Religion Dispatches
…estern greed. In the West, in order to preserve our strategic position and cheap oil supply, we have often supported rulers (such as the shahs of Iran, the Saudis and, initially, Saddam Hussein) who have established dictatorial regimes which suppressed any normal opposition. The only place where people felt free to express their distress has been the mosque. The modern world has been very violent. Between 1914 and 1945, seventy million people died…
Read More…credit: the man has balls to say this. Yes, fracking gives Americans more cheap carbon energy—for a while. And then we’re left with ruined landscapes, ruined aquifers, and our same old dependence on foreign energy sources, having failed to turn to renewables while mindlessly pumping more cheap petroleum into our veins. Like other critics of the new encyclical, Brooks chalks up the pope’s hostility to capitalism as the product of naivete or perhap…
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…grants from their homes. They are pulled to the U.S. because of demand for cheap labor. One of the major pushes came in the ’90s with the passage of NAFTA, which opened the door to many agri-businesses to move farms down to Mexico, putting small farmers out of business. And while the number of undocumented border crossers is down, Brother David says, it will be virtually impossible to eliminate them as long as the opportunities for jobs exist. As…
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…al global conference. Mormon women travelled from as far away as New York, Florida, and Germany to take part in the collective action organized by the group Ordain Women as a gentle and symbolic demonstration against pervasive gender segregation in LDS Church administration and leadership. All observant men and boys over the age of 12 are eligible for ordination to the Mormon lay priesthood, and the Church’s theological, liturgical, financial, and…
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…se 17 year-old son, Jordan Davis, was shot dead in 2012 at a Jacksonville, Florida gas station by Michael Dunn, a white man angry about loud music in a car occupied by unarmed black teenagers, came to share her story with an activist best known for his graphic protests outside abortion clinics. For each of them, that first encounter was charged with trepidation and fear. McBath, a Lutheran-turned-Pentecostal whose family has roots in the civil rig…
Read More…rity to “Ponzi scheme” continue to play, although a new poll shows 52% of Florida Republicans agree with him. If Romney wins New Hampshire, Florida, and Nevada, the question on which the longer-haul primary will hang seems to be this: can a candidate win the GOP nomination without a winning a majority of evangelical Christian conservatives? What can Romney do to overcome his disadvantage among religious conservatives as a perceived social moderat…
Read More…e should. Rev. Larry Reimer, minister at the United Church of Gainesville, Florida, recently proposed an alternative: the best way to protest what the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, is planning is to read the Qur’an. This seems an appropriate way to not interfere with the free speech of others, and yet use our own freedom to express our dismay at those who use their freedom to express intolerance and to attempt to provoke othe…
Read More…, by requiring that two physicians agree that her life is in danger. The Florida Right to Life Act, sponsored in the previous legislature by North Florida representative and Baptist minister, Charles Van Zant, asserts that the US Supreme court does not have jurisdiction over abortion because the Constitution doesn’t give the Court “power to determine moral questions on behalf of the citizens of any state without their consent.” Van Zant is claim…
Read More…Romney this time. A recent poll by the American Jewish Committee showed Obama’s support among Florida’s Jewish voters running at 69% to Romney’s 25%, with a margin of error of 6%. Obama won 76% of the Florida Jewish vote in 2008. My favorite part of the campaign, though, is this Florida billboard which reads, “Obama. . . Oy Vey!!” Isn’t that what Jews are saying about Adelson?…
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…O’Neal Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Church in Pompano Beach, Florida, and a Christian Coalition of Florida board member, said that the board voted last year to “come under the umbrella of” the FFC. For an organization that was low on funds, said Dozier, it was “a great opportunity that we felt we couldn’t pass up.” Now Dozier also serves on the FFC board, and says that the affiliation brings “more fundraising capabilities. With Faith…
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