Religion Dispatches
…is letting its inmates do in-house programming these days. (If it did, I’d bet it would be a far more interesting show.) Since 2006, Hovind has been serving a ten-year prison sentence after being convicted of 58 federal counts, including twelve tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents and forty-five counts of structuring cash transactions. Actually, the Creation Series is a DVD featuring many of Hovind’s classic silliness. (His assert…
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…e beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.” The author of Revelation meant that 666 was a person’s name turned into a number via the Jewish numerological practice of gematria. Since every Hebrew letter was also a number, the letters of a name could be added up to produce that person’s number. Here’s an example of gematria using an alphabet we’re more familiar with, the Roman alphabet. Say someone’s name was…
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…r their viewpoint based on, for example, the trifling fact that the Bush tax cuts for the rich and corporate tax cuts cannot be correlated to any expanded economic activity or job creation. Conservatives who benefit very directly from the economic status quo have a vested interest (literally) in sticking to their story. When people believe additionally that God has ordained or sanctified the economic status quo, we can totally forget about shaking…
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…p, probably along with white mainliners (52%) and white Catholics (51%). A better bet would be to connect with Hispanic Catholics (35%) and the sizable religiously unaffiliated (34%). Spotlight the Catholic congregations assisting Puerto Rican refugees and highlight Mike Pence’s threat to reproductive rights and education. Pennsylvania: With its highly religious—and highly conservative—central region balancing Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Pennsylv…
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…experience it. Soon after the release of a Justin Bieber profile in Complex last year the internet exploded in mockery at a quote that emerged from the interview: “Like I said, you don’t need to go to church to be a Christian. If you go to Taco Bell, that doesn’t make you a taco.” Bieber detractors are quick to pounce on such low-hanging fruit as evidence of his dimwittedness. What was missed by audiences so eager for a punch line was a young man…
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…ent scientists are also wary of the methods used in this relatively new field of genome evolution analysis, as well as the broad conclusions, like that of the Tay-Sachs hypothesis, which have not yet been experimentally demonstrated. Personally, my bet is with the new data and interpretations. The intriguing part will be to see how these new data and ideas get integrated into our culture….
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…ersal fact that every American, or at least every American student using Texas textbooks, must accept as truth. On the other hand, some biologists along with neuroscientists, psychologists, and other intellectuals see evolutionary theory and knowledge about the brain as a way to better understand that most basic of religious elements: morality. 8. Sports Values: Where do Americans get their moral sensibilities, learn lessons about right and wrong,…
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…s carried out executions this year; none executed more than four people. Texas has executed 423 people since 1982. Currently there are 354 inmates on death row in Texas—344 men and 10 women.” *“Michael Blair became the 9th inmate exonerated from death row in Texas after DNA testing failed to connect him to the crime for which he was convicted and sentenced to death.” *“Seven other inmates were removed permanently from death row in 2008; their sent…
Read More…ns to put me on the list of speakers. I bought tickets… then there was a mix up… and I was cut from the list, if I had indeed been on a list… but I had some Christians who expressed concern…. and then I read your article and I… decided it would be best for me to wait and see how things play themselves out. Howse asked if Beck’s apparent view that “we all pray to the same God” isn’t by definition false teaching. Cameron demurred a bit and reflected…
Read More…rosexuals. Lesbian couples are more likely to be poor than married heterosexuals, and children of same-sex parents are twice as likely to live in poverty as those of traditional married couples, a new report shows. UCLA’s Williams Institute, which studies gay issues, says its report out today is the first to analyze poverty among gay and lesbian couples. The cause of much of this poverty is, of course, the inequity in such legal institutions as ma…
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