Religion Dispatches
…about them. First we viewed a new documentary about the sisters, Women and Spirit which tells the amazing story of Catholic sisters’ work in the U.S. since the first of them arrived here in 1727. It’s produced and marketed by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), the primary target of Vatican criticism. Then we discussed the current situation facing the sisters and US Catholic women more broadly. A number of us had read in advance t…
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…t not to sympathize a bit with Douthat’s critique of contemporary American spirituality, even if he has a penchant for the low-hanging fruit. But this heretical American spiritual seeking is not really anything new, of course. For generations, Americans have been a religiously promiscuous people, attracted to all forms of non-orthodox beliefs and practices. What Douthat sees may be more of a hastening than a transformation. Moreover, we should pay…
Read More…ons are banding together to share a powerful message, and we hope that other Mormons who may have been previously afraid to show their support for civil marriage equality will see us and feel emboldened to “come out of the closet”. That pioneer spirit is still in our blood, and it’s sorely needed here and now on one of the most critical civil rights issues of our time. So like pioneers, we walk. I will be walking with my wife and two kids. In chur…
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…rs of the religious communities that once built, staffed, and embodied the spirit of the Church in America. Coming as it does in the wake of the rebuke delivered last month to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the censure of Sister Farley’s book Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, is enough to make one wonder if there are doctrinal risks taken simply by being Catholic while female. It’s easy to understand the Vatican’…
Read More…our children may well fall prey to the vision-destroying false worship and spirit of the age—environmental pantheism. Environmental pantheism is a direct attack on the biblical family because it devalues human life and seeks to obliterate the mandate that men through their families take dominion over the earth. Most importantly, it substitutes the worship of the creature, for the worship of the Creator.” This is not to claim that Santorum is a sec…
Read More…ation not only honored our LGBT brothers and sisters, but also honored the spirit of Mormonism at its very best.” Tresa Edmunds, a straight LDS ally and mother, made a 3-hour drive into the city to march with her sign: “Gay kids grow up Mormon, I’m here to keep them safe.” As in Seattle, San Francisco marchers reported tearful parade-route meetings with gay Mormons estranged from the community. In Chicago, a contingent of 15 LDS marchers, organize…
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…e himself says “Alan has said there will be proofs and amends. We’re still waiting and watching for those.” Justifying an Opposition to LGBT Civil Rights The first ex-gay ministries were founded in the early 1970s by conservative, homosexual Christians who wanted to live in accordance with Christian sexual ethics as they understood them. Exodus gathered these early ministries at a conference at the Melodyland Christian Center in 1976,1 an event wh…
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…atch Beasts of the Southern Wild will get lost in the wonder and magic and spirit of the Bathtub; that they will rest in the film’s beauty instead of being jolted by the reality that, as Hushpuppy says, “Sometimes you can break something so bad, that it can’t get put back together.” Isle de Jean Charles—the isolated island hamlet that inspired Zeitlin in the first place—is the Bathtub, and so are the communities of Lafitte, Estelle, Paradis, Des A…
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…e, diverse, competitive, professionally managed, and fully capitalistic in spirit and execution—even as her article raises worthy questions about the transparency of LDS Church finances and the allocation of its revenues to humanitarian purposes. (One of Winter’s facts on this latter point has been challenged.) But the cover art makes those worthy questions moot. Today, I’ve been in contact with a few of the sources for the article, and they belie…
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…icals and Pentecostals if they’re willing, those of other faiths, and the “spiritual, but not religious” crowd. Young ecumenists aren’t waiting on their elders to do this. Like their countercultural forebears of the 1960s, they are simply living life as they think it should be lived. Take the New Fire network as an example. This consortium of groups of young adult ecumenists energetically rejects the liberal/conservative war even as they commit th…
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