Religion Dispatches
…good cheer and industrious politicking will pay off. It is certainly that spirit that keeps him logging many miles on the campaign trail. What I find interesting about Henrichsen, along with his fellow Democratic Mormons, is a willingness to take the principles of their beliefs and apply them in a completely different way from where the Mormon mainstream is politically. Henrichsen is happy about the Affordable Health Care act, which definitely sq…
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…n of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration. As chair of that committee, he consistently articulates the five-fold platform that was clearly laid out in that group’s 2003 pastoral letter, “Strangers No Longer: Together on a Journey of Hope,” co-written with the bishops of Mexico, and broadly referenced by Catholic advocates for immigration reform as he foundation of their action. (See a summary of that document, and a good…
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…imal sacrifice that once infused the world’s religions have fallen away. In 1987, the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye in Florida’s Dade County banned animal sacrifice after it began plans to build a church where religious rites including animal sacrifice would take place. Six years later, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city ban violated the church’s religious freedoms. It was the same year that Congress passed the Religious Freedom Resto…
Read More…ersion from the idolatry of maleness toward the worship of the true God in spirit and truth. International Women’s Day and the coming papal conclave seem as fine a time as any for churches to start thinking (again) about the damage inflicted on the imaginations, self-identities, and spiritualities of both women and men, girls and boys, by sexist god-talk. And, not for nothing, on the practical, material harm caused throughout the world through the…
Read More…d Protestant and Catholic advisors; days opened with interreligious prayer services that featured Christians, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists. Actors’ contracts for the film contained clauses that demanded “exemplary conduct” on and off the set. Finally, the actor who portrayed Jesus was treated as more than a man. Only DeMille was allowed to speak to him when in costume, and he was “veiled” or driven in a closed car from his dressing room to the set…
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…for public display does so well aware of the outrage that it may cause. In 1989 right-wing Christian senators, including Jesse Helms, attacked the work, and it was vandalized in 1997 while on display in Australia at the National Gallery of Victoria. Just last year a group Roman Catholic fundamentalists, bent on an anti-blasphemy campaign, took hammers to Piss Christ in Avignon. Innocence of Christians Tomorrow’s exhibition of the work has already…
Read More…be running for president. As to whether his church will invite other candidates, Beroth writes, “We trust the Holy Spirit to lead us when planning elements in our services. That is our barometer of who we ask to be a part of our services, events and outreaches.”…
Read More…places to look to for future directions in Islamic thought and practice. Cairo and Istanbul, for example, will fairly or not overshadow Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, if only because they’ve been central to the Muslim imagination for longer. And both Cairo and Istanbul are megacities, with robust tourist industries and diverse populations. They are, in other words, open to the world, yet old enough to have a confidence in their place in the world. The…
Read More…It is necessary to accompany them with mercy. When that happens, the Holy Spirit inspires the priest to say the right thing…. We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that. But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter,…
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…components, because it surely does. You practice yoga? For many that’s a spiritual or religious practice. What does it mean for you? I’m getting on in years and I thought I would really like to have a some more exercise and I didn’t like aerobics, so I went to a yoga class. It was very strenuous and very demanding and then we went into shavasana, the relaxation at the end, and I came out of that thinking, “Holy mackerel, I’m high!” It was just t…
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