Religion Dispatches
…that “religion poisons everything” on the other. I firmly believe that the best solution to bad religion is good religion. Given the ugly and divisive side of religion that has been so prominent in American politics, I understand the appeal of these neo-atheist books. They’ve been at the top of the best-seller lists (in the category of religion no less!) because they have tapped into a backlash. However, they make the mistake of rejecting all reli…
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…publicly renounced reparative therapy, they’re still preaching that “God’s best” for gays and lesbians is celibacy and some still believe that God can change sexual orientation over time. What’s your response? It’s kind of a doublespeak. They want to be against what is publicly recognized as the most damaging sort of thing out there. But, they talk out of the other side of their mouth and support this. I think some of them are confused, but I thin…
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…p, McMurtry has made mythologizing silly, the filmmakers merely human, and bestowed practical wisdom on the buzzards. What McMurtry most impressed on a teenage me was that an adult understood some coaches are sadists, being young is as befuddling as growing old, and that the most vocally righteous Christians are likely covering something up. My favorite McMurtry book is The Evening Star (1992). Aurora Greenway’s life after death is my brand of tri…
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…nt of this link in paragraph 14, the implicit argument is that marriage is best defined as a one-man-one-woman institution. I appreciated the intellectual care that went into Smith’s analysis. Following the example of some of history’s best thinkers, he took an issue that most people considered straightforward, complicated it, and then redirected the discussion. Ultimately, though, I found his deconstruction unconvincing. Let me explain… Dr. Smith…
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…hat John McCain leaned over during the debate to tell him that “that’s the best answer I’ve ever heard and exactly what I believe.” Betrayed by the Religious Right To anybody who paid any attention to Huckabee during the GOP primary, his disdain for the media was obvious, as was his loathing of Romney, so much of the book’s animus comes across as old news and surprisingly petty. What is astonishing is the outright contempt with which Huckabee trea…
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…of intentions” who promote an “overt war on Christianity,” was a national bestseller. In it, Baucham argues that George Floyd’s murder was “not unique” and not evidence of “police brutality regarding black men” because police also murder white people suffering from mental illness like Tony Timpa. Despite credible allegations of plagiarism, the Right continues to promote both Fault Lines and Baucham. In 2021 he was the featured speaker on CRT at a…
Read More…gives lie to that myth. It was under Muslim control for centuries, and at best is currently 10% Muslim. Even if Pakistan and Bangladesh are counted as part of larger South Asia, only 1/3 of the population is Muslim, spread through the north, the center, and the south. There is no universally recognized command to convert and/or kill. 3. Muslims do not condemn terrorism. Part of moving beyond this simplistic idea of Muslims is to move beyond simpl…
Read More…rpretation on the part of those who claim that the Bible is clear.) To the best of my knowledge—and I am no Hebrew Bible scholar—the Hebrew is something like “the baby comes out but no harm follows,” which some people interpret as meaning that the mother miscarries but is herself unharmed; and others interpret to mean that the baby is born premature but is unharmed. So they get in discussions, as people do about Bible translations, in which they m…
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…hand of partnership. To the contrary, Israel’s very existence remains, at best, resentfully accepted and, at worst, is the target of attack. That’s not an atmosphere where nationalism can be replaced by regionalism, no matter what happens inside Israel. Even in the advent of peace with the Palestinians and the establishment of relations with the Arab League nations, it will be many years before true acceptance of Israel takes hold and some time a…
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…time to change churches. In Baltimore, symbolic gestures on the pulpit are best complemented by concrete actions in our streets. Their hands forced, some of Baltimore’s black churches have stepped up to meet this demand. Prayer walks have been held by congregations at the same Penn-North intersection where CNN and others incessantly broadcasted images of a torched CVS as if it were a dying human being. In warmer months, New Bethlehem Baptist Churc…
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