Religion Dispatches
…labama as one of the ten worst states in overburdening the poor and middle class. Arise is regrouping and thinking about proposing a grocery tax repeal strategy that is not revenue neutral but actually raises additional revenue from the wealthy as a way to secure the support of teachers and other government workers facing cuts. And, Forrister said, in retrospect maybe they should not have bothered spending so much time trying to secure additional…
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…cience textbooks, some of which are used in high school advanced placement classes. Sinauer, along with W.H. Freeman jointly published Hillis’ Science of Biology and Molecular Systemics. President Andrew Sinauer said his company would never consider inserting anti-evolution language into a textbook to make a sale to creationists. “We simply wouldn’t do it and our authors wouldn’t tolerate it,” he said. However, he said that the smaller college tex…
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…on and are taking public steps to leave the ELCA or to remain with certain reservations. A dissenting group called Lutheran CORE (formerly Coalition for Reform, now Coalition for Renewal) met in assembly in September of 2009 to discuss the possibility of forming a new Lutheran church body in North America. Those discussions resulted in the announcement of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), which will include disaffected “confessional” Luth…
Read More…ilitary commander who identifies himself as “Father Octavian—Bishop Second Class, 20 clerics at my command.” Clearly there is some interesting church history in the thirty centuries between that future and our present, but the episode doesn’t explore it, beyond a throwaway line to the effect that “it’s the 51st century—the church has moved on.” Of course, Father Octavian isn’t what’s exciting about this episode. It’s the return of the Weeping Ange…
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…they do in order to survive. Because of this insight, the Doctor is not a classic vampire slayer, so much as an ecologist. He stops the Saturnynians for the same reason that environmentalists in North America combat the snakehead fish. Finally, it is fitting that Calvierri offers an alliance with the Doctor. Like the vampire, the Doctor is also an immortal outsider walking among us. He too has unnatural abilities and is alluring to the opposite s…
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…ely revamped creationism and was unconstitutional in public school science class. Even though McLeroy will no longer be on the board (he lost his primary reelection bid this spring to a more mainstream Republican), McLeroy said he believes the supplemental materials provision will create greater flexibility in what material may be adopted for the classrooms. Rather than meet all the new standards, the material only has to address some of them. “It…
Read More…“Hypothetically speaking, how would you weigh the competing interests in a class-action lawsuit seeking an injunction against all future offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico?”* To which the answer would be, “I don’t want to comment on any potential litigation that may come before me,” because our political process is stupid and nominees have to tap dance around what they actually believe lest somebody place an anonymous hold on them for pla…
Read More…RD’s Walton vows to continue the fight to keep gays and lesbians as second-class, and perhaps even dead, citizens: ”These same liberal Episcopalians and other U.S. religionists are often indifferent to international religious persecution, even when churches around the world are under attack. For them, seemingly sexual freedom is more important than religious freedom.” No, the freedom for all people to be treated with dignity and respect, regardles…
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…tualized—New Agers with crystals, meditation retreats for the professional class. Instead, both old and new media have lit up the religious landscape, illuminating what is still an unconventional, and nebulous, but certainly increasingly capacious, understanding of the sacred in everyday life. Rock and roll can be religious, according to The Hold Steady; a recent Los Angeles Times article explores how celebrity doctors blur the lines between faith…
Read More…k alongside with or provide ecclesiastical and personal support to working-class Latino Mormon immigrant families. And many have benefited personally and financially from the underpaid immigrant labor that has refigured California’s economy. Complicated relationships, difficult questions, and few easy answers: immigration reform will take, as LDS Church leaders pointed out in an offical statement last week, “the best thinking and goodwill of all a…
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