Religion Dispatches
…because ambiguity and ambivalence are the predictable results of increased freedom and opportunity. Indeed, racism, which is the ideological expression of white supremacy, has become, paradoxically, both weaker and more sophisticated. Racism is now articulated in complex and subtle ways that track class and gender differences, which makes it harder to detect and fight. Class, race, and gender mystify each other, thus obscuring a complex relation a…
Read More…formation is often remembered as a triumph of reason over superstition and freedom over tyranny, but for me the tale has a rather different moral. I see in it the emergence of some other touchstones of modernity, especially the role of the mass media in politics. Without in any way detracting from the cogency or timeliness of Luther’s theological critique of the practice of selling papal indulgences, I suspect that the factor most decisive in tran…
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…e Pope, launch their own civil action against him or refer his case to the International Criminal Court.” What will be the effects of these efforts? My answer, in brief: Nothing good. To see why, consider the following. What happens when you combine the Church’s self-understanding (as the vessel in which God has entrusted His revelation to the world) and a history of enormous privilege and prestige, with the rise of secularism and the concomitant…
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…(in the midst of an already ferocious insurgent war) in Iraq produced huge numbers of weekly attacks and casualties, averaging 2,000 attacks per month. The numbers then dropped dramatically as ethnic cleansing was completed in many areas, the “surge” of U.S. forces restricted the flow of explosives into Baghdad, the Mahdi Army suspended its attacks, and the U.S. co-opted Sunni insurgents. But violence has spiked again recently; it’s a perilous bus…
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…ly branding Rwanda the first officially “Purpose-Driven nation,” after his international bestseller, The Purpose-Driven Life. The US government has fallen in line, pledging federal “faith-based” funding to augment Warren’s freelance foreign policy, which emphasizes Rwanda’s transformation (or, perhaps, conversion?) through small-scale capitalism and personal responsibility. Obama, meanwhile, has pledged to expand Bush’s Faith-Based Initiatives pro…
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…motivated to fight against the American presence because of their love of freedom. They see the US military, like the Soviet forces before them, as a foreign occupying power. The Taliban, as draconian as they may be, are seen as enemies of the enemy: us. It is the US military presence, paradoxically, that is uniting the Taliban and marshaling wide public support behind it. What all this means is that a military strategy simply will not win. A new…
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…bertson—jumped on the Israel bandwagon. They also jumped on numerous El Al flights to Tel Aviv, often accompanied by large groups of fellow pilgrims to the Holy Land. In a 1984 interview Falwell asserted that: The destiny of the State of Israel is without question the most crucial international matter facing the world today. I believe that the people of Israel have not only a theological but also a historical and legal right to the land. I am pers…
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…f the knottiest issues we face as a culture to which religious freedom and free speech are so central: How do we think about and describe religiously-motivated violence? The Hutaree’s plans to murder a police officer and use IEDs to attack the funeral procession in order to catalyze an uprising against the federal government was shocking and made headlines around the world. Their action plan, while preposterous on its face, is not terribly surpris…
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…civil disobedience and goes to jail to help stop war or nuclear weapons. A number of the questions are clearly designed to elicit answers the Vatican knows full well it won’t like. The data will provide the pretext for concluding that the decline in numbers in progressive groups is a result of their lack of obedience and conformity to the men’s rules. Solution: tighten up the ranks. Enter the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, the alte…
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…his coalition’s Ultra-Orthodox constiuents, Benjamin Netanyahu (busy with international affairs in general and with the conflict with the Obama administration in particular) at first made a hasty and incautious decision that may have wide-ranging implications for all Israelis—and not only for those served by the staff of Barzilai Hospital. Then this week, in one of those sudden reversals of policy for which he is now known, Netanyahu told Deputy…
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