Religion Dispatches
…has ever truly been made in the area of equal rights for any group—be they African Americans, women, or any other minority—has come from the courage of a small group of people who have been imbued with the legal power to stand up and not just advocate for fairness, but to impose it on the majority for the good of all. Gov. Lingle has this power—but she refuses to use in the name of justice, and instead, the twice divorced governor is feeling prett…
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…r marriage.” There was no mention, however, of crowd size in Indianapolis. Freedom to Marry is shadowing the NOM bus tour with a tour of its own, but instead of organizing the protest rallies, the group is using its time to organize activists. During a stop in Maryland last week FtM’s managing director, Scott Davenport, met with Equality Maryland to help it raise money to introduce a marriage equality bill in the next legislative session. I attend…
Read More…ng strong alliances especially in communities that supported Prop. 8, like African-Americans. The report also suggests embracing honesty. Our opposition depicts us in a highly unflattering way in every election. We give them the power to define us when only they talk about us. We therefore have to talk about ourselves or we functionally forfeit the election. Honesty is therefore not only the idealistic option; it is also our only realistic option….
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…military. It’s incredible how in the last three months it’s like suddenly Republicans have suddenly discovered the deficit, but the deficit was kept off the books by George Bush for the wars. I heard a guy the other day say on NPR, “We will stay in Afghanistan until we can’t afford it anymore. We will never find a reason to leave, we will never arrive at a victory, but we will finally have to quit.” I think the judgment that we can’t afford it—we…
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…h requires states to have a government run by the people, specifically, “a republican form of government.” And despite enemies of man-woman marriage trying to morph the Constitution’s references to “liberty” and “equal protection” into a declaration of homosexual “marriages,” these words in the post-Civil War 14th Amendment are about giving former black slaves the same legal rights as white freemen—it’s not at all about marriage or even about coup…
Read More….” This is Beck’s slanted version (drawn from “Christian American History” promoter David Barton) of the history of race in America in which the Democratic party has, all along, supported racism, while the Republicans have been the party of racial equality. During the “Founders Friday” session of his television show devoted to his revisionist version of African American History, and many times since, he shared that, apparently by accident (or divi…
Read More…Parker, a religious right celebrity touted by the John Birch Society, the Republican candidate for the congressional seat in California’s 37th district, and an exemplar of the religious right’s efforts to reach African-American voters, is an expressed admirer of Rushdoony. When she approvingly cited his theology to the crowd assembled at the Values Voters Summit a few years ago, no one blinked an eye. That’s because Christian Reconstructionism is…
Read More…al religion, and therefore doesn’t enjoy the same freedoms Christians do (“freedoms” like denying equal rights to LGBT people). As I wrote in a post “The Utter Ordinariness of Demeaning Islam,” religious right figures from Palin to Franklin Graham to lesser-known figures like O’Neal Dozier, calling Islam “wicked,” “evil,” or a “false religion” is de rigueur. For the religious right, the fact of the Park51 center’s location is of little relevance —…
Read More…hreat from his stand, he will nonetheless face an uphill climb, especially if he continues to support anti-gay candidates under the “my political identity is not defined by one issue” cop-out used by all gay Republicans I know. Sadly, though, his fiercest opposition will most likely be other closeted gay Republicans—and closeted Christian conservatives—still cowering in fear and self-loathing. …
Read More…oldier is wants to leave the military as a conscientious objector. A South African pastor’s “Jesus had HIV” sermon has angered many Christians in the country. Michael Enright , a 21-year-old film student, has been arrested for slashing a cab driver’s throat after discovering the driver was a Muslim. A woman working as a hostess at a Disney restaurant in California is filing a discrimination complaint after being sent home for refusing to remove he…
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