Religion Dispatches
…Religion Dispatches press badge they stopped me before I even got to the door. I chatted with an AP reporter and he said AP had been trying for weeks to gain media access—but that he was there to see if he could talk his way in. By then a torrent of rain had descended on the Times Union Center and I had no choice but to hang out in front until it stopped. That’s where I learned that the ticket prices had been reduced to $25 and I seriously though…
Read More…for a possible career change. Upon learning of my new endeavor, my boss shook his head and remarked, “From one low paying career to the next.” His words were prophetic. Since leaving the media and entering the ministry, I have yet to again reach the pay level that I was receiving at CNN, despite actually working a second, secular, job to make ends meet. However, ministry is not a low paying career for some pastors. Some, like Rick Warren, Pat Rob…
Read More…report about “reparative therapy” for gay and lesbian people. The report took someone who claims to be “cured” of his homosexuality, Rich Wyler, and juxtaposed his story with that of Peterson Toscano, a man who went through “reparative therapy” and says he was deeply harmed psychologically by the experience. While the NPR piece does have moments of clarity, to call it balanced is a bit of a stretch. First, the reporter never tells us exactly who…
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…eral heaven that catered to my worst possible self. That’s almost true. I took my journalism class to India this past spring to cover the role of religion in the recent election. I’d done similar trips before to Israel and Ireland, but this time I wanted the students to have more than a fleeting encounter with the religion they were covering. During a previous trip to India, the class had visited one of Delhi’s Hanuman temples, where the synesthet…
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…llowing it, the saga of the banned drag show fundraiser at West Texas A&M took a new twist on Wednesday when Andrew Seidel—a constitutional lawyer, RD senior correspondent, and vice president of strategic communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State—paid a visit to West Texas A&M to give a supportive address to the student groups fighting the ban. For those unfamiliar with this story, here’s the broad outline. LGBTQ stude…
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…ternational poverty relief icon, (aging) Gen-X sex symbol, and all-around good guy. As the openers left the stage, a scrolling montage of poetry slowly came into focus. While those around me were ordering another $12 beer and taking selfies with their new merchandise, the depth and radicality of this real-life “U2charist” struck me. Maybe this dude was the real deal. While waiting for the founder of the ONE anti-poverty campaign, the author of the…
Read More…law would bar businesses from denying a transgender person entry to a restroom consistent with his or her gender identity. After the city attorney ruled that many of the signatures collected for the referendum petition were invalid, the petitioners no longer had the requisite number of signatures to place the referendum on the ballot. The subpoenas, served on pastors who are not litigants in the lawsuit, seek a broad range of documents and communi…
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…t attitudes toward gays are strongly influenced by traditional stigmas, taboos, and values promoted by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Those studies also show that psychological and physical violence often accompany widespread homophobia that is backed by traditional ideologies and a Soviet legacy of condemnation. Gays in Georgia also often face domestic violence within their own families when they reveal their homosexuality. Georgia and its Orthodo…
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…ive.” Silence from the cacophony of networking is exactly what he’ll have soon—we should all be so lucky. This difficult relationship of the Church to technology has dogged Benedict from the very beginning of a tenure in which he’s had to oversee an avalanche of change that was only hinted at when he was selected. The previous pontiff, Pope John Paul II, saw the creation of the Vatican’s website in 1994, not long after the Internet became availabl…
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…ys over the age of 12 are eligible for ordination to the Mormon lay priesthood, and the Church’s theological, liturgical, financial, and administrative decisions are made by an exclusively-male chain of command. “I have heard from many women, ‘I see nothing wrong with the status quo. I feel equal,’” said Ordain Women founder Kate Kelly to a pre-demonstration gathering in a downtown Salt Lake City park. “To them I say: you can feel respected, suppo…
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