Religion Dispatches
…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…
Read More…a primary. McCain’s success this time around is surprising considering the centrality of the religious right in the Republican electoral coalition. Some observers, however, including Dionne and former White House insider David Kuo, whose book Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction (Free Press, 2006) exposed the Bush administration’s instrumental and sometimes contemptuous attitude toward conservative Christian voters, might say McC…
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…e modern than they are ancient. We are modern people, after all; Coubertin freely admitted as much. So the trick to analyzing the Olympics as modern ritual and as modern religion (not to mention as social performance) is to track simultaneously how they are similar and how they are dissimilar to their ancient counterparts. As far as the flame goes, they are notably dissimilar. The ancient Olympic Games were always held at the same spot every four…
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