Religion Dispatches
…on The, hyphen between Latter and day, which has a lower-case d) should be used on first reference. Since it’s impractical to use all those words every single time you might want to refer to the church headquartered at 50 North Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah, what’s approved for subsequent references? The abbreviation LDS is out, so “LDS church” is now verboten. Instead, “‘The Church’ or the ‘Church of Jesus Christ’ are encouraged. The ‘restored C…
Read More…m as a “pervasive and aggressive movement” fueled by such groups as the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way and others. These groups are attempting to “remove references to God and Jesus Christ” from American life. One particular concern for the Southern Baptist messengers is Christmas. The resolution “encourages believers to be aware of businesses, schools, and all other public institutions in their areas that are removing…
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…cupy protests, and this has made me proud to be an Episcopalian. It is because of this powerful, prophetic witness to the core values of Christian faith that I am so deeply disheartened by both Sisk’s and Jefferts Schori’s letters. Clearly, the use of Duarte Square by OWS protesters carries serious implications. If I were the CEO of Trinity Wall Street, I’d certainly worry about liability that might put the church at risk, limiting its ability to…
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…bed for “sexual sins” in the college handbook. Does Crook see a connection between the worldview promoted at Central Baptist and the violence and rejection LGBT people often face? “There’s a lot of talk about religious bigotry,” he says. “About Christians hating other people for the way they act. I don’t think that’s true. We don’t hate them—we love them like we love anybody else. We just happen to disagree with them. That gets turned around into…
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…spaper reported. “I want to push up against the boundary of that. Why, because I am sadistic? No, because I want to protect innocent people,’” Pavlischek said. “In between [painful interrogations and simply being jailed] are a continuum of interrogation techniques that I believe are morally and legally permissible, that are aggressive, that are short of torture,” he said. Michael Lindsay, a Rice University sociologist and author of Faith in the Ha…
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…lliance, also slammed the gesture, calling it “one of the most flagrant misuses of religion I have ever seen.” Witnessing the sacred word of God used to prop up and justify racism, authoritarianism, violence, and death by one of the most dangerous and unethical men on earth was profoundly disturbing on both theological and moral grounds. But what struck me as I watched, was Trump’s awkwardness with the Bible as an object. He doesn’t even know enou…
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…call attention to things—that’s part of the strategy. In other words, you use everything you can use.” There’s no question that Trump has thus far leaned heavily on executive action to advance his policy goals—which is not uncommon for presidents faced with a divided (or, in this case, deeply dysfunctional) Congress. And while Trump has signed more executive orders to date than any president since Harry Truman, the actual policy impact of those o…
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…s launched a campaign against “gender ideology,” which they said was being used to promote acceptance of homosexual relationships and the idea that “a person can voluntarily decide for themselves whether they are a man or a woman.” Among other things, the bishops charged that the World Health Organization and a European anti-domestic-violence effort were sowing sexual confusion among youth. Critics argued that church officials were using the campa…
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…American Jews are hardly as vulnerable to discrimination and violence as African Americans, for example, nor do they suffer from the legacy of four centuries of enslavement, expropriation and discrimination.) Political differences about Israel within this camp are far less important than the shared goal of defeating a worldview that seeks our joint oppression. For those following Kahane’s meaning, the key alliance is with power, including (perhaps…
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…s of divine intervention. It is no secret that Americans, and especially African Americans, have consistently described Obama’s candidacy as not only a significant historical moment, but also a long-hoped-for change. But these reactions also communicated other sentiments—anxiety, skepticism, and cynicism. These feelings are not exclusively held by disappointed McCain/Palin supporters, but also by African Americans who have heard and continue to he…
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