Religion Dispatches
…or intellectual capability that can even compare. Malcolm was about a pan-African consciousness and, after becoming a Muslim, global consciousness. Beck’s nastiness comes from rapacious self-aggrandizement. Comparing X to Beck is just plain ignorant. A shrewd snake-oil evangelist who knows how to pull at the heartstrings of his constituency has hijacked the narrative of the Civil Rights Movement. That constituency, floundering because the old lea…
Read More…e that has also benefitted causes as diverse as breast cancer research and African-American history. But it has not stopped some overzealous LDS people from submitting for proxy baptism the names of individuals they cannot claim as relatives—including Holocaust victims. An act that might have seemed to LDS people deep in the heart of the Book-of-Mormon-belt a gesture of respect for Jews was, of course, an outrage to Jewish people who believe that…
Read More…the run-walk, sa’iy, while at the same time contemplating the fate of this African slave woman and her child after they were abandoned. I have contemplated it quite a bit in the security of my own office, so now I want to put it to the test and not be so exhausted all I think about is my feet. Well, that’s pretty much it, except for future developments from these two ladies. One, Sarah, the mother of Ishaq becomes the mother of the Jewish people a…
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…ve to say anything Bishop/We Love you Bishop.” It has often been said that African-American churchgoers have a special relationship to their pastors, but I have never seen a religious leader anticipated and greeted the way Bishop Long was this morning—except perhaps for the Pope. The anticipation was palpable during the protracted prayers at the altar; first by both men and women, then interestingly enough, from a group of 200 men who seemed to le…
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…racy to turn the “American Constitution upside-down,” in order to “use our freedoms to promote pornography, homosexuality, immorality, and a host of evils characteristic of the last days.” LaHaye says the “Antichrist philosophy already controls America and Europe,” and that: We are the only nation that can halt the socialist Marxist enthronement of the UN as THE GLOBAL GOVERNMENT of the world, but it will require a conservative administration and…
Read More…vists like Ralph Reed, participants in the Values Voters Summit and in the Freedom Federation are looking to form coalitions with tea partiers, and, as Joanna Brooks has discussed here, the influence of Mormon belief on the rhetoric of Glenn Beck. Are there clues in the Washington findings that tea party supporters are far more hostile to gay and lesbian marriage rights than non-tea partiers or tea party “agnostics,” that they believe that gays an…
Read More…for Senator Obama to throw Rev. Wright out like yesterday’s garbage. Many African Americans are depicting Rev. Wright as an egotistical Judas having sold out our presidential messiah for fifteen minutes of fame. And even some of Rev. Wright’s fellow black clergy have attempted to distance themselves from the media circus that has become the “Reverend Wright Controversy.” Its time to get a grip! The furor over Rev. Wright is not about his ability…
Read More…Spanish, French, Acadians and descendants of slaves, in which Catholic and African religious traditions intermingle. And then there is the northern half of the state with its white Anglo evangelical heritage. It’s this divide that has made her state a hotbed for the religious right. The Louisiana Family Forum, a state affiliate of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family draws much of its support from northern evangelical conservatives and Louisiana Gov…
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…S globally are women; and the syndrome is the leading cause of death among African American women between 25 and 34. Now, in 2008, nearly fifty percent of new U.S. diagnoses of HIV or AIDS occur among black people. And Hispanics, as well, are disproportionately affected by AIDS/HIV in the United States. Nearly 50 percent of US infections reported in March 2008 (data for 2006) were male to male infections. (For such data, see here and here. The cur…
Read More…Missouri and 182,000 in Tennessee (a number greater than, for example, all African-American voters or all voters over 65 in the Democratic primaries in each state). • Importantly, the poll also found that majorities of both Democratic and Republican evangelical voters want a broader agenda that goes beyond abortion and same-sex marriage to include ending poverty, protecting the environment, and tackling HIV/AIDS. These important numbers are suppor…
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