Religion Dispatches
…eap goods are cheaply made. I am not speaking of quality, I am speaking of cheap labor. We must recognize that through the act of shopping, whether it is for an article of clothing, a toy, a pint of strawberries, or even our morning cup of coffee, we participate in a global economy that values profit over people. Disposable goods are made by disposable people, faceless individuals whose backbreaking and unjustly paid labor produce the goods we con…
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…ot an aggregate rating of 2 percent on Rotten Tomatoes—the studio started claiming secular bias and promoting fan reviews. Many evangelicals view cultural elites as condescending and hostile to begin with, so negative reviews met certain expectations. Even as fans of Left Behind talked about how great it was, however, the old divisions were apparent. There were those who talked about how the film is a great evangelizing opportunity. One woman repo…
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…nd give him this book, to surprise him, too—in a good way. (I would accept Lakers tickets in lieu of apologies, but I think that particular era is done.) This whole book is a result of a profound evolution, and needs to be seen as such. American Muslims have gone through a lot over the last few decades. We were never the caricature Islamophobes made us out to be (our earliest heroes include Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Malcolm X), but we…
Read More…Unlike Catholic plaintiffs, Hobby Lobby seeks an exemption from covering ella, Plan B, and IUDs, claiming that they may cause an abortion. Scalia declared these methods “not terribly expensive.” But Verilla pointed out that the IUD, one of the most effective methods of birth control, is also one of the most expensive. (They can cost as much as $1,000.) As expected, the Court did not question in any depth the companies’ claim that these methods are…
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…tems adapted for life in small groups. It is psychologically difficult to blame large, abstract entities—like government agencies or corporations—in a meaningful or satisfactory way. Ideologies and conspiracy theories occupy this vacuum, but they offer coherence at the expense of nuance and accuracy. Corporations, prisons, tech giants, school systems, industrialized agriculture, state bureaucracies, insurance companies, and media conglomerates: th…
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…al research and soul-searching into his version. This interview with The Atlantic explains his approach, based largely on Genesis 6:6: “The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” And here’s the poem about Noah that Aronofsky wrote in seventh grade. God’s Not Dead was backed by an aggressive social media campaign, specifically targeting people who listened to the Australian CCM group The Newsboys on Pand…
Read More…nonprofit organization whose mission is to pray for national leaders year-round,” launched an effort called 40 Days to Pray the Vote. “Together, we will make this the most prayed-for election in the nation’s history,” said John Lind, president of the Presidential Prayer Team. According to Charisma, particpants have joined online forums and “each morning, team members … are e-mailed a specific prayer topic that targets a vital aspect of the electi…
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…ct, religious-based censorship. The end of liberty and justice for all, replaced by Sharia law.” Right Web’s “Regnery Publishing: Home of Books Fanning Fear of Islam.” ++++++++++ The Religious Left Early next month, Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America, a collection of 19 essays by 22 authors, that challenges the Religious Left to re-envision and reinvent itself will be published. Last week Religion Dispa…
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…walked to the Tabernacle on Temple Square to wait in the stand-by line for last-minute tickets. Instead they were met by church spokesperson Ruth Todd, who said, “This is no surprise to you, that we won’t be able to offer you a ticket or a place.” Then, as men and boys strode past them into the Tabernacle where they awaited the opportunity to move to the Conference Center where the session would take place, members of Ordain Women lined up indivi…
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…would have to start earlier, and in a sense you could prevent some of the blaming. Or, if violations do happen, you would give people the kind of information that they normally want, and expect each other to use, when they blame and when they’re supposed to blame fairly. Because the research shows that you can blame fairly if you know whether the person did it intentionally, what her alternatives were, what her reasons were; and if the violation w…
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