Search Results for:

VIPREG2024 how to use 1xbet free bet promo code Hungary

Can Democrats Question Amy Coney Barrett’s Faith? Yes! Should They? Well…

…t her attention to detail). In any case, given the deeply-held connections between faith and law espoused at Blackstone, and ADF’s affiliation with a laundry list of extreme right-wing Christians, there are a lot of worthwhile questions to be asked about how Blackstone and ADF may or may not reflect Barrett’s jurisprudence. The right’s response to these issues has been rather predictably to accuse anyone and everyone with any concerns about Barret…

Read More

Popesplaining: Women Remain “Strawberries” in Francis’s Book on Happiness

…ia to keep up with the latest political disasters isn’t making us feel any better. Twitter use is correlated with greater rates of anxiety, and Facebook contributes to depressive mind states. So what does the Pope tell us to do in order to be happier? Mostly, it involves praying more. To be fair, Francis’ emphasis on the marginalized comes through even in his ideas about happiness. Of the Beatitudes, which tell us the most blessed are those who su…

Read More

How Can the Former President’s Opponents Repudiate His Fascist Rhetoric Without Giving Him the Publicity He Craves?

…an ever: with multiple indictment trials looming, returning to the White House is the only surefire way to avoid jail time. In order to get there, however, he must a) lock up the nomination, and b) defuse the massive public response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, which has propelled Democrats to victory even in deep-red states. He is betting on his Veterans Day comments being incendiary enough to achieve both aims. On one level, Trump’s comments…

Read More

Beyond Adam and Eve

…outreach to the kids who attend Harvey Milk school, teaching LGBT youth to use art for self-expression. And they offer single-stall unisex bathrooms that allow transgendered people to use the facilities without trouble.  Varghese offers a different perspective noting that in some feminist circles, a female who transitions into a male is perceived as caving in to the patriarchal narrative. In these settings, straight women often find themselves ost…

Read More

Tax Cuts for the Super Rich Aren’t Biblical

…ligious self-definition in terms of opposition to government. You’re not a better Jew by rejecting Caesar’s money, and you’re not a better Christian by cutting taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans, even supposing that they ran out and gave all that money away, which seems unlikely. Oh, who am I kidding? Despite Sekulow’s scripture quotes, this has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ and everything to do with the gospel according to th…

Read More

The Night of Power: Laylatul Qadri

…quences of one prayer’s answer are more troubles than you were facing. So, better to be prudent. I used to have a sticker in my car that I think sums it up, “Oh Allah grant me the most benevolent outcome.” This is the idea behind the special prayer worship called istikharah. Again, no details, but the word itself means asking for the best outcome, even as it is attached to an elaborate formula of ritual request.   In another entry I had mentioned…

Read More

God is a Terrifying Monster, and Other Takeaways from the Study of Vampires in Pop Culture

…napped with my iPhone while on a trip to southern Ohio. I didn’t intend to use it for the book; I just thought it was a great picture. But as I considered cover ideas, that image of a decaying church perfectly embodied what I was trying to say in the book. Is there a book out there you wish you had written? How do you even narrow down a question like this? Fiction? Non-fiction? Historical? Contemporary? Other than naming my all-time favorite novel…

Read More

Even After an Obama Victory Reports of the Death of the Religious Right are Greatly Exaggerated

…has been a surprisingly vibrant discussion surrounding the potential redundancy of the phrase ‘frozen tundra.’ The New York Times’ sports pages reported on Lake Superior State University’s eagerly awaited List of “Words Banished From the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness, 2003 edition,” which banished ‘frozen tundra’ for being redundant (missing the irony, perhaps, that this isn’t a word, it’s a phrase). LSSU’s 2004 edit…

Read More

LDS General Conference in the “Mormon Moment”

…wers of Jesus Christ. And without dismissing real theological distinctions between Mormonism and mainline Protestantism—and there are some—the Mormon experience suggests that the dominant usage of the term “Christian” in American discourse is not as a descriptor of the way an individual regards Jesus Christ, but as a political and social term used to distinguish sanctioned branches of Christianity and withhold approval from others, often in the se…

Read More

Exploiting Health Care Debate to Restrict Abortion?

…dering as Wallis and a few others prepare to push Congress and the White House for further concessions. “[The president’s] commitment to these principles,” said Wallis, “means we can now work together to make sure that they are consistently and diligently applied to any final health care legislation.” For Wallis, that means that “no person should be forced to pay for someone else’s abortion and that public funds cannot be used to pay for elective…

Read More