Religion Dispatches
…ound on what changed in the last 20 years: (1) Money: Congress changed the rules in the late 1980’s to say scientists who made research discoveries funded by the federal government (which at the time accounted for many if not most discoveries in the US) and their universities could financially profit from their innovations; (2) Gene cloning: molecular biology transformed biomedical science and drew much public attention; (3) Scandal: complex scand…
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…me in. They appeal to all of those unconscious fears that we have and they run the spectrum. Racism is always just a general subcategory of playing on that fear. Glenn Beck obviously has a large following, many of which may be the very poor and oppressed that liberation theology seeks to speak to. In what ways might progressive Christianity seek these other directions? My guess is that the people who are most attracted to the perspective that he o…
Read MoreIn case you missed all of the witty headlines, Jesus was struck by lightning and burned to the ground this week. But despite the $700,000 in damages, the Solid Rock Church vows to rebuild “Touchdown Jesus.” Meanwhile, in the wake of his recent scandal, Tim Wilson at Killing the Buddha outlines how the Church of Tiger Woods is also burning to the ground. Baptists are using their presences in the military to oppose the repeal of Don’t Ask/Don’t Tel…
Read More…al return of Jesus Christ, “Gog and Magog,” which he interpreted as Soviet Russia, would lead ”Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya,” and “Gomer and Togarmarh” (interpreted as Turkey and Eastern Europe) in war against Israel. “Russia will arm and equip a vast confederacy,” Lindsey wrote. “The territory of Northern Africa is becoming solidly pro-Soviet.” But according to Lindsey divine intervention would save Israel, defeat Gog and Magog, and then hasten th…
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…frequent government scandals leave many assuming that the government is corrupt and inefficient and that any tax increases would be squandered. “It is a hard struggle. We talk to small groups at churches and civic clubs and other places just trying to get the word out and explain what the actual facts of the matter are,” he said. “Obviously we don’t have any money for media and those sorts of communication avenues so we have to do it one on one, a…
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…catalyze an uprising against the federal government was shocking and made headlines around the world. Their action plan, while preposterous on its face, is not terribly surprising, and is in many respects a logical outgrowth of the eschatology of a wide swath of the Christian Right. But what has been most striking to me is the media’s high-profile use of the term “Christian militia.” This suggests to me that a tectonic shift may be underway in ou…
Read More…merica. You will not escape.” “I will speak to the kings and rulers of the world. I will speak to the pope and the religious leaders because you have to know that your time has come,” he said. “I desire to guide you and warn you of things that are coming that you must try to prepare yourselves for because we are absolutely living in the change of worlds.” Now, comes word of devastating landslides in the coffee growing areas of Uganda: Rivers of mu…
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…tion. The Institute’s Rachel Sabbath campaign to reduce maternal mortality worldwide is drawing a broad spectrum of support. But the road to consensus on other sexual justice issues, including reproductive rights, will be longer. While conservative clergy and politicians dig their heels in on birth control and abortion rights, it’s young women, and the poor, who suffer the most when they are denied safe, affordable methods to prevent unwanted preg…
Read More…they feared crossing Jindal, who is closely allied the Louisiana Family Forum, the chief lobbyists of the bill. Until recently, the fight had been over how the wording will be implemented and to develop a review process to make sure those “supplemental materials” aren’t just intelligent design books like the latest version of Pandas and People, which the Dover school board famously accepted for that purpose in 2004. But the Louisiana Family Forum…
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…e tea party movement is—Dick Armey’s astroturf to kill health care reform, Rupert Murdoch’s marketing plan to boost Glenn Beck’s ratings, a grassroots outlet for right-wing rage and paranoia—the Values Voter Summit made clear the religious right is hitching its wagon to that horse. Sharing a common enemy (Obama, the Democratic Party, liberalism writ large), different participants wrap their rhetoric in red, white, and blue, whether the endgame is…
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