Religion Dispatches
…ersion therapy on Monday. Today, NPR’s ombudsman, Edward Schumacher-Matos, analyzed Monday’s story in light of the negative reaction from listeners. Briefly, Alix Spiegel interviewed Rich Wyler, founder of Journey into Manhood, and Peterson Toscano, a man who went spent 17 years in an unsuccessful effort to change his orientation. Schumacher-Matos correctly points out that much of the negative reaction centered on the presentation of Wyler and Tos…
Read More…Wait. Bergoglio, a defender of human rights? The idea that anyone would characterize the new pope as having a solid record on such issues is laughable. One needn’t look further than his staunch opposition to LGBT rights and his flagrant attacks on women to see the contempt. In the days leading up to Argentina’s legalization of same-sex marriage in July, Bergoglio labeled the push for equality “a destructive attack on God’s plan” and deemed adopt…
Read More…and Jewish Funds for Justice, the latter of which had already swallowed up a number of smaller Jewish social justice organizations. I know several people who work at BtA, and I commend them on their ability to keep a secret. I and friends of mine plied several of these folks with drinks, but their lips stayed sealed. (I did find out that the org would have an action-verb in it, as is the fashion these days, but that’s all.) That being said, I’m n…
Read More…t have the greatest concentration of white supremacists in America), I met a number of Christian pastors and activists. Afterwards, a conservative evangelical told me he felt that Islamophobia and Christophobia were similar (I guess it’s better than denying bigotry exists at all). I also received an e-mail from a participant in the event who came by because of RD: Dear Haroon, Thanks for your talk at WSU tonight and [for] your perspective on thing…
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…n kids! Seven kids!” one woman exclaimed at a Rick Santorum rally in Louisiana on March 21, when organizers asked people to say what they liked most about the ultra-conservative Catholic, homeschooling presidential candidate. Two days earlier, the 19-child Duggar family, famous for their reality TV show about large-family living, had released a folksy video in support of Santorum: “19 Reasons & Counting to Vote for Rick Santorum.” In it, Michelle…
Read More…constitutional questions about what religious freedom and church-state separation mean. Many of the organizations and activists who are part of a coalition of church-state separation advocates have long done stellar work in raising awareness of encroachment of religion in politics and policy-making. Being able to keep the pressure on church-state separation issues during a campaign season will be the test of the movement’s political muscle. It mi…
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…the one thing that they got right in this case. The U.S. has on the books a number of valuable laws against discrimination in the workplace, and all organizations (businesses, nonprofits, schools, governments) are expected to abide by these laws. Except religions, or so it now seems. According to the Tabor ruling, religious groups get a pass on the law when it comes to employees who are considered “ministerial.” The right to the free exercise of…
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Half the fight against bigotry, to paraphrase Woody Allen, might just be in showing up. When Abraham Hassan stood up at Thursday night’s CNN debate, he introduced himself as a Palestinian-American and a Republican. Plainly, that’s not what I expected to hear. Like any decent observer of the Republican race, I was irritated by Gingrich’s dismissal of the Palestinians, so hearing Hassan immediately got me excited. But what happened next, between hi…
Read More…egation for the Doctrine of the Faith condemning, as Mary Hunt points out, a book by the highly regarded nun-ethicist, Margaret A. Farley, and representatives of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) flying to Rome to defend themselves from accusations of “radical feminism.” One of the meanings of this “radical feminism,” in case you’re wondering, is that the LCWR “never revoked a statement from 1977 that questioned the male-only pri…
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…o are choosing to find another denominational family,’ said Christina Tazelaar, director of communication for the RCA.” There’s no other perspective from within the denomination, not a single quote from anyone who disagrees with these churches’ decision to leave the denomination, who thinks it might undercut the RCA’s mission or ministry, or who might feel threatened or harmed by yet another religious body opposed to equality for women and LGBTQ+…
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