Religion Dispatches
…hat point might Christians rely too much on political solutions to current problems? I started with the perspective of someone who says that faith is separate from public law and public service; it really isn’t. We have, as a country, a founding perspective that we’re founded under God; our founding documents reference and acknowledge God, and acknowledge that our rights and privileges come from our Creator. For those who have an interest in or pa…
Read More…the so-called liberal evangelicals like Jim Wallis who also focuses on the problems of the poor. Both Warren and Wallis skillfully employ the numerous biblical references to the poor, a number that dwarfs references to homosexuality. With such an approach they distance themselves from Dobson and the Family Research Council who are consumed by opposition to gay marriage and civil unions. These developments please a lot of people; the press gets a n…
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…Saints as “brainwashed cultists.” I do not argue here that there were not problems within both communities that were and are of legitimate concern to law enforcement authorities. I argue that the public perception of small religious groups and their behaviors as deviant is intensified when the “cult” stereotype is applied, and that has led law enforcement authorities to take actions against both the Branch Davidians and the YFZ community that cou…
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…and declines in eight. However, the net effect has been an increase in the number of states in the moderate category. In this sense, the Christian Right has been ‘spreading out’ across the states, especially in the South, Midwest, and West. Thus, Christian conservatives have become a staple of politics nearly everywhere.” In short, John McCain’s personal preferences were irrelevant: his route to the presidency was only viable with the help of Chri…
Read More…Israel was “a strangely exploitative” one. The acceptance of it, “pose[d] problems of principle for Jews and Israel, in return for an illusory short-term payoff.” Gorenberg wrote of the essential contradiction that informs the relationship: The Christian right’s view of Israel derives largely from a double-edged theological position. Following a classic anti-Jewish stance, it regards the Jewish people as spiritually blind for rejecting Jesus. Yet…
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…, and especially its application in technology, can be used to solve legal problems and alleviate legal restrictions, and science and technology should be used to heal and alleviate human suffering. But science does not provide us with the values and norms necessary to guide our actions. Any medical procedure or proposed therapy has to be evaluated in light of moral principles. Although Judaism sees humans as created in the image of God who act as…
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…nd the creation of a new social contract. From the outset, the project had problems. Major conservative evangelical leaders such as the late Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson opposed the initiative because they were concerned that groups like the Church of Scientology and the National of Islam would receive government grants. (Robertson later reversed course and his controversial enterprise, Operation Blessing, was the recipient of as much as $…
Read More…ns about the objectivity of the media as well as the best way to solve the problems. Rather, many evangelicals are concerned that proposed solutions to global warming would actually hurt the poor.” Still, millions of Christians—no matter how you slice it, Catholic or Protestant, evangelical or not—want to see their faith community become more active in environmental stewardship. There is a void in Christian leadership on environmental issues, as w…
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…certain points of their own belief and use fiction to work through vexing problems. Once again, this struggle may not be evident on the surface of the story or may not even be explicitly “intended” by the author. And this brings me back to Philip Pullman: My linking of Pullman with misotheism has been greeted with some incredulity. The Washington Post review of my book ended by quipping “I would like to be in the same room when Schweizer tells P…
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…mament movement—a network of upper crust Christian clubs—announced, “Human problems aren’t economic. They’re moral, and they can’t be solved by immoral measures.” He suggested instead “God-controlled democracy, or perhaps I should say a theocracy.” Bruce Barton, a founder of advertising giant BBDO and the author of one of the 20th century’s bestsellers, The Man Nobody Knows (it was Jesus, whom Barton proposed as the greatest CEO in history), won a…
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