Religion Dispatches
…levision network earlier this week, sitting for an interview with televangelists Marcus and Joni Lamb, to sell not only his faith in God, but his faith in small government. Paul’s most sincerely held religious belief, no surprise, was in minimizing government. People “think somehow there’s salvation in government,” Paul said, but “there isn’t.” In fact, lack of government oversight has been a salvation, at least a financial one, for the Lambs. As…
Read More…sure some in government don’t want to destroy our country.” Moore’s enemy list was long that night, particularly when it came to immigration matters. By failing to protect the borders, he said, the government was failing to “to protect against invasions.” Moore added, incredulously, “They’re letting anybody come in!” He called for the impeachment of Supreme Court justices over the 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down Texas anti-s…
Read More…ay, anti-immigrant views. In Idaho, he worked with Scott Lively, the evangelist known for provoking an anti-gay panic in Uganda that led to the introduction of the Anti Homosexuality Bill there, and who claims a link between Nazism and homosexuality: In an online column, Fischer defended Lively’s preposterous and debunked “history” of a Nazi-gay link, claiming “the masculine homosexual movement in Germany created the Brown Shirts, and the Brown Sh…
Read More…ternate universe for a lot of reasons, but now we can add a new one to the list. Because in the first such case of which I’m aware, a bakery in Denver has been sued for refusing to bake a homophobic cake. According to the reports, the plaintiff in the suit requested that the baker bake him a cake that said “God hates gays” along with a picture of two men holding hands with an X over them. When the baker—who identifies as Christian herself—refused,…
Read More…came after only three hearings, during which families quarreled with journalists who tried to photograph their relatives in the dock. The courtroom erupted into a frenzy after the word “acquittal” was heard from the judge and women ululated. Scott Long, an American researcher who had followed the case said he was both “shocked and delighted.” “I hope this is a sign that these raids will come to an end,” Long told The Associated Press amid the chee…
Read More…k Iran-Israel connection, it does look as though Menendez received more “pro-Israel” money than all but 2 Senators between 2006 and 2014. Number one on that list, incidentally, is his co-sponsor on the current Iran sanctions bill, Mark Kirk. …
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…indeed apply to yoga. 8. Yogaphobia Fear of Yoga continued to flourish. To list just a few 2014 incidents: Albert Mohler cited Indiana University religious studies scholar Candy Gunther Brown’s expertise—in 2013, Brown testified in a high-profile court case against allowing yoga in Encinitas, California public schools since it, according to Brown, promotes Hinduism—in support of his own argument that yoga is dangerous for Christians. In an op-ed p…
Read More…pick from. Advocates of gay marriage have already announced that they will promote their own lists in all dioceses. Opponents have said they will wait until they see the first lists submitted in the spring. Their strategy seems to be to get their people in here, as they have been previously. Poland: First Openly Gay Mayor Elected Vanessa Gera reports for Associated Press that Robert Biedron had already made history by becoming the first openly gay…
Read More…king and logistical preparations, I must begin to make amends. Actually my list is not that long, once I contact my immediate family. This harks back to two things, in “making the will before hajj” one is also making plans for some kind of finality. If not physically then at least metaphorically. That is probably why so many people actually wish to die at hajj. This is the place and time where one’s life should come before one’s eyes and then wash…
Read More…epresentatives from Rand Corp, architects, environmentalists, policy specialists, and a Vodou priestess gathered in New Orleans to discuss new models of water management in Southern Louisiana. The symposium, which coincided with the seventh annual Anba Dlo Halloween festival, is important for a city under the constant threat of flooding. (Anba Dlo is a Haitian creole term meaning “beneath the waters.”) But the symposium was also important moment f…
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