Religion Dispatches
…of end-times theology, a black president who almost half the country seems to believe is not a Christian and a black robed army of preachers ready to fight for America. All of this churning religious melee can’t end well. Beck has just started another Web site “The Blaze,” where you can get news that Beck says “will pursue truth.” Beck would probably just accuse me of being a communist, but about what he is selling on Fox and at “The Blaze,” Vlad…
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…ism” with Jews achieves validation through the anti-socialist rhetoric of Trump and his Fox News apparatus. Media like O’Reilly and Dugard’s book represent a current imbrication of this anti-socialism and anti-Semitism on white nationalist biblical interpretation. Confronting anti-Judaism in the New Testament In the aftermath of the Poway synagogue shooting, a number of evangelical leaders responded that Christians need to confront and correct Chr…
Read More…r statue and shot. Lawyers from the Satanic Temple demanded an apology. FEBRUARY In February, the media focused on Miranda Barbour, 19, who was accused of killing a man she met on Craigslist. The “Craigslist Killer” alleged that she had been inducted into a Satanic cult at an early age and was forced to kill numerous people. In interviews, Gilmore and Greaves dismissed Barbour’s claims, diffusing some of the Satanic Panic. MARCH Fred Phelps died o…
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…r, the leak revealed two things: first, that tensions at the Vatican still run deep, and that clergy who serve the Pope are not innocent when it comes to betraying one another’s trust. And second, that leaks of any sort, from Wiki to Vati to pretty much any album released by a musician since the advent of MP3s present a dilemma to writers. Our decisions to cover leaks have repercussions, both good and bad. In the end, Encyclileak flared briefly, o…
Read More…ngeles for changing its anti-gay stance after pastor (a word the Christian news puts in scare quotes) Danny Cortez’s 15-year-old-son came out as gay. Instead of condemning his gay son and casting him out from the church and his family (which I suppose the SBC would have seen as the Christ-like thing to do), Cortez loved and accepted his son. Mohler was further enraged by the church’s move to, y’know, love and accept their pastor (or “pastor,” as t…
Read More…leaders have positions analogous to those of priests, pastors, and rabbis, news of Mayne’s calling is having an impact, revealing continuing divisions among Mormons and questions about evolving Mormon views on homosexuality. There is, in fact, no consensus Mormon view on homosexuality. While most Mormons view homosexual sexual activity as a sin, Church leaders have expressed divergent perspectives on LGBT issues, ranging from condemnatory and deri…
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…he Protestant language of universal human depravity. Hallie Jackson of NBC news asked Sanders whether she would defend Trump’s latest tweets to her own children saying “You talk about being personally affected by all of this as well—and that there’s nothing wrong with the president fighting fire with fire—is the argument that you’re making. You have stood here and talked about your family at this podium. Are you going to tell your kids this behavi…
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…s of TV have simply never found the March for Life to be the slightest bit newsworthy. But despite the dubious newsworthiness of an event that’s been happening for nearly 45 years and attracts a respectable, but hardly earthshattering crowd, the mainstream media dutifully reports every year on the march and airs the claims of the anti-abortion movement that its true scope and support is routinely ignored, despite polling that consistently shows a…
Read More…g gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender is okay with God. It would be big news if she didn’t! But when an older white guy like Jack Rogers, or a mid-20s straight white guy like Kurek says it, it’s big news! God loves gay people and doesn’t judge or condemn them? Gay people are just average, everyday people like everyone else? Who knew? Hallelujah! I am glad that Timothy Kurek has emerged from his big gay adventure as an ally who understands, just…
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…orters’ violent White Supremacist tantrum at the Capitol. Thinking of the TrumperTantrum as White Supremacist isn’t to claim that all people there were overt White Supremacists in their beliefs. Presumably many were not, even if they happily marched among Confederate flags or horrific “Camp Auschwitz” and “6MWE” (i.e. 6 million wasn’t enough) shirts. As Adam Serwer explains, the storming of Congress and the lies that incited it were themselves an…
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