Religion Dispatches
…d back in 2014, defended itself by invoking section 18 of the Human Rights code, which allows a religious group to restrict participation to the faithful. So while AA presents itself to the public as a “spiritual” program, distinguishing itself from “religious” groups, it nevertheless claimed “religious” legal status in order to protect itself. Although the definition of “religion” is generally assumed in common parlance, it is not in any sense ea…
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…iberal arts education and to have their behavior heavily regulated. Though codes of conduct may vary, evangelical universities like ORU, Liberty University, and Regent University all prohibit students from using illegal drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, wearing provocative clothing, and engaging in premarital and homosexual sex. Bob Jones University actually prohibited interracial dating up until 2001. Oral Roberts believed that the survival of his own…
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…facto decisions about what counts as a religion and what doesn’t. The tax code makes implicit judgments about religious legitimacy in parceling out breaks to some groups and not others. Those rules, however, are fairly broad, and they don’t target certain religions as enemies of American society. Throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump made repeated promises to curb Muslim immigration to the United States and institute a registry of Muslims in the co…
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…nd historical-critical commentary, and a public space that guarantees both freedom of and from religion. Hence, I am certain the number of self-proclaimed “spiritual but not religious” people at the marches on January 21st was significant. But, more importantly, I wonder what those spiritual people will do now to resist the oppressive policies and efforts of the Trump administration? It is not enough to raise their signs at Women’s Marches, lower…
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…nts, and then the whole thing just kind of fizzles out.”) What is it about Republicans that seems to make them more credulous to fake news than Democrats? The answer to this question might have to do with the religious roots of today’s Republican Party in the Christian Right. Beginning with the Moral Majority, founded in 1979 by Jerry Falwell and Tim LaHaye, and continuing through church organizations such as Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition an…
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…olitics and its presumably corrupt enforcers. “Moore’s not in favor of the Republican or the Trump agenda in many of its particulars,” said Clarkson. “He opposes the border wall; he’s in favor of using federal troops to stop illegal immigration. He’s a different guy; he’s not a go-along to get-along kind of guy.” In that regard, Moore is likely to find willing allies in the far-right wing of the Republican caucus, including the likes of Rand Paul,…
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…Rifle Associations’ lucrative death grip on the trigger conscience of the Republican Party. Republicans voted down expansions of background checks that would include stricter limits to online and gun show purchases and the prevention of firearm sales to persons on the terror watch list. People of faith have a sacramental duty to hold lawmakers accountable for protecting the sacredness of human life. While we debated prayer and deconstructed the m…
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…Conservative Candidate Hopes LGBT Visibility Will Elect More Christians La Republica reports on the emergence of Vamos, a provincial political party that “responds to the unfulfilled promises of traditional parties that have not wanted to promote a change in the rights of LGBTI people.” Fabricio Alvarado, the candidate of the National Restoration party, hopes that the growing visibility of the LGBTI movement will encourage anti-abortion and anti-L…
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…calculated pi long enough, you’d eventually find the works of Shakespeare coded in 1’s and 0’s. “Somewhere inside the digits of pi is a representation for all of us — the atomic coordinates of all our atoms, our genetic code, a coding of our motions and all our thoughts through time, all our memories…. Given this fact, all of us are alive, and hopefully happy, in pi. Pi makes us live forever. We all lead virtual lives in pi. We are immortal,” Pic…
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…lipped the definition of “religious liberty” from an individual’s right to freedom of religious practice to the right of religious imposition on others (via an ever expanding roster of religious exemptions). “Because so many religious people currently say they should be exempt from the laws, it is important for Senators to get all nominees to disclose just what their perspective of religion’s relationship to the law is,” Leslie Griffin, a professo…
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