Offers 1 800-299-7264 Cheap Flights to Key West – American Airlines | Search Results | Religion Dispatches

Coming Out Twice: Sexuality and Gender in Islam

By Susan Henking

…doing papers, and Masters degree students writing thesis, or Ph.D. scholars-in-the-making writing dissertations about Islam from the perspective of sexuality and gender identity issues. I find it amazing that they read my book and gain a sense of empowerment to do their own work. That is what we call, in the Islamic tradition, a sadaqa jariya, a gift that keeps giving benefit even after the giver has passed away. I hope my book is a sadaqa jariya….

US Archbishop and Vatican-Appointed “Overseer” Attends Annual Meeting of Women Religious

By Emily Baxter

…en two influential groups in American political life. Both Catholic and non-Catholic Americans have been vocal supporters of American sisters in light of the Vatican’s assessment. Such support has given rise to the theme that it is American sisters—exemplified by the Nuns on the Bus and known for their work in communities around the country—who hold the grassroots power to bring politicians to task on justice issues from economic inequality to imm…

Gun Ownership as Sin—A Strategic, Secular Proposal for Gun Reform

By Ira Chernus

…h the notable exceptions of alcohol prohibition and, decades later, African-American civil rights). Today the descendants of the Social Gospel have even less power to influence political outcomes. Despite the growing public voice of progressive religion, that voice is still rather marginal when it comes to actually influencing public perceptions and wielding political clout. That’s a stark contrast to pre-20th century America, when nearly all refo…

Updated with Response: The Black Church is Dead—Long Live the Black Church

By Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

…radigm perpetuates the notion that Christianity is equated with the African-American Experience. Even a scholar like Professor Glaude, who is on one hand, critical of the megafest, etc., can’t see his own participation in the Black Church Show. Remember the “State of the Black Union” featuring Tavis Smiley? That was an eight-hour church service on C-SPAN replete with theologians and prayer. So much for the Black Church being dead. Seriously, I did…

The General’s Son Recounts Very Different Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

By Ira Chernus

…lebrate together joyously. I had visited the homes of my sister and brother-in-law’s Palestinian friends, where I had been welcomed graciously as an honored guest. These were just ordinary people. When Jews extended even a tentative hand of friendship, they responded with exuberant hugs. Why, I wondered, couldn’t that happen throughout the land? I’ve gathered plenty of answers to that question over the intervening years, and Miko Peled’s book add…

Mexico moves toward national marriage equality; Greek govt announces civil partnership legislation; Pope warns against ‘secularism and relativism’; Global LGBT recap

By Peter Montgomery

…ducators and schoolchildren in Catholic schools as their messengers.” In an 18-page document disseminated through Catholic schools, the bishops call marriage equality a “serious injustice” according to the Goalburn Post. Titled “Don’t Mess With Marriage,” the document warns against the perceived dangers of same-gender marriages and says it is “unjust, gravely unjust” to allow same-gender couples equal rights to marriage. The bishops say people “wi…

Creationism and Evolution are Competing ‘Myths’

By Kelly E. Hayes

…ucky will situate it, like the Creation Museum, within a day’s drive of two-thirds of all Americans, some 40% of whom, according to the latest Gallup poll, affirm the creationist view that God created humans sometime in the past 10,000 years. Opponents have framed their dissent largely on legal grounds, arguing that Kentucky’s provision of generous tax breaks for the project violates the separation of church and state and that the statement of fai…

What’s The Matter With Joe Biden? As Disgust Builds Over Calamity in Gaza the President Offers Only Toothless Criticism

By Haroon Moghul

…death in our holiest month, and this is the time to fete the 46th commander-in-chief? Unsurprisingly, many invited guests didn’t just reject their invitations, they repurposed them to draw uncomfortable attention to the White House’s role in what the International Court of Justice is investigating as a genocide. That’s hardly the appropriate look for a president who claims to be the moral alternative to Trump. But that equally reveals a government…

‘Spooky Action’ of Quantum Physics Offers an Alternative Frame for War in the Middle East and the 2024 Election

By Peter Schwartz

…pooky action at a distance.” Quantum entanglement evades the standard cause-and-effect model that’s so critical to classical physics, but it is about correlation. The phrase correlation is not causation generally refers to the problem of overdetermination—one thing may be connected to another but doesn’t necessarily occur because of the other. Correlation implies many causes for a single outcome, which makes it difficult to establish clear causal…

Vainglory Days: A Foremost Expert on Religious Violence Offers Clues to How QAnon Might End

By Mark Juergensmeyer

…eliefs don’t need new jobs; they already have them. But they do need a face-saving way of re-entering society after stridently identifying themselves with a conspiratorial ideology that many of their former friends and neighbors regard, at best, as bizarre—and at worst as demented and quite possibly dangerous. Studies of true believers of any form of militant religion or ideology show that once one has adopted that position it’s very difficult to…