Religion Dispatches
…tholic, local Catholic churches were noted. Yet video clips honoring “right-to-life” leaders were mostly the religious right types: Mike Huckabee, and of course Sarah Palin. Catholics and religious right leaders have long made common cause on abortion but the cultural differences between the two groups is strongly discernible. Heroic Media uses television, websites and billboards to promote alternatives to abortion. Compared to much of the pro-l…
Read More…nd minds of so many of its followers. That sin is further exacerbated when religion is used as a tool to try to “cure” the shame it created. The shame should lie not with gay and lesbian people, but with a church, and an “ex-gay” industry peopled by professional “ex-gays,” that continues to repeat the lie no matter how many lives are ruined by it. Shame on NPR for letting that lie travel on its airwaves in some misguided attempt at “balance.”…
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…tian conscience. These are the speeches that persuade, not the arguments-by-number. So why do we repeat them? One strategic justification is that we progressives are regrettably obliged to answer the barrage of speeches from the other side. If they quote those predictable Bible verses against us, we must reply with counter-interpretations. If they brandish natural law, we must correct their reading of Thomas Aquinas or do them one better by produc…
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…ept an ‘abstracted’ science? And what does abstract science do for us? The number of nuclear bombs used by the West outweighs the number used by the entire planet. Muslims did not invent nuclear weapons, nor have they used them. (Let’s pray that stands.) When Saddam Hussein was our ally, he unleashed chemical weapons on Kurds at Halabja, the only confirmed instance of a Muslim regime using chemical weapons. Even considering the possibility of Assa…
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…personal knowledge, I can tell you that many of the play’s zingers about 19-year-old Mormon “elders” fall on target. A surprising number of these Christian soldiers haven’t in fact read the Book of Mormon (“Another Testament of Jesus Christ”). Pairs of missionaries (“companions”) do often resent each other; sexual tension, homophobia, homesickness, and boredom strain the relationships of these co-workers/roommates. Many missionaries dislike their…
Read More…s purely sexual beings. Foster’s screed is simply a long promo for a new ex-gay movie coming out, and the trailer, three-minutes of nauseating footage, centers around how each of these former homosexuals lived their lives in clubs, engaging in cheap, easy, and often public sex, or were sexually abused. For all the claptrap the religious right yells about how they don’t want to think of us “that way,” the trailer for the film is positively voyeuris…
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…Nazi Germany all over again! How exactly did the promise of a welcome-back-to-school pep talk become the occasion for such fear and anger? What made it possible? Back in the early 1990s, when the first President Bush gave a similar speech to schoolchildren, there were some partisan grumblings from Democratic politicos (albeit far milder—no mention of Nazi Germany). But these grumblings didn’t stick. There was no national controversy. Parents were…
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…ee of interest in the February 9 webinar, for which 1500 people registered, 800 of whom attended. These are very large numbers for events of this nature, and part of the reason for releasing the report at this time is to “keep public attention on Christian nationalism.” While no particular next steps are immediately planned, Tyler expresses hope “that this will be a resource for the [US House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack], and for othe…
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…elling like hotcakes. According to the Web site, complete with the iconic 1-800 number and attractive female operator with headset, the IDENTIGENE test is “Fast. Accurate. Confidential.” It’s not the speed, accuracy, nor confidentiality that worry me so much (although plenty of problems lurk therein). It’s more the information itself, its power, and in what context it is received. Personally, I’m not too interested in the test for myself. I know w…
Read More…“800+ members” but does not list specific affiliations. The group of Ultra-Orthodox Jews have apparently been around since 1945, and “seeks to promulgate the cause of Torah-true Judaism through an organized rabbinate that is consistently Orthodox.” Levin says he agrees “with Eileen Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness that this will hurt the cohesiveness of the military, cause many to leave the army, and dramatically lower the number of…
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