Religion Dispatches
…atient’—those who cannot wait until death to know God. Here knowledge is at-one-meant. To be at one with God in this life, not to wait until we die. Sometimes, when I enjoy the growth of my grandsons, or the developments of my children, I appreciate the passing of time. I really do. I am not one of those people who wants to be continually 29. I want to know what age can show us, but not to become so old as to not learn. After 10 years as a Muslim…
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…exual abuse only when it happens on America’s religious margins. Americans feel compassionate in wanting to save the dupes of new religions—we see a send-up of this self-satisfaction in the Today Show’s assistant handing the Mole Women their parting gift bags, droning “thank you, Victims! Thank you, Victims!”—and safer in their assumption that sexual predators are religious kooks, and not their neighbors, friends, and family members. While Kimmy r…
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…ious background. What he found was far more interesting than the fairly run-of-the-mill Christian Zionism of someone like Hagee. Bruce, can you explain what you found when you started looking into Sarah Palin’s religious background and affiliations? Bruce Wilson: Sarah Palin is, broadly speaking, in the emerging postdenominational movement, which by 2000 encompassed 385 million Christians and is vastly different from the faith as it has been pract…
Read More…new truths. “The new knowledge and the old faith [have] to be blended in a new combination,” Fosdick argued in his famous 1922 sermon, “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”—a new combination that for Fosdick demanded a Christianity without a virgin birth or literal second coming of Christ (among other things), which, he argued, were impossible to believe in, in this new scientific age. Conservatives, on the other hand, viewed the new discoveries in sci…
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…in that tragic conflict. It’s why many more trust him most to be commander-in-chief and wage the war against terrorism, our modern-day substitute for the communists of the cold war era. McCain gains all that trust because of his experience, not in government, but in prison, where he seems to have sacrificed the most basic human desire — the desire to escape physical pain — in order to serve his military comrades, his sense of honor, and his belov…
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…dispensable. I was honored to get the chance to interview Butler about her new book. Here’s what she had to say about it. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. Chrissy Stroop: Thanks for agreeing to do this interview, Anthea. Having read White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, I’m impressed with how much ground you masterfully cover while keeping the text engaging and accessible to the lay reader. A…
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…ion, Islamism, bankruptcy of welfare states, financial panic, and the every-man-for-himself feeling that people got living in a consumer society.” What of weaponry, poverty, and environmental challenges? Bill Coffin, that ‘radical’ of the sixties, agreed with the second President Bush that there was indeed an “axis of evil.” In 2002, Coffin declared: “President Bush rightly spoke of an axis of evil, but it is not Iraq, North Korea, or Iran. It con…
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…, when West Bank schools were closed, so in addition to the international students (children of clergy, diplomats, and United Nations employees), there were many Palestinian students. It was a fascinating microcosm of Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations. These young people faced unthinkable challenges, preparing for college or careers and learning to be adults in one of the most contested cities in the world. I felt for them, and loved them! …
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…One splendid resource for addressing this problem is the Jewish Annotated New Testament, edited by Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler. I wish Alberta had consulted with scholars like Levine and Brettler. At one point, for example, Alberta declares that Jesus “finished” what began when God delivered Israel from slavery, a common belief in the church that Christians replaced or “superseded” Jews as God’s chosen, and one that implies that God has…
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…] It’s a theory of religion. Yeah. And a theory of religion is a theory of community. In the book Saint Paul plays a role because I see Paul as the quintessential reformation figure who is always destroying the idols of whatever authorized religion is at any particular time. Of course there are several philosophers who’ve been writing about Paul in recent years—Alain Badiou, for instance. To the extent that the shape of a faith, even a faithless f…
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