Religion Dispatches
…rity, regardless of who wins the contest. “Richard Dawkins is arguably the most famous living atheist, now that Anthony Flew doubted his doubts and backslid,” said Comfort, co-host, along with actor Kirk Cameron, of the TV show The Way of the Master. “Flew said that he simply followed the evidence. I would like to see Richard Dawkins follow his example.” Election Detritus: The Conservative Hollywood 16: What do Dan Aykroyd, Pat Boone, Dean Caine,…
Read More…ort from evangelicals decreases the more they go to church—dropping from almo*]}*st 55% among the “never/seldom” crowd to about 35% from the “weekly” attenders—that decline isn’t the whole story. Even among weekly churchgoers, Trump still comes out ahead of his competitors. Evangelicals argue that at least part of that is due to the divided field where anti-Trump voters can choose from a number of alternatives. But that interpretation only underscores…
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…le the population of Muslims grew tremendously in North America, we were almo*]}*st absent from the array of characters portrayed on television. When I was a child, Hadji from reruns of the animated show Johnny Quest, was the only Muslim I could identify on television, with the added bonus that he was also a fellow East Indian. However, I was puzzled as to how a child could have made the pilgrimage to Mecca and earned the title of “Hajji,” and as some…
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…re majority of 52% of Mississippians voted to remove the language from the state constitution. Currently, Mississippi has the distinction of having one of the broadest explicitly anti-LGBT laws in the country: the state permits state-licensed child welfare agencies to refuse to place and provide services to children and families, including LGBT people and same-sex couples, if doing so conflicts with their religious belief; it permits state officia…
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…mmend the film—the theology less so, though it’s all worth discussing. The most astonishing aspect of what’s now a global conversation on theology and civil unions—Elton John thanked the Pope, and Cardinal Raymond Burke expressed expected horror—is that it’s based on scant data. That’s clue Number One that the topic is ripe for conversation and that people of varying views will use Pope Francis’ words to confirm their own positions. A look at the…
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…y, that side of the proverbial aisle consists largely of the conservative, mostly white Christians from whom the newly nonreligious are fleeing. These same conservative Christians, directly encouraged by their defeated president and a host of powerful Republican leaders, attempted to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election by means that included a violent Christian nationalist insurrection in which people were injured and…
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…andments as guideposts for student behavior. I will continue to fight against state-sponsored atheism that has caused society to go downhill. One can practically feel the flying spittle. And more importantly, none of this is accurate. The claim that our laws and Constitution are based on “Judeo-Christian” values—a problematic phrase, particularly in this context—are debunked in The Founding Myth, in which I also argued that the Ten Commandments ar…
Read More…roud day for freedom of religion when a prominent member of the number two most disliked major religion in America effectively sides against a honest project by the number one most disliked major religion in America. Especially when Mormons have just recently come through our own years-long struggle to build an LDS temple in Center City Philadelphia after Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter tried to extract a six-figure sum from the Church, a deal t…
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…e, non-affirming Christian groups offered messages of condolence and love. Most of these groups joined the chorus of those blaming the shooter’s Muslim faith for his homophobic violence, while they were careful to avoid affirming queerness—or even acknowledging it—in their own condolences. Though these Christian groups sought to carefully distance themselves from any reputation for faith-based anti-LGBT sentiment, others were quick to point out th…
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…looked at Catholic opinion polling for the past 30 years. The fact is, on most hot-button, sex-related issues, Catholic opinion has long been about the same as public opinion, and mainstream Protestant opinion, as a whole and significantly more liberal than Evangelical opinion. The turning point for Catholic opinion catching up and in some cases surpassing Protestant opinion in terms of “liberalness” was the early 1980s. For instance, throughout…
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