appear in the light of rational public inquiry, this cannot be entirely good news for the “Obama as Antichrist” discourse, even when it scores a prominent spot on prime-time televisi…
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…eceit and manipulation are not part of the game. The huckster image is not completely unfounded. But we cannot deny the moral agency or critical posture of participants who turn on the television, purchase a DVD, or attend these megachurches who bring possess their own spiritual aims, interests and concerns. While researching this book I came to discover that many persons are able to “eat the fish, yet spit out the bones.” Anything you had to le…
Read More…ulforce years later), tells the story of riding in a limo with Falwell and coming up on some protestors. Falwell laughed at them and remarked how they helped his cause. “If they weren’t here,” White quotes him, “we’d have to hire some.” The Westboro crowd is so beyond the pale I can’t help but believe they are simply an over-the-top parody group of hate groups. Even their Web site at godhatesfags.com looks like a deft parody of hate sites. In fact…
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…minate your life, and find what it is you’re missing.” It’s not a terribly complex or comprehensive answer, but offers a distinct alternative to the God-haunted, belief-oriented versions of religion offered by my C-grade student named Bill. Bill gets this low grade because his definition of religion appears to have been culled solely from Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary in which religion is essentially defined, in solid US-Protestant style…
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…berries. (And maybe drinking beer out of a brown bag.) Over at margaretcho.com the knives are coming out, and, like I said, some bags of poo for throwing. Someone over there just invited Cho to “move to the Middle East.” Or, more precisely, “f**ing move to the Middle East.” Because she loves the desert? I don’t really get this. No, I do. It’s just that it’s really such a leap, from pro-choice feminist to Lady Bin Laden. Right now, after covering t…
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…Convoy of Hope might offer some aid, but their role in disbursing federal funds is also an indictment against government institutions of relief, as Inderpal Grewal observes in Saving the Security State, and they often come with strings attached. When we hear conservatives using the language of “prayers” and “favor” as a disaster strikes, it’s important to recognize that this pious rhetoric conceals neoliberal politics that impede the work of gover…
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…It’s my work performance that should be taken into consideration.” Readers commenting on the Fox site are vowing to boycott Google in favor of Bing, Microsoft’s latest venture into the search engine business. They might want to rethink that move, too, since Microsoft was one of the first companies to include sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policies and actually offers “partial coverage for transgender surgery (effective in 2006) to it…
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…ay 21 is not the actual end of the world, according to Camping’s WeCanKnow.com. Rather, that’s merely the day of the Tribulation and Christ’s return. The big day is Oct. 21, 2011. That’s the day “when He will destroy the world and all that is therein.” This is not the first time Camping has predicted Judgment Day: On Sept. 6, 1994, dozens of Camping’s believers gathered inside Alameda’s Veterans Memorial Building to await the return of Christ, an…
Read More…pirited nature of the anti-gay movement” is revealed, the more people will come to accept gays and lesbians as real human beings in need of not just love and respect but full civil rights. Richmond wonders why the church has singled out gays and lesbians for special condemnation and comes to this conclusion: I think, is that it’s easy to condemn homosexuality if you are not gay. It is much harder than condemning pride, or lust or greed, things tha…
Read More…ous, has the motto, “We loan because we care about the suffering of human beings.” Kiva Christians’ motto is “We loan because pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (Jam. 1:27)” While I have not joined a team, the contest motivated me to sign up for Kiva. My modest donation of $25 went to a Cambodian woman to fund a portion of the $1,…
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