Religion Dispatches
…o be in or out of the closet. In some ways, the process is to help people prioritize their feelings. Those who become priests and nuns, for example, prioritize religion over sexuality. All this suggests that what many people think of as “conversion” therapy is really not. The lines are blurry between conversion and identity therapy and between real and effective change in sexual orientation, identity and priority. A story that helps us understand…
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…Canaanites, Cowboys, and Indians,” Native American scholar Robert Allen Warrior notes that Jewish and Christian theological discourses on justice and liberation are inadequate from a Native American perspective, as the same God who brought about the deliverance from slavery also commanded the conquest of others. Given their history on the underside of colonization, when Native Americans read the Bible, they identify with the indigenous inhabitants…
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…is that White people do not attend Juneteenth festivals in any appreciable numbers. This month I attended two Juneteenth festivals in the Columbia, South Carolina metropolitan area and the results were the same: minimum White attendance. Both events were free to the public, with ideal weather and plenty of good food and entertainment. Whereas a cross-section of Black America was in attendance, Whites stuck out like rice in chocolate pudding. But t…
Read More…studied and understood. Any doctrine that would be used to exclude a good number of the earth’s people from full equality before the law and God should be very carefully examined. When it comes to gay issues, most Mormons have only the muddiest understanding of what life is like for gay people or about the doctrinal reasons their LDS leaders say and do the things they do. In fact, most Mormons have only the muddiest understanding about what their…
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…as a Western media creation. But the documentary’s footage of anti-gay histrionics at churches, rallies, and on the floor of the parliament make it clear that the threat is all too real. Joanna Watson, a longtime missionary in Uganda affiliated with IHOP, says she was attracted to women when she was younger but that she was healed. She tells pastors-in-training that people have a choice to resist the desires of the flesh and she urges them not to…
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…tright rebellion against, US government leaders—including imaginative scenarios for armed munity. It is well known that end-times scenarios (such as Robertson’s attack on the UN in The New World Order) often teach unilateralism. However, they only reinforce commitments to democracy insofar as US leaders are seen as biblically sound. If leaders are seen as capitulating to the Antichrist, it becomes the believer’s duty to deceive and disobey them by…
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…nine on the Richter scale. It devastated the population. Estimates of the number of people killed range from 10,000 to 100,000. At the time the quake struck, worshipers filled the churches honoring their dead. The churches, the worshippers, and the city around them were effectively destroyed. Not long after the major quake hit, a tsunami followed that killed those who had rushed to the beaches in fear to avoid the havoc of the earthquake. The cat…
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…be a more topical interview. Aasif Mandvi might be most famous for his hilarious commentary on The Daily Show, but he’s also a very well-regarded actor, creator, artist, and writer. At a time when we’re not having a debate about Islam and extremism so much as we’re slinging talking points past each other, Aasif Mandvi took time out of a very busy schedule to talk about Halal in the Family and much more. Namely: He teases us with glimpses into his…
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…ed war crimes. It’s neither antisemitic nor anti-American to say so (as patriots of both countries do). Her words do not equate the US/Israel w/Hamas/Taliban, which carry out terror attacks against civilians.” https://twitter.com/rabbijilljacobs/status/1402971552895930373 Moreover, Omar gets so much flak for not calling out Hamas and yet when she finally does, she gets flak for not doing it right. In any event, if one is of the opinion that she ne…
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…fused to concede. Even in Alabama, ground zero for voter suppression, mysteriously broken voting machines in poor black neighborhoods, and every attempt to keep citizens likely to vote blue from exercising that right, old fashioned democracy prevailed. Doug Jones eked out a narrow victory, and Judge Roy Moore lost fair and square. But he didn’t concede. Moore’s short non-concession speech late Tuesday night was comprised almost entirely of a parap…
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