Religion Dispatches
…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…
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…the military. Despite this idiosyncratic platform, Hatfield thrived. Large numbers of Hatfield admirers at Fuller Seminary, Wheaton College, and the campus ministry InterVarsity Christian Fellowship formed the architecture of an emerging evangelical left in the early 1970s. One InterVarsity leader at Kansas State University, citing his civil rights, anti-poverty, anti-war, and environmental record, said that Hatfield “put into words what we were t…
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The numbers are hard to pin down, but roughly 1.1 million Americans keep kosher in their homes. Around 15 million are vegetarian. Meanwhile, according to a 2013 survey, more than 100 million Americans are trying to cut down on gluten, and (as of 2014) more than 10 million households are gluten-free. Simply put, gluten avoidance is the reigning dietary restriction of our time. The Gluten Lie: And Other Myths About What You Eat Alan Levinovitz Rega…
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…istian nationalism spewed in right-wing pulpits and embraced by increasing numbers of people, we need faith leaders to step up and work rigorously to reverse the damage of this warped ideology. If we don’t, January 6th will only be the beginning. This fusion of theology and white supremacy has a long history. Faith leaders have previously used Christianity to justify slavery, colonialism, and other brutal acts of violence. But with the more recent…
Read More…spirituality, meaning-making, and self-realization in my Nones Beyond the Numbers narrative survey.* *The survey results will contribute to three intertwined research projects I am currently conducting on the meaning-making practices of Nones. The first, sponsored in part through the Social Science Research Council’s “New Directions in the Study of Prayer” initiative, will explore the plurality of Nones who say they regularly engage in prayer….
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…rren as the centrist alternative to the religious right, they consign vast numbers of people, including many of the party’s most dedicated supporters, to the fringe. “It does strengthen Warren as kind of a new Billy Graham figure,” says the Reverend Dan Schultz, a United Church of Christ pastor and the founder of the progressive religious blog Street Prophets. That has especial relevance for Warren’s role in Africa, where a very conservative kind…
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…s to a controversial figure like Sai Baba.) As Sai Baba’s devotees grew in numbers and influence so did his financial worth. In 1972 the Satya Sai Central Trust was set up. Today the trust is estimated to be worth at least $8.9 billion. It has funded water supply projects in poor areas of southern India as well as ashrams, hospitals, universities, and several schools across India and globally. Sai Baba was most famous for his miracles—mainly mater…
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…o extinction. And besides, they’re not one of our major competitors. Their numbers are so low and they’re not really trying to make inroads into our market. Who knows? In fact, if we play our cards right, we might be able to bring them on board as a wholly owned subsidiary. So maybe we should leave them be. My Jewish teachers have taught me that, at the core of the notion of “chosen-ness” is a profound responsibility to fulfill the biblically-atte…
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…n behaving inappropriately in a gender-segregated space. I haven’t run the numbers, but it’s fair to say that it’s safer to share a bathroom with a trans person than to meet the president-elect. On the more serious side, law enforcement officers, city commerce officials, and sexual assault experts from around the country have soundly rejected the claim that allowing trans folks to use the facilities that best match their gender identity leads to a…
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…ertainly some in the ELCA who continue to oppose women’s ordination, those numbers are small and grow smaller with each passing year. The same, I suspect, will be the case for the issue of gay and lesbian ordination forty years from now. Ironically, these two issues are closely related and contribute to the perceived need for a new Lutheran church body in North America. The ELCA is the only major Lutheran body in the United States to ordain women,…
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