Religion Dispatches
…revelations that he had a love child out of wedlock. 2. War Not Peace: America has historically been a war-loving and militaristic country, but this last year’s continued involvement in Afghanistan marked the longest war in the nation’s history. What are the costs? Thousands of American lives lost, trillions of dollars spent, international reputation shot to hell, psychological instability of returning veterans with unprecedented numbers committi…
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…this trend will continue. Certainly, it is ascendant. For many affluent Americans today, ethics and spirituality look more and more like a commercial service. “People used to go to church on Sunday—that was their weekly ritual and their community,” Peloton co-founder John Foley told Bloomberg Businessweek last year. “Most 25 year-olds aren’t relating on that platform, but it’s ‘I’ll see you at the studio.’” Places like MNDFL seem to be betting tha…
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…cided with the Congress’ hurried alteration to the Constitution to expland freedom of belief to include freedom of conscience, Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to the cristero stronghold of Guanajuato state, and a papal flyover (in the presidential helicopter) around the Cristo Rey monument near León. (Mexicans go to the polls on July 1.) The U.S. also stands in need of the film’s message right now, according to Barroso: “The movie is about conscience. No o…
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…e claim of the Southern restauranteur who in the 1960s denied service to African Americans on the ground that his religion mandated the separation of the races. (A unanimous Supreme Court called the restauranteur’s defense “patently frivolous.”) Today, there is a similar but not identical logic in some of the controversies on which I have previously reported, especially those of the baker who wouldn’t create a custom cake for a gay wedding and the…
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…ven as they were being canceled or compromised for their original beneficiaries? In the very same week and by the very same Court. I don’t have the actual talking points, but here is my simple plea. We should use this occasion to celebrate, modestly, today’s breakthroughs for LGBT people even as we publicly lament the losses suffered by Black America and pledge our firm solidarity in struggles against hate and injustice that are still to be won. T…
Read More…bout themselves today. Eleven years after the denomination apologized to African-Americans for supporting segregation and slavery, it elected a black man as its first vice president of the convention—“the highest position yet held by an African-American” in the denomination, the New York Times notes. Fred Luter Jr. pastors a largely black church in New Orleans and is apparently an “overwhelming favorite to be elected president at the assembly next…
Read More…i-Homosexuality Act violate the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community. Australia: Catholic Church in free-speech battle; official changes mind on marriage Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher is defending the Catholic Church’s freedom of speech in response to a complaint arguing that a recent pastoral letter sent home with Catholic high school students in opposition to marriage equality violated Tasmania’s strict anti-discrimina…
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…agree on who was in the wrong, but for the good of the nation, (white) Americans should put their feelings of ill-will behind them. This act of “reunion” was often symbolically performed by veterans meeting on a battlefield and shaking hands. Reconciliation was won either by actively promoting white supremacy (“At least we both share this superiority together!”) or else not discussing such a divisive topic. It is for this reason that Frederick Do…
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…blican (62% to 31%). But what kind of political activism does spirituality promote? The culture of American spirituality tends to emphasize civic action through emotional self-development. Spiritual practitioners argue that we can best change the world through changing ourselves. If we properly govern our own emotional responses, lowering negative emotion while cultivating positive emotion we make our country a better place, one interpersonal inte…
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…als, and there will be voices at the latest table like A.R. Bernard, the African-American pastor of a New York megachurch, who calls on evangelicals to focus on “systemic injustices that most concern black evangelicals, such as economic inequality and radicalized policing.” Bernard, to his credit, left Trump’s religious advisory council in the wake of white nationalist violence in Charlottesville. And World Relief vice president Jenny Yang will al…
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