Religion Dispatches
…by Gary Macy, Ph.D. This book and an earlier book featured on RD, Women Deacons: Past, Present, Future (Paulist Press) will be the seminar texts. Registration for the June 9-July 8 MOOS closes first week of June….
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…k that proposed legislation in Uganda that would restrict nonprofit groups promoting social justice and human rights issues may be weakened in response to international criticism. But nonprofits and civil society groups warn that the bill’s vague legal language could allow the government to pressure organizations to shy away from social justice, human rights or political advocacy work. “There’s a clause looking at NGO accountability and transparen…
Read More…at church; ways to improve evangelical Christian voter participation; and promotions for revival rallies, registration events and distribution of voter guides listing candidate positions on abortion, prayer and gay marriage. Churches have been sponsoring some of those activities for years, but the St. Louis event, with so many clergy members participating in statewide training and political events, is unprecedented. Pastors cannot, incidentally,…
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…olics whose stated intent was “equipping Catholics in the ‘Next America.’” Registration alone was $1,500, not including the cost of food and lodging in Napa Valley. This offers a pretty clear indicator of precisely which Catholics were being equipped at this event. Archbishop Gomez also serves as chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration. As chair of that committee, he consistently articulates the five-fold plat…
Read More…e hotel. (AAI’s event, in contrast, was open to the public and required no registration or fee.) The whole video is worth watching to understand the paranoid lengths Geller’s staff engages in to avoid having actual Muslims attend her conference. And what kind of person does attend the conference? The AAI staffers interviewed one attendee who who declared that Muslims who want to put “America under the yoke of Islam” are “enemies of America.” (He g…
Read More…open letter, written on a blog that bears no names or footprints (the site registration is private), lambasts Vander Plaats not only for his association with Gingrich, but for accepting Gingrich’s help in securing $200,000 in “seed money” for his campaign to oust judges who had ruled in favor of gay marriage. There’s something odd, though, to my eyes, about the phrasing in the Iowans for Christian Leaders in Government materials. Like it wasn’t re…
Read More…vent, sent an email to registrants introducing the United in Purpose voter registration project Champion the Vote. Wildmon wrote, “research has shown that it takes only 5 million voters to influence the outcome of an election. This is a do-able goal, and Champion the Vote is seeking Champions – an army of volunteers — to help with the effort. A Champion is simply a Christian talking to other Christians about registering and voting.” In November, U…
Read More…vilating their government awarded 501 c3 status. They will even have voter registration booths in their church lobbies which will be open after a rather pointed sermon, “I don’t want to influence how you vote but . . . .” Let’s not forget how a mere four years ago Mike Huckabee (himself an SBC pastor considered a moderate by some in his denomination!) gave a Christmas sermon at John Hagee’s church, said that the Constitution should be amended to c…
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…ion of church and state. Officially, the IRS prohibits “voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates.” Unofficially, however, enforcement of this policy is so toothless that only one church has ever lost its tax-exempt status, and pulpit politicking is the norm across the…
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…s fiftieth anniversary, the Pledge was incorporated into the National Flag Code. Ten years later, in the shadow of the Cold War, two weighty words, “under God,” were added. It has become the creed of the state religion, taught early and often to our children. The Very Revd Will H. Mebane, Jr., Interim Dean at St Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Buffalo, NY, grew up in the South in a fairly conservative religious household. He encountered the Flag at…
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