Religion Dispatches
…ent against marriage equality. Listening to Lampo talk about the rise of a live-and-let-live approach to gay rights among Republicans, it occurred to me that even the National Organization for Marriage recognizes the appeal of a libertarian message. NOM’s number-one poll-tested message, repeated over and over again by its spokespeople, is this: “Gays and Lesbians have a right to live as they choose, they don’t have the right to redefine marriage f…
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…eligion I was a Christian for over twenty-five years—not a “buffet-style,” live-and-let-live Christ follower, but a hardcore fundamentalist true believer. I was “radically pro-life” to the point of shunning all forms of birth control. I desired to raise “a quiver full of arrows” for God’s army: mighty warriors who would valiantly battle the forces of darkness, battering against the Gates of Hell and ultimately ushering in Christ’s Kingdom on Earth…
Read More…-strong youth organization is dealing with much more serious issues. An LA Times exposé just revealed the group’s ineffective and insular response to allegations of child abuse within their ranks from 1970 to 1991: A Los Angeles Times review of more than 1,200 files dating from 1970 to 1991 found more than 125 cases across the country in which men allegedly continued to molest Scouts after the organization was first presented with detailed allegat…
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…force navigator, he then turned to religion at Union Theological Seminary, New York. Afterwards, in 1947, he accepted an assignment from the United Church of Canada to go to India where he and his wife taught at Indore Christian College. On returning to New York in 1957 he completed a PhD in history at Columbia University. It remained his academic home for most of the rest of his rich career as a professor, dean, department chair, and member of th…
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…rhaps it is time to see “Christianity” in similar terms—an antiquated category that does not hold up under serious scrutiny and distracts from real-world politics, power, and difference. What do the Christians believe?…
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…ave been declining by double digits in recent years.” Rachel Abrams in the New York Times understated the dilemma: “Still, Mattel executives have struggled to rebrand Barbie as an aspirational figure, one not so closely identified with her unnatural body measurements.” Ditto for the Vatican trying to seduce women back to a celebration that dramatically depicts their exclusion from ordained ministry. After all, the Holy Thursday liturgy commemorate…
Read More…stamped around midnight today, reading, “If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game. Were instructions given on filling out anti-HERO petition?-A,” suggesting that the city was attempting to discover whether the petition organizers knew some of the collected signatures may have been invalid. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from RD. Even if the city does go to c…
Read More…nsidered married. In the other, Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, he ruled DOMA violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. For anyone paying attention when DOMA was drafted these rulings are cause for celebration. The law has always been one of separate and unequal when it comes to the rights of gay and lesbian people to enter into the legal civil contract of marriage. The judge’s ruli…
Read More…attitudes towards Islam and the upcoming Peter King hearings, ran some more specific numbers for me, and reports: “Evangelicals are significantly more likely than the general population and than other religious groups to say they most trust Fox News. More than 4-in-10 (41%) Evangelicals say they most trust Fox News, compared to 20% of Mainline Protestants, 21% of minority Christians, 29% of white Catholics, and 22% of the unaffiliated. The [gener…
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…ed she would march into the school and bring the girl straight home. Their new Yorkie puppy would so happy. By the time the mother was halfway to the school the DJ had more news. Most of the shooting took place in the school library. There appeared to be fatalities. The mother was still focused on her mission. Getting to the school. But SWAT teams had set up a perimeter. Trucks. Sharp shooters. Big dogs. It looked like a war. It looked like a Bruc…
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