Religion Dispatches
…in office, whether Obama actually pursues policies that are in accord with his highest beliefs as a spiritual progressive, or whether he finds it “too unrealistic” to try to buck the spineless Democrats who will bow to the Israel Lobby automatically, depends on whether we can build a powerful enough movement of ordinary citizens to push for a peace that provides security for Israel and justice for the Palestinian people. Obama has made it clear he…
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…ts Eddie Glaude’s multi-faceted approach to black religion and politics at his philosophical best. Glaude brings the pragmatist insights of John Dewey into conversation with African American cultural artists to reveal similar problem-solving approaches demonstrated in the public sphere. In the process, neo-pragmatists have something to learn from the blues sensibility of black cultural artists. More importantly, such a pragmatic approach can help…
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…lves over the course of one’s practice. Yet in many streams of Western Buddhism, this idea was not just lost but deliberately omitted in translation. Did you have a specific audience in mind when writing? The truth is, there are a lot of same-old, same-old Buddhist books out there, aimed at Boomers and festooned with inspirational cover art. There are also a lot of whiz-bang, hype-filled books on neurodharma seemingly aimed at the business-book cr…
Read More…rity gospel, the social gospel, charismatics…so basically, everyone except him and his ever-shrinking group of friends. Driscoll, perhaps trying to distinguish himself from MacArthur, argues that MacArthur’s approach is exclusionary; that dismissing charismatics is to dismiss “the majority of Christianity globally.” Of course, it may seem rather cynical that Driscoll critiques MacArthur for not being big-tent enough while he promotes hisbook A Cal…
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…ominent gay activist, “the South Asian country’s LGBT community remains in hiding, while more than a dozen LGBT people have fled abroad.” Bangladesh’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was already marginalised, with gay sex being illegal, punishable by a maximum of life in prison. Then there was a coming out of sorts with the 2014 launch of the country’s first LGBT-themed magazine, Roopbaan, which became a subject of interest…
Read More…articularly committed to reaching out to the many LGBT Mormons who live within his congregation’s service area. “We have so many people on the Church records who are inactive, whose families are still members. Many of them served honorably as Mormon missionaries. Many identify as LGBT. I want them to understand that like me they do have a home here,” Mayne says. “As an openly gay priesthood leader, I hope my example also shows that not only do the…
Read More…ed to our nation with him in the presidency. Sorry.” Anyone familiar with this history might wonder why Jerry Falwell Jr. invited Carter to speak at the 2018 commencement. Carter was surprised as well. During his speech he recalled the negative letters he received from Liberty students when he was in the White House: “Most of them were about my giving away the Panama Canal or forming what they believed to be an unnecessary Department of Education…
Read More…ase realize that their actions are part of—and perhaps a causal source—of this growing disenchantment. While the consequences for gays and lesbians in Mississippi, where discrimination is now legal, and employees who want to control their own health care decisions are certainly grave, in the long run it’s perhaps even worse for religious establishments in the US that hope to grow—or at best not diminish even further. The religious right might be w…
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…ny subsequent discussion was consumed by the president’s announcement that his thinking has “evolved” and that he now supports same-sex marriage. For some black religious leaders the president’s thinking represents a de-evolution, but for many others the president’s declaration was welcome news. The National Action network posted a letter signed by Rev. Al Sharpton, Julian Bond, Melanie Campbell, and Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery embracing the decision,…
Read More…er (and the project is not without problems, as my RD colleague Hussein Rashid pointed out in this must-read piece), Mormons, the number two most disliked religion in America, have no business contributing to public rage against the number one most disliked religion in America. Nor in trafficking in falsehoods like “Islam is an ideology, not a religion,” a line I’ve been hearing from a few Mormons in recent days. Islam is in fact a religion fo…
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