Religion Dispatches
…God’s name in vain. But, the Bible, while condemning all forms of sex that use or abuse one another, clearly states that anyone who has love, has God (1 John 4:7). The “liberal theology” of welcoming all of God’s children in love into God’s realm cleaves as close to biblical edict as any conservative theology could ever aspire to do. Instead of taking potshots across the bow at one another, though, I often wish liberals and conservatives could joi…
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…ied of past events or illnesses, spiritual or physical. The sweat lodge is used in Native American substance abuse treatment programs and has been an integral part of ceremonies of spiritual cleansing of returning veterans dating back to the time of wars with the United States. Many tribes believe that participation in wars and battles cause the dead the cling to the soul of the combatants and must be released to the next world through a process o…
Read More…and against oppression and in support of human dignity for all people. Because religious freedom must be ‘equal and common to all,’ as our Historic Principles further state, it cannot be maintained as a matter of privileged exemption for powerful individuals or groups.” Rev. Dr. Christian Iosso, the staff Coordinator for the PCUSA’s Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy that was responsible for the resolution, told RD: “We hope that this res…
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…publications themselves would make clear that a Catholic hospital can even use methotrexate (a drug that can cause an abortion once pregnancy has been established in the uterus) could be sued to treat an ecotopic pregnancy where its mode of action is different and indirect. It has been determined that Methotrexate attacks the DNA in the trophoblastic tissue, not the embryo. Thus its use in ectopic pregnancies is not a direct abortion and is theref…
Read More…e discussion on the moral and ethical dimensions of firearms ownership and use. We need to have that.” He said he has met with pastors and other church leaders, offering advice on how to address these issues from the pulpit, and said he hopes pastors, Sunday schools, and other Christian education programs begin to teach on the “theological and moral implications” of gun ownership and use. He said he plans to give a formal address on the topic at t…
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…by the DHHS to disqualify the USCCB from a refugee services contract (because it refused to provide the full range of sexual health services to women who had been victims of trafficking) the bishops charged the administration with waging an unprecedented war to “neuter religion” in the public square and declared that they would be forced to mobilize to fight. The fact is, however, that Catholic bishops have been waging a nearly fifteen-year campa…
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…lf over and over again. Yet each instrument, including the human voice, is free to improvise as long as the pattern is not violated.” “The preacher’s art is speech music,” he said. “Not music in the sense that it is chanted or has a musical quality. But that it is organized in much the same way that one composes music. It has rhythm and pacing, it has highs and lows. Like music, it is rigidly structured but seemingly spontaneous.” The unexpected u…
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…heology. And now we have a new wave of evangelicals who are part of that cause. I never took Liberation Theology because I went to evangelical school. They planted the seeds early. Unfortunately, they did it nicely. They built relationships from the late ’80s through to the ’90s, and by the time they said what their agenda was, they already had lots of bishops. It worked well in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda. And most of the bishops there were trained in…
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…rtant point is that it isn’t innocuous. It causes the heart to become calloused and creates deep chasms between individuals that can only be crossed with self-reflection, because, as Smith states, “A child’s personality grows by reaching out to others, by feeling identified with them, by acknowledging the common dignity of all men.” Calls for education reform and “protecting” children reside at the core of Christian nationalism because when childr…
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…Under Fire for Suggesting Moses Influenced Founding Fathers.” The media focused on the Culture Wars aspects of the controversy, which isn’t surprising. Back in 2010, in what RD’s Lauri Lebo aptly called the “Texas Textbook Massacre,” a Christian Right bloc on the SBOE pushed through curriculum standards promoting Christian Americanism, an ideology claiming that, as Mark Chancey writes,1 “America was founded to be a Christian nation governed by Bib…
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