Religion Dispatches
…When you consider how easily Luther could have gone up in smoke in an auto-da-fé rather than launch a movement. Without the protection granted to him by Frederick of Saxony, Luther’s message would surely have been quickly nipped in the bud; it becomes evident that circumstance and the role of political factions in even the most rarefied of religious debates are critical. The Protestant Reformation is often remembered as a triumph of reason over s…
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…ts, Radical Reformationists and Orthodox (not to mention Jews, Muslims, non-believers and others) could live as neighbors. An accomplishment not won by better theology nor a love of peace, but because each lacked the ability to oppress one another by controlling the government. We have created a land where church and state are separated to protect them from one another, not to diminish the role of either. The integrity of the church is jeopardized…
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…abundance awaits you. Wendy, author of several “prophetic” fiction and non-fiction books, including one published by a Strang imprint, has defined herself as an evangelist and a prophet. Both Crouches are lifelong Pentecostals, raised in the Assemblies of God and the revivalism of the 1950s. But Wendy Alec thrives on telling of her conversion from debauchery to Christ when she was a teenage rock rebel in Durban, South Africa. (Rory is South Afric…
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…many women about Francis’ ability to see them as full persons. Gina Messina-Dysert, author of the forthcoming Faithfully Feminist, noted that: Francis has made some important, positive comments about women and said it is time to reexamine the role of women in the church. But he continues to reveal a highly patriarchal view of the value and traditional role of women. He said ‘the consecrated woman is a mother, she must be a mother, and not an old m…
Read More…eld at St. Odiilia Church in Tucson, Arizona. It was the church where the 9-year-old shooting victim, Christina Green, had her first communion. A group of Trappist monks from Iowa built, engraved, and blessed a handmade casket for Green. The monks specialize in hand-crafting caskets “with reverence for nature.” Not to be outdone by compassionate monks, the hateful folks at Westboro Baptist Church announced they would protest outside Green’s funera…
Read More…y tithing, their religion is politics,” Senator Orrin Hatch told a crowd of 300 at Dixie State College in St. George, Utah on Tuesday night. Sigh. Never mind all the GLBT Mormons who stay active in the LDS Church and pay their tithes. Never mind all the GLBT people of faith who give offerings to their home churches and synagogues. Never mind the fact that paying tithes or church offerings never prevented conservatives from giving abundantly to pol…
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…rations should be brought to bear for LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized communities? Covid-19 has shone a spotlight on numerous flaws in how our world responds to some of the most critical and life-sustaining needs of all. The management and distribution of health information and resources is clearly among the issues that must be rethought and reconstructed in the months and years ahead. Catholic and other faith-based health providers could be…
Read More…ion and liberation. Theologian Jurgen Moltmann writes that any of us can become oppressors when we see freedom as “mastery”—as superiority over those seen as less than or unworthy. You are blind to your role as oppressor, however, because you have bought the conservative Christian idea that signing a marriage certificate for a same-sex couple will send you to hell, when Jesus had far more to say about the sin of divorced people remarrying. I’m sur…
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…fact is. But you do presume to know. Personally, I do not believe that God-in-Christ is invested in the creation of a “cross-driven movement that will reconcile Billy Graham’s message with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s march.” Personally, I think God-in-Christ still approves Dr. King’s agenda without qualification. Truth be told, I was somewhat surprised that the 94-year-old evangelist would choose this moment in his long life to become overtly pa…
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…mes, and life expectancy? Before you pen that “think” piece on the evidence-free proposition that secularization is contributing to the decline of American democracy, perhaps you could pause, just for a moment, and reflect on how your “centrist” take amounts to little more than confirmation bias, question begging, and victim blaming? And before you cite biased studies showing how religious people are happier, healthier, more moral, or more success…
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