Religion Dispatches
…eligious right leaders would like you to consider. Jesusween. The folks at www.Jesusween.com are hoping to turn Halloween into a “Christian gift-giving festival” and a time for evangelizing. And actually, in spite of the headline on this post, the Jesusween FAQ says it’s OK to give out candy along with gospel tracts or inexpensive Bibles. Just be sure to respond to “Trick or Treat” with “Jesus loves you.” The Hell House Experience. Plenty of evang…
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…tar. While some accounts, such as @request_prayers and its affiliated site www.prayerrequest.com, are crowdsourced, others have volunteer prayer teams standing by. @OurPrayer, the prayer request handle for Guideposts magazine, offers a description of its service that could serve as a script for heaven’s own automated telephone response system: “Your prayer concerns are important to us,” OurPrayer.org says, “and that’s why each and every prayer req…
Read More…rmal, as political constituencies around the world, like the pre-civil war American south, continued to invoke the New Testament injunction that “slaves be obedient to your masters” as their justification. Not to mention the derivative political theologies that provided ready justifications for bans on inter-racial marriage and, in very recent times, the ethical obscenity that was racial segregation and apartheid. Similarly with the status of wome…
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…Current Population Survey (CPS) Database, accessed Feb. 6, 2014 at http://www.census.gov/cps/. Population sums shown are in thousands.] What this means in raw numbers is that the 30% of Millennials who are religiously unaffiliated (15.86 million) are a somewhat smaller group than the 22% of GenXers (17.95 million) who are unaffiliated. Further, in terms of percentages, twice as many 18 to 29 year olds (31%) as 50-64 year olds (11%) is unaffiliate…
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…to Halloween. The movement began in 2002, and the organization’s website, www.jesusween.com, doesn’t appear to have been updated since 2012. But it’s still worth talking about, and not because it fits with the famililar “Ain’t those Evanglicals kooky?” meme. More recently, actor Kirk Cameron urged Evangelical families to approach Halloween, not quite as “Jesus Ween,” but along similar lines: You should have the biggest party on your block, and yo…
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…most interesting aspect of the Affair is that—similar to the European and American witch trials—those put to death for “practicing Satanism” were women who were relegated to the margins of society (some were LGBTQ, while others provided secret abortions). Looking at the history of Satanism, it makes sense that many Satanists today are standing up for reproductive, LGBTQ and minority rights. Can you talk about the role of movies like Rosemary’s Ba…
Read More…uestions, concerns, or invitations to discuss this with a larger group, at www.johnslattery.com. Citations of major quotes from Teilhard: “Do the yellows…”: Günther Schiwy, Teilhard de Chardin: sein Leben und seine Zeit. 2. (München: Kösel, 1981): 105. “I hate nationalism…” : Günther Schiwy, Teilhard de Chardin: sein Leben und seine Zeit. 2. (München: Kösel, 1981): 261. “The philosophical…”: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Letters to Léontine Zanta. T…
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…like Drew Brees and others whom we admire, being a Christian and being an American are the same. As a Christian leader I understand and teach that being a Christian and being an American are not the same. However, I appreciate the fact that Drew Brees has shown me, once again, that there are those, some of whom are white, who believe differently. Drew Brees is right but there is a difference between being right and being righteous. His statement…
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…h for the divine has simply broadened beyond traditional churches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEu2MH3J0qg A great many Nones are the spiritual progeny of the cheerful, well-dressed parade of Eisenhower-era churchgoers: fathers in their Mad Men suits, mothers in their pert hats and white gloves. They are Dick, Jane and Sally from the elementary-school readers, now with children and grandchildren of their own. (“See Dick. See Dick run. See Dick…
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…ow a phrase, by the Republican rank and file. We should be far more worried, however, by whom they have judged the winner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA8a2gt4VU8…
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