Religion Dispatches
…d to go in a suitcase but you use them every day. Fortunately, I have all those nifty scent-free products; as far as most of the cosmetics go, I don’t use those on a daily basis. But other things, like toothpaste, I’m not really planning on using a travel size since mine is pretty small anyway. The other things are my medications—the ones I take every day I have to take every day and then pack so I have access to them while in transit but enough s…
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…inging and how that diverged that tells us something critical about how Catholicism—and the larger religious landscape—has evolved over the past few decades. Both Pence and Kaine were raised in Midwest, middle-class, observant Irish-Catholic families. Pence started out as a Democrat, voting for Jimmy Carter in 1980, but like many other more conservative-minded Catholics switched alliances to the Republican Party, voting for Ronald Reagan in 1984….
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…is may be seen in the history of astronomy, which is a history of receding horizons. Scientists have often balked (and not always for scientific reasons) at many of these outward steps. Tycho Brahe, a well-known Danish astronomer of the late 16th century, rejected Copernicanism not only because it contradicted the Aristotelian physics of his day, but because it increased the size of the universe by several orders of magnitude. In Brahe’s view, Cop…
Read More…tly and help poor people. Good that they’re lumping us in with the people who think such radical thoughts as: conservative religious nutjobs should not be given a free pass to run the nation, and gays and lesbians should enjoy equal protection under the law. Good that they think we’re a bunch of wild-eyed radicals. If I and the members of my denomination scare Glenn Beck, that’s a good thing. It means they’re off-balance. Same goes for the ever-ex…
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…il, however, ramps up during the Halloween season whether the focus is the holiday itself or those minority religions associated with it. In regards to the season itself, most evangelical churches will offer alternatives to church members, usually called “fall festivals,” since even using the term “Halloween” is frowned upon. At fall festivals kids will more or less do what other kids do on Halloween, though they’ll be costumed as Bible characters…
Read More…on: 1) They keep saying they are “American”; 2) They keep apologizing for those who did commit terror, who are Muslims. Some of these had claimed to be acting in the name of Islam, but really it was for their own personal causes. I never, ever, apologize for terrorism. I never commit it and so I do not bear any personal responsibility for it. This is hard for some people to hear. Just like it is hard for many black people to hear white people say…
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…toric of hatred. Silence only serves to support the toleration of bullying, violence, and exclusion. In the face of what has already become the common occurrence of LGBT teen suicide, how long can we wait to respond? *Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference. p. 61 **Copeland, Enfleshing Freedom. p. 82…
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…n sort of hell over the rise of Trump. His election raises questions about how Catholics should respond personally and politically. One source of dismay for some Catholics is that so many of their number broke decisively toward Trump and were critical to his victory in the Rust Belt swing states. “The Catholic vote went for Trump and many Catholics joined the non-voting defectors. That’s a scandal that calls into question the moral standing and in…
Read More…or disbelief, or a consistent underestimation of Mormon organizational capacity and discipline. Well-meaning, politically savvy, liberal friends took one look at my wild, puffy eyes during fall 2008 and would say—trying to be comforting—“I know, I know, the evangelicals are at it too” or “don’t worry, there just aren’t that many of you Mormons in California.” Ignorance. It is precisely this kind of insularity and ignorance that a progressive…
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…hought PTL was the best thing they had ever been involved with and others who thought it was the worst. Jim and Tammy were nothing if not provocative. They put themselves at the center of some of the biggest divides in American religion and culture, which meant that they had no shortage of supporters and critics on either side, particularly with regard to the prosperity gospel. What alternative title would you give the book? My working title was P…
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