Religion Dispatches
…ecently being “Jewish” was a liability and anti-semitism was palpable, the number of non-Jews today who identify as Jewish seems historically distinctive. We could, perhaps, point to the so-called “fearers of heaven,” an undocumented community of Hellenes in late antiquity who lived in large Jewish population centers, apparently lived partially as Jews, and had some status in the Jewish community. But today’s non-Jewish Jews aren’t identifying as…
Read More…ght be better off looking more seriously into them. Certainly, they do not help the current Israeli government’s declining popularity in the eastern half of the West. More worryingly, the deliberate provocations seem to have emerged from the embassy’s public relations strategy, which includes wondering if pro-Palestinian Israeli activists are motivated less by ideology and more by “sexual identity problems.” Seriously. Setting that kind of tone wi…
Read MoreIn opening statements of the trial of self-help guru and author James Ray, prosecutor Sheila Polk played tapes of Ray discussing with participants the sweat lodge they were about to encounter—some for the first time. This is not a “weenie-ass lodge,” Ray was heard to say on the tapes, a statement he apparently held fast to as one participant passed out and fell and burned his arm on the red-hot stones. Ray asked him to come back into the lodge to…
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…meframe. Of course, statements are written all the time. I can’t count the number of statements and petitions I’ve signed over the last decade about one issue or another. This is why we knew we could not, we would not, simply offer a few words proclaiming our disgust. We wanted actionable items, matters that we could take up within our local communities and the academy. Already, we’ve followed up this statement by a discussion with the Association…
Read More…f Duke and UC-Berkeley researchers highlights the continuing growth in the number of Americans who indicate no religious affiliation, with a full 20% now answering “none” when asked “What is your religious preference?” Michael Hout and Claude S. Fisher of UCB and Mark A. Chaves of Duke drew on data from the most recent General Social Survey (GSS), which has tracked religious preference since 1972, when a mere 5% of Americans self-identified as rel…
Read MoreA number of developments in the lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) have taken place since I first covered it for RD back in early March. On May 14, a second amendment was filed to the suit: [The suit] adds three new plaintiffs, making a total of 11. Five plaintiffs are now using their real names, and the rest are pseudonyms. It accuses church leaders of conspiracy, negligence, misrepresentation and intentional infliction of emotiona…
Read More…ose Francis’ decision to appoint as head of the local diocese a bishop who helped cover up sexual abuse allegations against a the priest who abused Cruz and hundreds of others . Philippines: Gay priest speaks out against bishops’ anti-marriage-equality letter Catholic Bishops in the Philippines released a harshly anti-gay pastoral letter in August. The August letter from the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines attacked same-gender union…
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…oke through and gained control of the presidency and Congress and passed a number of historic bills, including the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which reintroduced silver into the currency supply, and the McKinley Tariff Act, the Republican attempt to modernize the tariff schedule. They also passed a long-awaited pension for Civil War veterans and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. The Democrats dubbed the 51st Congress the “Billion Dollar Congress,” char…
Read More…ndly American Muslim leader, Shaykh Hisham Kabbani. In honor of this magic number and the hearings King will hold next month in order to address the “creeping threat of Sharia law,” RD presents the first edition of Life Imitates Satire Imitates Life. In this clip, from the Manchurian Candidate a Joseph McCarthy stand-in uses his own investigative tool to determine how many crypto-commies there really are… Rep. Peter King (R-NY), minus 45 years f…
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…rants—again, especially Hispanics—who still account for a disproportionate number of all births in the U.S. But the overall fertility rate has crashed since 2007—led by a sharp decline in immigrant fertility, particularly among Hispanics. What’s changed since then? Hint: it’s not a radical change in the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. In fact, a few peaks and valleys aside, the US birth rate has been pretty stable since 1970, and in recent…
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