Religion Dispatches
…nt, a move some have characterized as a concession to ticket requests from Ordain Women leaders. Inside the Tabernacle and the nearby Conference Center, rows of seats went unfilled. Saturday’s Ordain Women action has initiated an unprecedented conversation about power, leadership, and gender within the world of Mormonism. Mormon digital social networks teemed this weekend with debate over the action. For their part, several LDS Church leaders ad…
Read More…eatures luxury high-rise condominiums and upscale shops like Tiffany’sand Nordstrom’s. Many LDS people view the City Creek Mall as an emblem of savvy financial stewardship, a sure-to-be-profitable $1.5 billion investment designed to revitalize Salt Lake City’s downtown—yet another wholly owned commercial subsidiary of a prosperous multinational institution. Others express real reservations about the mall, voicing concern that a religious instituti…
Read More…” I was flabbergasted at what I was hearing—a staunch Republican switching tickets. It wasn’t long before my shock increased when my mother later that same morning said of McCain, “I can’t vote for him. He acts like he’s supposed to just be elected without doing anything.” When I asked if she would vote for Obama, she hedged. “I don’t have to vote for anybody.” True, she doesn’t, but I hate to think she might not vote for Obama simply because he’s…
Read MoreWhile a number of conservative Christian leaders raise questions about Glenn Beck’s Mormonism, Worldview Matters’ host Brannon Howse continued his attack in a conversation with Kirk Cameron about why Cameron did not participate in Glenn Beck’s Divine Destiny. Howse marveled at the “thick irony” wherein Cameron (the actor who played Buck, the converted journalist warning about the “demonic spirituality of a one world religion” in the Left Behind m…
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…levied on CBS for the incident was recently overruled in Federal court. According to the ruling, the FCC had overreacted to what was merely a “fleeting image of nudity.”) With the exception of the occasional “plumber butt,” men dressing thus are rarely any less “covered” than anybody else. This isn’t really about modestly. The real offense is dressing “low class.” That in my view is a gratuitious violation of a person’s right to express themselves…
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…ents, booked an on-campus venue, and began to advertise the event and sell tickets. Then, 11 days before the drag fundraiser was set to take place, WT President Walter Wendler, who has a record of inserting his right-wing Christian bias into his public roles, unilaterally canceled the performance via a pedantic email. Seidel tells the story of the drag show cancelation at West Texas A&M (clip=5.5 minutes): Much of the moralizing communique was cou…
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…ine is an event co-sponsor—no small potatoes considering the mainstream cachet of Jim Wallis, the founder /editor of Sojourners and author of the chart burner, God’s Politics. And McLaren has friends outside the faith box too. The Sierra Club is signed up. You tell me the last time people paid for tickets to a preacher-meets-politico-meets-tree-hugger event. Observing, then, the McLaren-brand machine gurgling and chirping right along, a fair quest…
Read More…see a female performer sing songs about things that are totally haram (according to different opinions), but not if she’s wearing clothing you find inappropriate? From the artist’s point of view, it also seems like a seems like an affront. It compromises the artists’ “package deal” of music, image, and stage presence, the latter two of which sometimes include scanty clothing. People can hear performers like Rihanna or Gwen Stefani sing any time i…
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…ly black, a stadium full of white people who paid more than a Benjamin for tickets is not going to be the nexus for authentic justice conversations. I work for a white, affluent, suburban, mega-church, so I’m used to that. But at that moment, before the music even started, I knew what my friend was referencing—I was about to get spiritual too. “They knew they were born to weep and keep the morticians employed as long as they pledge allegiance to t…
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…an apple. Much of this science Gerbert learned as a youth living on the border of Islamic Spain, then an extraordinarily tolerant culture in which learning was prized. Born a peasant in the mountains of France in the mid-900s, Gerbert entered the Benedictine monastery at Aurillac as a boy. He learned to read and write in Latin. He studied Cicero, Virgil, and other classics. He impressed his teacher with his skill in debating. He was a fine write…
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