Religion Dispatches
…something different now—not just my own blood, but a larger communion of the self in the world. I write every morning in my kitchen, stirring my coffee with one of Grammy’s spoons. I’ll never use it in a grand candlelit dinner with my children and their children. It’s for everyday use. I am the end of my line. But also, the beginning of another kind….
Read More…s will not receive such coverage. In this respect, any possible connection between the Little Sisters’ religious objection and their employees’ use of contraception would be even more attenuated than Notre Dame’s. Indeed, it’s not at all obvious why the plaintiff has standing to object to the self-certification requirement: How could the Little Sisters be complicit in their employees’ use of contraceptives if those employees will not receive reimb…
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…NOM have provided more than 55 percent of the funding. NOM, which loves to use alarmist rhetoric about rich gay funders, is itself heavily dependent on big donors. Earlier this month it announced that a donor had given the group $2 million to use as a 2-for-1 matching grant for its anti-marriage and anti-Obama campaigns. How do progressive Catholics respond to the combined forces of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the money machines th…
Read More…e Afghanistan and Pakistan have governments that are in various degrees of uselessness. There is a political angle to Obama’s support of Indonesia, as he attempts to set-up rival powers with China; Indonesia’s close relationship with Australia makes them a credible power center. Just as important, Obama recognizes that democracy is messy, painful, and not the same everywhere. Indonesia carved out its own understanding of democracy that recognizes…
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…that Trump is such an artist, but it’s the other way around: Trump didn’t use the religious right to win the presidency; the religious right used Trump to get what it wanted. And this itself is nothing new, despite claims to the contrary which, we think, has more to say about the commentator than the subject in question. Although it may be convenient and more than a little self-serving to view Trump as an aberration who doesn’t align with desired…
Read More…anned hearings are being decried by religious leaders and scholars as an abuse of government power, a blow to religious freedom, and a government-backed demonization of millions of decent people of faith. As a Mormon, I find the King hearings particularly objectionable. Because Mormons of all people know what it feels like for an entire religion to be publicly demeaned for the objectionable deeds of its fringe minorities. And because our religion…
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…blast me across the face of the earth. I use strange abstract symbols and codes to communicate both useless and necessary threads of conversation to my species. Sometimes it just makes me want to sit back, put my feet up, and marvel. I’m a good old-fashioned humanist—or, at least, about two-thirds of me is. I’m an academic in that great behemoth we call “the humanities”; a humanist by training. I’ve spent inordinate amounts of time reflecting on…
Read More…ported his election. He’s not happy with the way things are going, but for better or worse, it shows the system is working in fine Niebuhrian fashion. Niebuhr was sharply aware of (and often amused by) the shortcomings of political leaders. They were only human, after all. But he also believed that humility was not simply a personal virtue, but something thrust upon leaders by the unending pressure of competing interests in the democratic process….
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…outreach to the kids who attend Harvey Milk school, teaching LGBT youth to use art for self-expression. And they offer single-stall unisex bathrooms that allow transgendered people to use the facilities without trouble. Varghese offers a different perspective noting that in some feminist circles, a female who transitions into a male is perceived as caving in to the patriarchal narrative. In these settings, straight women often find themselves ost…
Read More…arbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, urged Christians not to use the KJV because, Bauer said, “it was commissioned by a homosexual.” (Note that the anti-KJV campaign never really took off; it remains the most popular translation for evangelicals, according to a recent survey by the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated LifeWay.) Perhaps, though, the Democratic Party would have some issues with one of its House members taking up the…
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