Religion Dispatches
…been) the case. God’s universal love, for many Christianities, is secondary to God’s particular (non-universal) punishment of God’s enemies—of the people who stand against Donald Trump. Politics and religion are not separate. They are one. Trump’s Christians don’t pretend otherwise. The rest of us shouldn’t either….
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…hierarchy has a larger impact on politics. In Bill Clinton’s often-quoted words: “When times are uncertain, the American people would rather have a leader who is wrong but strong than one who is right but weak.” Just as the father must rule to keep the home in order, and the Father in Heaven must be obeyed to keep the universe in order, so the “great white father” in the White House must have firm control to keep order in the political realm. …
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…on conform, by and large, to this model whenever they varnish or warp the truth. Trump seems to be different. It is not clear that he deliberately dissembles in order to persuade someone else of what he knows is not the case. On many occasions, he gives no indications whatsoever, even after the dubiousness of his claims are unmasked, of having actually harbored a private belief which is then contradicted by his public statements. For example, he s…
Read More…ied to speak about our ministry to each other, our theologies, or even our lived experiences as queer Catholics. Sadly, this treatment comes not from benign ignorance, but from a more heartbreaking calculation to preserve the Vatican’s authority over how queer Catholics are depicted in the Church. That theological tradition positions queer Catholics as children, incapable of speaking credibly for ourselves or of the proper moral reasoning required…
Read More…ciated Press said the preacher “mostly eschewed politics.” But that’s not true. He ran up to politics and gave it a great big hug. Criswell was called to the pulpit of First Baptist Church in 1944. The next year, he preached a sermon on Christian America. “How indebted we are to the Almighty God for the government under which we live,” he said. “On the personality of God our forefathers launched our great ship of state.” In the sermon, Criswell ba…
Read More…s of persecution and attacks on religious liberty so consistently they sometimes struggle to distinguish fact from fiction. There are theological reasons that evangelicals and other Christians sometimes aspire to be oppressed, as Noble outlines. And there are political reasons that several “major conservative political pundits and organizations have made a name for themselves by selectively highlighting cases of alleged persecution of Christians.”…
Read More…d the practice through executive order; legislation wouldn’t be necessary. World Vision, though, is drawing attention to a provision in the pending Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration reauthorization that would prohibit religious discrimination in hiring by groups receiving federal funding. But World Vision, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Orthodox Union urged Congress not to pass any legislation and also continued to…
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…climate care and climate change in these faith communities are changing. That would be an awesome study. My sense is that after big storm events, each time a big city gets hit, that city becomes more attuned to climate change. That certainly seemed to be the case in New York, with Sandy. I think of that as being the case in New Orleans as well. Well, we have noticed the city looking to Rice University for expert help: on how should we do our levee…
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…espond to the threat of extremism?” This was the question posed in the New York Times‘ “Room for Debate” last week. The debaters included Muslim activists, journalists, and scholars who all had very perceptive things to say. But the overarching view seemed to be that the belligerence of a few “bad Muslims” can be countered by the morality of “good Muslims.” It’s time we complicated this formula—or better, put it to rest. What we need is not Muslim…
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…th the WRC. Nike apparently has a history of stifling the WRC. In 2000 The New York Times reported that Knight rescinded a proposed $30 million gift to the University of Oregon because it enlisted the WRC. Some may say equality means having the ability to vote, determine whom one marries, where one works, lives, etc. Wages and working conditions are determined by the market. Those workers can work elsewhere…that’s the beauty of capitalism… They ar…
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