Religion Dispatches
…or who strikes it rich through oil and blood, but about the rebirth of the United States as a world force at the start of the twentieth century. And his first great film, Boogie Nights, is about a porn star, but also a cultural history moving from the 1970s to the Reaganite ’80s, and shifting attitudes toward sex, drugs, and rock and roll. He’s a great filmmaker, with a brilliant grasp of imagery (even the choice to shoot much of the film in 65mm…
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…forms, new forms of expression in modern politics. The Constitution of the United States is underwritten by an appeal to the divine. So the Constitution of these United States is one that presupposes theological address. It’s not that modern forms of politics cease to be theological, but there is a kind of transformation of these concepts. We’re not free of the theological trappings that we think are confined to the past—when the king was the repr…
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…church’s post-Katrina resurgence wasn’t just a community, but more like a United Nations, or rather United Neighborhoods. And like many civic-minded organizations in New Orleans, they took citizen participation and equity as their bottom-line terms and conditions. Former Mayor Ray Nagin learned as much when in 2006 he opened a landfill to store Katrina debris less than two miles from Village L’est, which is shared by Vietnamese- and African-Ameri…
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…ians are right-wing fundamentalists, but I also recognize that for a small number of people my beliefs disqualify me as a candidate. Two recent examples come to mind that illustrate the concerns that have been voiced. At a recent candidate forum, I was introduced as being a “moral figure in the community.” That prompted one of the other candidates to ask me directly during the Q & A part of the forum if I felt that atheists or other non-believers…
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…the quadricentennial of the pilgrims’ arrival, it’s crucial to rethink the United States’ relationship to some of its founding myths, especially in our current season of national soul searching (which has been unequally embraced by some critics). All the more crucial because what generations of American schoolchildren are taught regarding the arrival of English separatists to a country already inhabited by Abenaki, Wampanoag, and Pequot (among oth…
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…if “Mother Earth” is not the way we might be accustomed to speaking of the planet, it is a reasonable and even compelling metaphor for our ultimate dependence on environmental systems and the entire community of life. But don’t take my word for it. Read the thoughtful “Study on the need to recognize and respect the rights of Mother Earth,” produced under the auspices of the United Nations by its Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Or, if presse…
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…ively protecting the wall: the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the ACLU, American Atheists, the Center For Inquiry, the American Humanist Association, and others. The wall of separation is crumbling, though not from neglect. It’s being attacked. The Trump administration is rife with Christian nationalists attempting to rewrite the Constitution by revising American history and declare this…
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…tates, while many red states resemble Wyoming, where pronghorn antelope outnumber humans. When it comes to the inclusion of secular Americans in government, however, the Democratic Party can also be blamed for undue negligence toward one of its most loyal demographics. Despite some progress in recent years, Democratic leaders evidently continue to be fearful that association with a lack of religion will cost the party votes. But so long as the par…
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…dly violating federal racketeering statutes (RICO) as we used the mail and phones to discuss how to counter their efforts to promote pseudo-scientific theories in court. That suit was eventually dismissed but not before causing considerable trouble and expense for those scholars. Singer and Ofshe then refiled the suit in California state court as a libel action, but that too was eventually dismissed, and Singer and Ofshe were ordered to pay the co…
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…ralistic with nones representing the largest religious voting block in the United States. Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church and State opines, “While it was a relief this year not to see the breakfast descend into the kind of embarrassment it often was during the Trump years, that hardly means the event is worth saving. This year ought to be its last.” However, given President Biden’s endorsement by progressive faith leaders,…
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