Religion Dispatches
…commissioned by the largest organization fighting for LGBT rights, but the numbers [pdf] show that the sample actually skewed right. Of the 800 registered voters polled 38 percent were strong, weak, or independent-leaning Democrats with 41 percent identifying as strong, weak, or independent leaning Republicans. Conservatives outweighed liberals by 38 to 18 percent, and a full 74 percent of those polled identified as religious. Some 40 percent clai…
Read More…result be a syncretistic blending that pulls the new university away from any clear Christian (or Jewish or Muslim) identity, moving it in the direction of the California Institute for Integral Studies or the Institute of Noetic Sciences? The faculty and administration deny that this will happen. But time will tell. What’s really at stake in the furor of criticism? What trends do they signal? Conservative schools that fight interreligious educatio…
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…ctice, One of my most demanding coaches would say, “It’s time to run.” If anyone dared to ask, “How many laps?” or “How long?” his regular response was, “Until I get tired.” Those practices often meant painfully pushing through a wall of fatigue with no end in sight. My best coaches also relentlessly pointed out my individual shortcomings: tactical mistakes, sloppy play, insufficient leadership, and inadequate strategic compensation for my slight,…
Read More…instatement of a compulsory draft.” However, that belief runs counter to many studies already done that show lifting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would not adversely affect the military in any way. In 1993 RAND Corp. concluded that openly gay people in the U.S. military do not negatively impact unit cohesion, morale, good order, or military readiness. Several other military-commissioned and GAO studies have concluded that open service does not undermine…
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…are legendary. The former Chief Rabbi of Israel and spiritual leader of many Middle Eastern Jews, said, among other things, that Palestinians “should perish from the world” and that “it is forbidden to be merciful to them”; of non-Jews in general, he declared that “Goyim were born only to serve us.” Despite comments like these, his funeral last October was the largest in the country’s history, with 800,000 Israelis attending. In the past month, R…
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…time to come. We’re still too close to its beginnings for historians, or anyone else, to explain it very well. The best we can do is begin to map out the territory. One way to begin mapping any movement is to look at its landmark books, authored by its most prominent writers. The most obvious landmark in this case is The Crisis of Zionism, by Peter Beinart. When this pillar of the liberal journalistic establishment, a one-time hawk who supported…
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…nternational policies, she was on the receiving end of some horrific misogyny. As a Black woman Harris will receive all that misogyny—but with additional adjectives. Misogynoir is basically sexism with a side helping of anti-Black racism aimed at Black women. Unlike getting something good for your soul like an extra side order of curly fries with your Popeye’s Chicken family box special, a side helping of misogynoir is very particular and exceedin…
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…re, Louis de Bonald, Juan Donoso Cortés, Julius Evola, and Carl Schmitt, many of whom happen to be influential among the current crop of National Conservatives. What we commonly today refer to as illiberalism, and what we see emerging in predominantly Catholic European nations—most notably in Hungary, but also in Poland, Austria, France, and Italy (and in former Soviet Eastern Orthodox nations to the east)—is a response to many of the same dynamic…
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…s in general—aren’t “real” Christians, a framing that I’ve criticized on many occasions as upholding Christian hegemony by implicitly equating “Christian” with “good”? Asked about the relationship between Christianity and Christian nationalism, Tyler is thoughtful. “Christian nationalism is not a religion,” she says. But, she adds, “I’ve heard people say ‘[Christian nationalism] has nothing to do with Christianity,’ and you have to reject that.” N…
Read More…ly, during which: We spoke for almost an hour about the concerns held by many Jews and Jewish leaders about Glenn Beck’s constant and often inappropriate invocation of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany on the air. We were assured by Ailes and Cheatwood that they understand our concerns and would explain them to Beck. Two days later, I received a hand-written note from Glenn Beck, which stated: “Simon, Joel shared the details of your meeting yesterday…
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