Religion Dispatches
…uts,” virgins, “welfare queens,” women who’ve had more children than the onlooker finds suitable, women who’ve had fewer children than the onlooker finds suitable, transgender women, fat women, women in positions of power… I could go on but it’s too depressing. Anyway, that move—that peering at a woman’s body and saying, “Ah, what might this SAY about the DIRTINESS OF SEX? Or about SACRIFICE? Or about THESE DEPRAVED TIMES IN WHICH WE LIVE?”—is, ah…
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…ith the present and very little to do with the past. To see this, one need look no further than America’s own contentious political debate about how its racial history ought to be taught*: Is the story of American race-based chattel slavery a story of glorious triumph over racism and oppression—proof of American exceptionalism? Or is it a story of continuing prejudice and violence that reveals American exceptionalism as a lie and America as a fund…
Read More…of France are buried and fêted. From that temple of reason, one may still look at the cathedral and hear echoes of Abelard’s intellectual battles in the war between faith and reason, Christianity, and Enlightenment, which shaped the University of Paris and most subsequent intellectual inquiry. In those wars, reason claimed an improbable victory in 1793, when revolutionaries rechristened the cathedral into a temple to reason. For a time, the godde…
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…emons: A NAR curriculum But what would a NAR-influenced educational system look like? Wallnau—who’s thrilled that exorcisms (focusing on trans youth) are making a comeback—recently participated in a ministry event with early NAR leader Roberts Liardon, who operated a school known as Spirit Life Bible College (SLBC), which was intended as a model for NAR education. C. Peter Wagner, who coined the term New Apostolic Reformation, lectured at SLBC num…
Read More…ok to the State to meet needs the State was not intended to meet, they are looking to the State for salvation and making the State God. This is the source of their views on helping the poor (it’s the responsibility of families and churches) and education (a family responsibility). For them the civil government has no legitimate role in either function so they advocate dismantling the welfare system, eliminating the Department of Education, and ult…
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…, listed what he called “idols,” fixed ideas that scientists must do their best to avoid. All Bacon’s idols, as Lehrer suggests, probably play some role in the decline effect. Bacon wrote that scientists, like everyone else, search out, create, and prefer patterns, look for evidence to support their own pre-existing ideas, are biased by their culture, traditions, and previous beliefs, can be fooled by their senses, favor the parts over the whole o…
Read More…se the cast, came up with ideas for the scenes, and co-directed it with my best friend, Megan Leigh Barnard, who also was the cinematographer for the video. Megan is also queer. She and her girlfriend were in my last music video, “Love is Love,” with me. This was the first music video she’s done behind the camera, and she is one of the most sought after photographers in Columbus. I think she did a stunningly gorgeous job. I chose the cast with a d…
Read More…e, and economic disruption. But if you want to see what change is going to look like – that show, although indelibly linked to one at Tahrir, is somewhere else. That’s hardly surprising. From day one, it was clear that the protestors had no real leadership, and that its main strength was in being a spontaneous, grassroots phenomenon. What it coalesced around was relatively basic, but powerful – stay in Tahrir, until the President goes. The anti-re…
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…er. Rather than relief, I find myself afraid. What does American democracy look like on the other side of this election? It seems clear, at least, that our Trump hangover will be with us long beyond November. Trump has virtually no chance of winning, but after months of decrying “the media” and “the system” as rigged, he used the final debate as an opportunity to announce that he’ll have to decide, when the time comes, whether or not he’ll honor t…
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…id every year doesn’t want to jeopardize that aid—for which reason it will look very suspiciously on any political agenda that wants to antagonize Israel and threaten a major source of its funding. Imagine a cabinet meeting in which a minister, affiliated with the Brotherhood, suggests negating the peace treaty. The military could and would very easily point out to that minister that he wouldn’t be there absent the military’s help. I can almost gu…
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