Religion Dispatches
…th Ways Bits of Robinson’s theology come through. Speaking to members of a New York City congregation who are preparing to distribute glasses of water to people marching by in the Gay Pride Parade, he talks about the importance of showing hospitality to those who have been hurt by the church. Talking after the screening, he says, “If Jesus is about anything, it’s that love trumps rules.” Regarding current political struggles around marriage equali…
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…sion, NPR, panels, morning talk shows. People want me to talk about how I knew Mitt when he was the leader of my congregation. And he was. My bishop and stake president. Because he held those roles, it meant that I should be respectful and welcome him when he came to my home and that I should accept callings (church service assignments) from him. I’d had other bishops I’d felt comfortable talking over personal or spiritual issues with. I learned,…
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…P. Jones explicitly called out America’s so-called “paper of record,” The New York Times, for spreading this misinformation: A version of this thesis appeared recently in a highly-circulated New York Times article, which made the bold claim that ‘Trump is connecting with a different type of evangelical voter’ beyond ‘the churchgoing, conservative activists who once dominated the G.O.P.’ Despite its zombie-like resurrections since Trump’s rise to…
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…illed in the Second Lebanon War has embittered him against the state. In a New York Times op-ed, Israeli novelist Amos Oz was also critical of the attack, writing that: For 2,000 years, the Jews knew the force of force only in the form of lashes to our own backs. For several decades now, we have been able to wield force ourselves—and this power has, again and again, intoxicated us. … Israel’s siege of the Gaza Strip and Monday’s violent intercepti…
Read More…urveilling mosques, botching First Amendment 101 in the process. In former New York Governor George Pataki’s case, he botched the facts, too: he claimed that the New York Police Department had a “very active group, aggressively monitoring” Muslim communities, which “stopped and prevented dozens, and dozens of attacks in New York.” But the NYPD itself has admitted the program, since disbanded, produced no terrorism leads. “I’m a great believer in t…
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…the purview of the Buddhist Churches of America or the Buddhist Council of New York. Consider Naropa University, the Institute of Buddhist Studies, University of the West, and Soka University of America—the four fully-accredited, Buddhist-affiliated, degree-granting institutions of higher education in the United States. Consider the Insight Meditation Society, the San Francisco Zen Center, and Shambhala Mountain Center, each of which attract thous…
Read More…vers and the forces of non-secularism. Dolan modeled himself after another New York Cardinal, John O’Connor, who was the nation’s most famous prelate at a time when members of the hierarchy were media darlings and political forces to be reckoned with, even if their own flock didn’t always follow their lead. It’s a testament to his popularity with the media, and his readiness with a quip, that Dolan remains a favorite on the Sunday morning shows ev…
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…lism in coverage of the January 6 insurrection even in such outlets as The New York Times and The Washington Post about six weeks ago, I suggested we might be seeing a turning point in what perspectives and contexts are included in coverage of evangelicalism. My optimism was tempered and cautious, and it remains so now, but subsequent developments seem to be bearing out that initial contention. In the wake of the racist Atlanta spa murders, for ex…
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…ever-expanding culture wars, most prominently with the publication of the New York Times’ 1619 Project and the short-lived 1776 Report which has morphed into the arch-conservative 1776 Project. The elevation of the year 1619 into the public consciousness only offers a partial glimpse of the date’s ominous meaning within African-American religious thought. The oft-quoted quip by Malcolm X from a 1964 speech, “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. The r…
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…ad never graduated from college. Then, meeting Graham at the Taft Hotel in New York City, Templeton challenged his friend to attend seminary with him in order to deepen his theological understanding. Graham pondered the possibility at length, troubled by Templeton’s intimations that elements of the Christian faith were not intellectually defensible. For Graham, a turning point in his life—and in the entire revival enterprise of the twentieth centu…
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