Religion Dispatches
…lk2Action’s Bruce Wilson with another video exposé. Wilson and Ruth, his co-researcher and co-documentarian, have done an extraordinary job trying to bring information about the realities of Sarah Palin’s religious relationships to the spotlight. And while the mainstream media hasn’t picked up on the Palin videos—as they did with Pastor John Hagee’s ‘Hitler was sent by God’ video that went viral and mainstream—Wilson and company are on the job. In…
Read More…But both, or similar efforts, still could happen. This ripple-that-might-be-a-wave of church burnings comes at a time when nerves once again are raw: this time, the outrageous murder of innocent church folk in the familiar activity of gathering for a bible study. Once again, this racist act shocked and offended all Americans, of whatever political, religious or ethnic stripe. Presidential leadership has again helped frame the public’s response: in…
Read More…believes he is qualified to assert that Amanpour’s background of being half-Iranian makes her anti-Israel. He cites, in support of his argument, a Facebook group that has 60 members. Fortunately, the ever incisive Glenn Greenwald quickly attacked Shales on the merits of the argument. I think Greenwald stops short of following Shales argument to its logical conclusion, although he hints at it. If you take Shales’ argument and reverse it he is essen…
Read More…ng funny without offending someone these days in our PC society etc.” The number of supportive and sometimes racist posts outnumber those who advice caution. I can’t suspect such hideous posts are all from Saddleback membership. I’m sure quite a number are. It’s as disturbing as it is disgusting. Warren commented on Tsang’s article, “Thanks so much for teaching us! It was removed instantly.” However, Warren did not get around to posting a form…
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…father, sent to school with shaved heads for not selling enough candy door-to-door to support the family, or made to leave class during any discussion of history that referred to religion or singing of Christmas carols. Always made to feel different and largely forbidden from socializing outside the family, their alienation became so great it made going home to their father’s violent rage seem safe and normal. When they were home, Nate says, no o…
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…or a chat with assistant pastor, Father Anthony Short. Father Short is only 25, having gone straight from home-schooling under traditionalist parents into St. Joseph seminary in Rathdrum, and then into the major seminary in Omaha, from whence he returned to be deputy pastor. Father Anthony Short He was sincere—even guileless—in conversation, not least in his explanation of the “Masonic infiltration of the Church,” whose first major success was the…
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…e deadliest peacetime attack on America by a single gunman. Since an equal number of Virginia Tech students and American-born Muslims have gone on killing sprees, Goldberg should clearly be asking to investigate Virginia Tech’s mental health support structures. Or perhaps, using Goldberg’s logic, we should investigate whether East Asian men have a propensity to mass murder, given the ethnicity both of the Virginia Tech and Binghamton shooters. For…
Read More…sted in promoting religious freedom). It is, rather, an inescapably context-bound, polyvalent concept unfolding within divergent histories in differing political orders. This realization has led us to pose a number of crucial questions to those engaged in the promotion of religious freedom as a stable and singular human right. These questions, explored in detail in the PoRF volume and our other publications, and underlying my own public interventi…
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…hite evangelicals; the Utah College Exit Poll, however, with a much higher number of Mormon participants, put the number closer to 45 percent. Both figures are well below previous Mormon voting percentages for the Republican candidates, but they indicate that at least half of Latter-day Saints were willing to stomach Trump’s apparent moral deficiencies. This turn of events has historical precedent. Though the LDS Church’s political affiliation was…
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…; not my readers) altered in some way, perhaps even shattered…just like you-know-what. What alternative title would you give the book? Decalogia. How do you feel about the cover? Since the book is about the ways in which Americans physically and visually encounter the Ten Commandments, the cover was key to the success, and the integrity, of the enterprise. I had hoped for a graphic design that would signal to the casual reader that what was inside…
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