Search for "Delta Airlines 1800-299-7264 Phone Number To Book A Flight"

Let’s Get Lost: Mapping Religion in the 21st Century

By Spencer Dew

…ited States.” The co-directors of this project, Amy DeRogatis of MSU and Isaac Weiner of OSU, suggest that we can understand religion and religious diversity differently “by listening for it,” but it is the field researchers who listen for while we, the audience, presented with online audio files, listen to, hearing an assortment of coughs and traffic noises, shufflings of bodies, backtalk and background sounds. We are given not studio recordings,…

The Messiah is Not Coming

By Peter Laarman

…ntion of the work-hard-and-be-rewarded economy as “a thing that is passing away” got me to thinking of all of the other things that are passing away. Allow me to catalog them: 1. related to the preacher’s point, a large and stable middle class flanked by much smaller lower and upper classes: we are morphing rapidly into a society of elites and drones without a middle that isn’t being perpetually downsized and drone-ized in both subtle and unsubtle…

RD News Round-Up—Nov. 4, 2008

By Bill Berkowitz

…Period Regardless of the outcome of the presidential election—if Senator Barack Obama wins, expect a spate of “The Religious Right is Dying/Mortally Wounded” articles—the Religious Right will not disappear from the American political landscape in the near or distant future. In fact, if you follow the money, which is what Americans United for Separation of Church and State is doing, you’ll see that “the nation’s leading Religious Right organizatio…

A Match Made in Hell: Demons Have Become a Serious Force in US Politics — But We’ve Seen This Show Before

By Michael E. Heyes

…e birth defects; a Catholic priest in Wisconsin who livestreamed exorcisms against voter fraud; and the claim made by Amanda Grace during the ReAwaken America tour that the crowd should be concerned with “mermaids” who were “a division in the kingdom of darkness” and “highly technologically advanced.” The trouble is that these stories tend to paint these beliefs as if they’re held by a relatively small group of people or merely a product of the “d…

Was Ghana Anti-Gay Scare Just Politics?

By Warren Throckmorton

In the face of reports that Ghana’s Western Region Minister recently called for the arrest of gays, a Ghanaian government source told RD today that the government was not “clamping down” on sexual minorities. The source, who did not want to be named since he was not speaking officially, said that Ghana is a law abiding country and that those on a crusade should take up the matter in the courts. The issue appears to be a sensitive one for the gove…

Religious Kids Are More Selfish: The Stickers Don’t Lie

By Michael Schulson

…Nonreligious children are more generous,” explained a headline at Science magazine. “It’s not like you have to be highly religious to be a good person,” Decety told Forbes. “Secularity—like having your own laws and rules based on rational thinking, reason rather than holy books—is better for everybody.” Forbes headlined the article “Religion Makes Children More Selfish, Say Scientists.” (Decety tweeted a link to the piece). In the Forbes interview…

United By Hate for Proposition 8

By Jonathan L. Walton

…are counting on what political scientists may possibly refer to as the “Obama Effect.” Supporters of Proposition 8, a proposal to amend the California state constitution in order to define marriage as an exclusive union between a man and woman, believe that an anticipated record turnout among African American and Latino voters in the state may indeed secure their cause. And Christian and cultural conservatives hope a common bond of homophobia wil…

Restoring Dignity: The Employee Free Choice Act

By Peter Laarman

…if the Democrats are able to get this legislation. —Sen. John Ensign (R-Nevada) We like driving the car and we’re not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us. —Lee Scott, former Wal-Mart CEO I once worked professionally in the labor movement, and I often say that I have never felt the slightest discontinuity in moving from labor organizing and labor strategizing to ordained ministry. To me all of it has been the Lord’s work—and here is…

Coffeehouse Churches and the ‘Party-on Messiah’: How I Lost One Leper Messiah, and Gained Another, Part 3

By Mark Dery

…pop-art murals (“imagine a hippy Sistine Chapel,” the pastor’s son, Tim Pagaard, recalls). Abba’s radicalism went far deeper than interior decoration, scrapping the liturgy and smudging the historically sharp line between clergy and congregation. To be sure, Abba services had leaders, but they were laypeople and, more to the point, young people—a breezy flouting of elder power, from a Lutheran’s-eye view. Not a reversed collar in sight, but plenty…

Will the Pope’s Woman Problem Alienate Young Catholics?

By Patricia Miller

…for Francis’ strong language on economic inequality and environmental degradation. However, they decried the pope’s blind spots when it comes to women, fearing that they will perpetuate a number of injustices and lead to an exodus from the church—particularly among millennials. The forum, convened by Call To Action, Catholics for Choice, CORPUS and nine co-sponsors, was especially appropriate coming in the midst of a robust discussion of Pope Fra…