Religion Dispatches
…he signers claim is “God’s law.” At the heart of the pledge is not a plea for justice, but a plea for a legal system that yields to their religious views. A plea, in other words, to subvert the Constitution in the service of subverting the Constitution; to undermine the Establishment Clause in the service of depriving certain citizens, deemed sinful by a particular religious view, of equal protection of the law….
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…Jewish Service Corps, the environmental group Hazon, American Jewish World Service, Jewish Funds for Justice, the New York group Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Jews United for Justice in Washington DC—the list goes on. In addition, the eminence grise of Jewish social justice organizations, Chicago’s JCUA, hired Jill Jacobs, a Conservative Rabbi, as Director of Outreach and Education in 2004, and started a summer seminar for rabbis (modeled…
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…hapel prior to the mass—although mass is too broad a term. The Good Friday service in Catholicism is not a mass, because there is no eucharistic celebration, rather, it is a commemoration of the Passion and crucifixion of Jesus. It is also the day on the liturgical calendar that the Pope does not deliver the homily. That did not matter to the thousands gathered. Pope Francis, (besides Jesus) was the attraction everyone had come to see. As the proc…
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…rollers’ in action to Model T-lined Dayton streets) and notes from Science Service reporters Davis and Frank Thone (which she uncovered in the Smithsonian archives) and lets them do the talking. Refreshingly, there is no intellectual prattling and wandering here; the book’s about the people, the moment, the context. LaFollette and the Science Service notes and pictures tell the story from the perspective of these two men on the scene who eventuall…
Read More…ression, and innumerable other maladies. It has provided many of them with spiritual communities in which they can heal, allowing them safe places in which they can become better versions of themselves (although this is certainly not always the case). Regardless of whether or not you affirm the reality of this theological viewpoint, to dismiss as nonsense evangelicals’ most intimate personal narratives, to describe the spiritual experiences that g…
Read More…jerks; after all, what kind of person would oppose the rights of the long-haired kindergartener, whose Native American religion mandated hair styles that conflicted with her public school’s grooming requirements? Hemingway writes that “when Indiana passed the legislation last week, the media characterized it as nothing more than a bigoted anti-gay bill and celebrities and activists called for a boycott against the state,” and accused the media of…
Read More…ntent, and had earlier shown her anti-gay rights colors in her support of a 1998 ban on same-sex marriage, which she defended by saying: “I believe that honoring the family structure is that important” — an emphasis on structure that surely rings true to “pro family” advocates of complementarian marriage roles. How does Palin square these nods to traditionalist family structure with her national aspirations? Through a disclaimer familiar among the…
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…York City’s Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine during an evensong service in December 2014. Photo by Cathleen Falsani. It’s not about trying to come up with some new, hip way (like fog machines) to get the young kids to come to church. It’s not about trying to make Christianity hip or put coffee shops in the lobby. That’s fine but I don’t think that’s what makes a church a church or what will ultimately make people disciples of Jesus. It’…
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…ntic contributing editor Garrett Epps notes, “Neither the federal RFRA, nor 18 of the 19 state statutes cited by the [Washington Post], says anything like this; only the Texas RFRA, passed in 1999, contains similar language.” Why this flourish in Indiana’s original version of the law, then? In Epps’s view, making “a business’s ‘free exercise’ right a defense against a private lawsuit by another person, rather than simply against actions brought by…
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…rkson, “Anti-abortion bombings related,” The Intelligence Report, September 15, 1998. [30] Erik Larson, “Unrest in the West: Welcome to Nevada’s Nye County, Whose Angry Residents Are Spearheading the Region’s Charge against Washington,” Time Magazine, October 23, 1995. [31] Carolyn Gallaher, “Placing the Militia Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon,” ACME 15(2) (2016): 293-308. [32] Kanishka Singh and Steve G…
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