Religion Dispatches
…ne system, putting him out of work for a considerable stretch. He lost the bet, and the cancer came back. I’m sure he would have been more than a little surprised to hear that his oncologist was required by state law to evaluate him for “physical, psychological, emotional, demographic, or situational” risk factors before removing his cancer. What he would have made of his doctor asking him if anyone had pressured him to have surgery, I don’t know….
Read More
…s than one full percentage point). And generally speaking, black Americans between the ages of 18-29 are not leaving Christianity and ecclesiastical affiliation. Only among historically black Protestant denominations did that number trend downward significantly between 2007 and 2014; the 18-29 age group decreased from 24 to 20 percent among historically black Protestant denominations. The number of 18-29 year olds among Catholics and evangelical P…
Read More…pride in our great nation.” Learn Our History’s messages are all geared to promoting the idea of American Exceptionalism, and from the clips, they appear to be delivered with all the subtlety and Cold War fervor of the movie Red Dawn. From Learn Our History web site’s Frequently Asked Questions: What does it mean that Learn Our History is “unbiased”? Learn Our History’s products have been developed to correct the “blame America first” attitude pre…
Read More
…hen our resolve to develop an ever better understanding of seismology? You bet. Do these guarantee that, going forward into an age of accelerating climate change and rapidly depleting oil reserves, we won’t take one hit after another to our most deeply-held belief as modern people: that we can do a better job of running the planet than the planet can? No. There is no guarantee whatsoever that we will emerge from this century with our pride of spec…
Read More
…en in the English translations that are readily available, he would have a better sense of Leibowitz’s more complex position on these matters. Sloppy comments like these sink this book of details. If one is going to write a book composed solely of details one has to be very certain the details are accurate and contextualized. Hunter Thompson knew that better than anyone. Reading Goliath got me thinking about Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel t…
Read More…ade most memorable by an aggressively wooden one-liner involving a $10,000 bet and Rick Perry, people who are kind of rooting for Mitt Romney (and kind of rooting is as good as he’s polling these days) are suggesting that candidate Romney should start talking about his Mormonism as a means of seeming, well, more human. All along, the conventional wisdom has been that Romney should avoid Mormonism, given the uncertainty it engenders in American vot…
Read More
…ng financial problems and infighting among church staff — including a rift between Schuller and his son (and heir apparent) the Rev. Robert Schuller, Jr., over the direction of church ministry — the Crystal Cathedral filed for bankruptcy, eventually reaching a $57.5 million agreement with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange to purchase the gleaming architectural icon of American Protestantism. Exterior of the Crystal Cathedral, 2007. Image via Wi…
Read More…al exam in AP history and gets at least a C on the test. I’d be willing to bet a sizable amount of money she can’t. Actually, I’m just amazed Christine O’Donnell wasn’t on her list. Bachmann’s suggestions shows just how tightly sealed the right-wing echo chamber has become. While the new conservative freshman don’t appear to be the kind of politicians who would need schooled on the proper Republican talking points, Bachmann’s taking no chances, as…
Read More
…,” “tax-and-spend liberals,” “Democrats,” etc.); use town hall meetings to promote scripted, digestible sound bites that echo the media propaganda machines hammering home simplistic though comforting messages (i.e., “the federal debt is a moral issue,” “health care reform equals death panels,” “America is a nation chosen by God,” etc.); and building coalitions can unite Americans against dangerous liberals who want to promote anti-capitalist agend…
Read More
…ing that “[t]he Lord picked the best-looking one to work on His Project. I bet Mama Mary had a hand in it too.” Just as fervent is the praise over at First Things, following an October 2010 autobiographical piece by Rose. Commenter J. Trehan calls Rose “a 21st-century example of what Paul meant when he wrote to the Philippians (4:13) saying, ‘I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.’” A comment from Charity enthuses, “When things beg…
Read More