Religion Dispatches
…on their own uncomfortable terms, Warren pulls exiled, bewildered Daniel away from the king’s table and demands, “Tell me the secret to controlling your carb intake!” Warren reads the story of Daniel turning away from the king’s sumptuous table and sees a diet. I see a young man turning his back on poisoned luxury in order to save his soul; holding himself aloof from a feasting court and eating a poor man’s food alone in order to let it be known…
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…pression Landon made during that first meeting. “He had been looking for a way to announce it to the world.” According to Wolff, “The Craftsman” became that way. Singerman was a Jew dropped into the mythology of the American West, much as Landon himself had been as a star of Bonanza. Notes Wolff, who went on to write regularly for Little House, “I see that episode as really standing on its own, apart from the rest of the series.” Moving from pitch…
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…d a final thought: “I have seen some Christian theologians try to explain away these passages but I find their explanations lacking and they do not fit with a literal view of the Scriptures.” Not only does he remain tone deaf to the reasons why his own views may also “not fit with a literal view of the Scriptures,” he also appears heedless of the ways his site and beliefs may, in fact, perpetuate bigotry, misogyny, dehumanization and yes, lust, ev…
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…responding to the current Russian situation in an uninformed, Russophobic way. On the other other hand, many Western liberals have put forth sharp and reasoned critiques of blasphemy laws. Paul Sturges, for example, made the following conclusion about the case of Greece: “Complaints leading to prosecution under Article 199 seem to have always concerned the Orthodox Church rather than the other tolerated religions. These blasphemy laws in Greece e…
Read More…in Asia. In my carelessness, I expressed my frustration with the past in a way that sounded like a sweeping statement about Asian Buddhism today. I apologize for that. One way I could have expressed it: in my part of Asia, when I was growing up, Dharma could often be found in high concentrations, but only in small areas. Perhaps the opposite is true in America today. 3. I think the most important point in this discussion is that we have to hold te…
Read More…a bit, and thumping the table at Community Food & Juice. People looked our way, trying not to be noticed looking, but what did we care? He was speaking a truth, and I was learning from one of the greatest theological minds of the twentieth century. His critique couldn’t be dismissed, and I couldn’t explain it away; instead, I’ve tried to understand and reflect on it. While the socio-political, economic, and cultural climate motivating the work has…
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…th Giberson and Miller ultimately call on, is eventually science explains away the gaps, and space for God becomes smaller and smaller. There’s that whole thing about how you can never (or at least so far no one has been able to) scientifically prove whether prayer works or that God exists. It’s hard to jam religious experience—although many of us scientists have tried—into the controlled experiments of a scientific way of knowing. Again, Coyne’s…
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…led faithful. Indeed, that narrative line, repeated over again in numerous ways, makes up a significant portion of what most Christians refer to as the Old Testament. Another way to put the matter is to say that the Bible isn’t all about love and how you relate to your neighbor, as Christians of a more liberal bent seem to assume privately and when they enter the public sphere. Love’s certainly part of the story too, but it’s not the whole story:…
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…part of me, and I am comfortable using the insider language and in certain ways find it comforting to be around people who understand me in that way. It seems like evangelical Christians are where I can most be of use in my writing and activism, so I take that pragmatic approach. However, in my day-to-day life I often feel very estranged from the normal trappings of Christianity—the emphasis on raising children in the best (safest) way possible, f…
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…hopes the countless LGBTQ people who write to her each month feel the same way. She points to the church’s Wesleyan spirituality and the particular way United Methodists “do theology” as among the key reasons she is called to ministry in this particular denomination. She posed a question for other LGBTQ people who may be questioning their place in UMC congregations or any faith community: I think each of us has to say, where is God calling us to b…
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