Religion Dispatches
…d.” When asked whether he has participated in adult baptism, a ritual requisite for converts to the Convention, McCain says no, calling it “a personal thing,” adding on another occasion that “I didn’t find it necessary to do so for my spiritual needs.” McCain’s decision not to participate in a major ritual of Baptist practice may be laziness, may be diffidence, or it may be a desire to evade hypocrisy. If I don’t take communion when I attend an Ep…
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…rusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment—you can’t miss it.” Wasilla Bible Church is now promoting a September 13 Focus on the Family event called Love Won Out, a workshop on how to cure homosexuality through prayer [see pdf]. From 2006 on: Juneau Christian Center, Pastor Mike Rose Once Palin was elected governor, she affiliated with a third church, where she attends services while in t…
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…into topics like Rousseau’s theory of civil religion, mystical anarchism in 13th and 14th century movements of the Free Spirit, debates about religious violence. The Faith of the Faithless points to the ways in which religious ideas—theology—are still deeply (if crookedly) embedded in our politics, a convoluted situation for which Critchley has no simple solution. But he does suggest that old theological standbys (faith, hope, love) might still of…
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…ave temple president Satwant Kaleka, the precocious young children of 9 and 11 years, Amanat and Abhay, who ran inside the temple warning of the arrival of the armed killer. This appears over and over again in Sikh thought and history: spiritual courage manifests itself in a time of worldly defeat, enabling one to transcend victimhood. Through his teachings, the fifth Sikh Guru, Guru Arjan, reminds us: ‘[A devotee] has no pain, she is totally at p…
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…the highest rank in scouting, and it’s proof that you know how to put the spirit of scouting into practice. So it was with disappointment that I learned of the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to deny membership to openly gay boys. Scouting taught me that even if we are each a little different, there is a place for us on the team, and we can work together to meet our goals. Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts of America believes that these truly Americ…
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…low from afar the NCC’s current “re-envisioning” effort, marked by the July 1 launch of its “Transitional General Secretary’s” 18-month term, I see evidence of a transformation afoot within ecumenism that questions the premise of the either/or accommodational choice Hollinger mentions. We may be misreading what is happening around those widening ecumenical tables. Second, Fosdick’s 1922 sermon might well provide inspiration to the pluralist-advanc…
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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…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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…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…
Read More…law makers. Currently illegal in the island nation with penalties of up to 10 years in jail, some religious leaders are calling on Parliament to resist calls to de-criminalize homosexuality. In late May, Jernigan visited Jamaica on behalf of a group who want to keep the nation’s laws against homosexuality intact. While there, he also spoke to a group of journalists, and in response to a question about whether Jamaica should change laws against ho…
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