Religion Dispatches
…fice is revealed in telling details. Take Ataturk, father of an ostensibly Central Asian nation; he was born in today’s Macedonia, his features strikingly and suspiciously Slavic—blond hair and blue eyes. The 1990s war awakened many of these connections, and as Turkey in many respects challenges Ataturk’s legacy (especially his late 19th-century romantic European nationalism), the older truths of Turkey’s Ottoman heritage gain visibility. Not to r…
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…ficult path that leads toward enlightenment. Then, of course, there is the central image of Christianity: a dead prophet who has died an agonizing death. It is interesting how many times the image of a cross is highlighted in coverage of ground zero, usually a nicely cropped shot of the ruins of steel girders. Though in good Protestant fashion, this is a cross without a dead body. What we want, I believe (and here I may betray my own religiosity)…
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…hing. And as Pearson’s biography clearly demonstrates, if you give up that central idea that there is a hell (and hence a Satan), you’ll be banished from not only friendships, but the lucrative ministries that Pearson himself helped to create. All that said, there are different ways that people experience this, or faith healings, or other performances you find in these environments. Not everyone is in lockstep, when you sit down and talk with them…
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…over 30,000 evangelicals attended, and Bachmann, who has made her faith a central part of her campaign. The distinction offered by Waldron is that Perry looks the part of a Old Testament leader but Bachmann has God’s approval, as did King David. In the Old Testament, Saul was the first King of Israel and but had a bad end because he fell out of God’s favor. To replace Saul, God placed His blessing on King David. Here is the Waldron comment in ful…
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…ew there was a richer, more complicated story that needed to be told. The central figure in Conscience is Norman Thomas, my great-grandfather. He is known to posterity—very slightly—as a man who ran for president six times on the socialist ticket between 1928 and 1948, and who inspired a lot of people. But it’s also about his three brothers, Evan Thomas, the conscientious objector my father wrote about, and Ralph and Arthur, who were soldiers. Th…
Read More…women can better avoid unwanted pregnancies and space their pregnancies to promote optimal birth outcomes.” This recommendation did not go uncriticized. Second, HR 2678, The Communities of Color Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Act, was introduced in Congress on July 28 by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). As Rebecca Medina and Sally Schaeffer explain at RH Reality Check, this bill addresses both sexual violence in in…
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…triggered no small amount of protest, including from the atheist/agnostic Freedom from Religion Foundation, which is suing to stop it. Religious groups like the Houston Clergy Council are also concerned about the event, arguing that “…the governor has made it clear that only Christians of a particular kind are welcome to pray in a certain way. We feel that such an exclusive event does not reflect the rich tapestry of our city.” Jewish state repre…
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…(NGO) had registered 8,000 gays, lesbians and bisexuals in the Western and Central regions of the country which, if accurate, would represent a significant increase over past estimates. Within days, religious groups united to call on the Ghanaian government for action against sexual minorities. Both Christian and Muslim coalitions have declared that they will not support a politician who favors relaxing the laws covering homosexuality. Then, on Ju…
Read More…ites positions of acceptability.” Is Breivik a Christian terrorist? is the central question of Juergensmeyer’s piece. As he notes, Breivik was “much more concerned about politics, race and history than about scripture and religious belief.” Chip Berlet succinctly frames Breivik’s “core thesis” as “white Christian nationalism vs. multiculturalism.” Indeed Breivik sought to reconstitute a former crusades military force, one that would rescue a “pure…
Read More…ly Show and the New York Times, a lesbian feminist like me will feel quite central. But when I wrote a blog about boycotting the baseball All-Star Game because it was played in Arizona, and that blog was picked up by sports writers who called me every name in the book, I felt quite marginal. Perspective is, indeed, everything. What do you see as the biggest changes in the last decade, and how do they affect your view of your earlier work? Since 19…
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