Religion Dispatches
…dismay turned to laughter when I saw immediately below Winters’ screed the code of conduct for comments on National Catholic Reporter. His post is a primer on violating NCR’s own rules for respectful conversation. Maybe someone at NCR can give him a much-needed tutorial. NCR Comment code: Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Use appropriate language. Avoid vulgarities and slurs. Keep to the point. Deliberat…
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…n of religious believers’ feelings has been enshrined in the Russian Civil Code for quite some time, but making it a criminal offense to insult the feelings of religious believers could bring with it much harsher penalties. The Russian web was abuzz with a lively discussion of this topic last fall, and as the initiative was recently passed, there is renewed interest in the Russian media and blogosphere. Аccording to the just passed redaction of ar…
Read More…tion as a simple statement, and won’t radically rewrite the Oklahoma legal code in ways that are controversial and alarming to many Oklahomans. Yes, well. For whatever reason, that amendment was not palatable to the groups backing SB-1433. Last night, Personhood USA posted a statement calling it “unforgivable” that Steele had not called for a floor vote on SB-1433 that day—the first day that it would have been up for a floor vote anyway, and for…
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…ge your day-to-day relationship with tempting foods. Chocolate cake has to code-switch, from “a thing I want and must resist” to “a thing I don’t want right now,” and that happens in the ACC. As Roundling’s study shows, religious thoughts seem to help with short-term code switching because they offer a concrete set of alternative values. Similarly, when Warren says that caring for his body is a “stewardship issue,” he might be actively molding his…
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…s a pair) has produced new attention in LDS communities to how those dress code boundaries are enforced and who bears the brunt of the enforcement. Beginning in November, the BYU-Idaho testing center (responsible for administering academic examinations for many classes, especially large General Education courses) started interpreting and enforcing the school’s dress and grooming standards as a ban on “skinny jeans.” A flyer was posted by universit…
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…ve also argued that Taiwanese society has its roots in Confucianism, which promotes a strong adherence to traditional family values, and of course, producing offspring. They argue that the fundamental concept of marriage should be between a man and a woman, otherwise it would be “very confusing for children.” The South China Post said the court ruling in Taiwan “has reverberated across Asia, but the fight for equality is not over yet in a region w…
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…ded within the Occupy movement (arguably its own religious revival, in the best of ways), Nathan Schneider’s God in Proof is the rare religion nonfiction book that doesn’t just use the tools of New Religion Journalism to write about ritual, belief, or identity, but to actually get into the syllogisms as it were, and to investigate theology. God in Proof concerns with the ways in which philosophers from St. Anselm to René Descartes, St. Thomas Aqui…
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…recording their intersection and daily lives, which also nominated for the best documentary and best editing award of the Golden Horse in 2016. Philippines: Legislation targets street harassment of women and LGBT people Senator Risa Hontiveros introduced legislation aimed at curbing street harassment of women and LGBT people. Reports Gay Star News: The Bill would outlaw catcalling, wolf-whistling, cursing, leering, groping, persistent requests for…
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…young activists—many of which were run by youth themselves. M: Which were best? How did they handle questions about Obama (who is a member of the UCC) and Jeremiah Wright? How did the youth respond? L: From what I heard, the youth-led workshops were best. And we didn’t talk about Obama, Jeremiah Wright, or race—or really politics at all for that matter. One exception was a keynote about environmental activism, although the speaker seemed surprise…
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…eep America Great” isn’t just an empty phrase or trite repackaging of the ubiquitous MAGA slogan. Trump’s supporters believe it. They believe it because the appeal of “MAGA” was never really about returning to some golden age when America was at its best. On the contrary, to Trump’s supporters, America is at its best whenever their cultural and political influence is strong. To the extent that such influence can stay strong, from their perspective…
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