Religion Dispatches
…r. Mitt Romney proposes to cut income tax rates by 20 percent and the corporate rate by 10 points, plus abolish the estate tax. Rick Santorum proposes to cut the marginal rate by 7 points, reduce the number of tax brackets from six to two, cut the corporate rate in half to 17.5 percent, and eliminate the estate tax and corporate taxes in the manufacturing sector. Newt Gingrich proposes to install a 15 percent flat tax for income and to abolish the…
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…structural reasons for the high rate of disaffiliation among millennials, including the high rate of divorce in the early 1980s when the millennials where children. “It’s more complicated raising children in a religious context in joint custody arrangements,” Cox said. But it’s also worth noting, given the high rate of Catholic disaffiliation and the fact that one-third of Catholics gave the clergy sex-abuse scandals as their primary reason for di…
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…ay. 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: the influence of these large-scale institutions are growing, and with that comes an increased ability to cause us harm. Our inability to blame them in an intelligent or consistent w…
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…can’t simply call them up and ask them to pray about an issue that is of concern to us,” she said. “This is a way for us to communicate our message and our message is very clear. We chose the name ‘Ordain Women’ for a reason: because we think that nothing but women’s ordination will result in the full equality and enfranchisement of women.” Kelly said that she was “very disappointed that women’s issues didn’t come to the forefront during the Mormo…
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…increase something akin to what scholars have called “procedural justice”—increase procedural confidence, procedural trust, trusting institutions, because we understand, “Oh, okay, that’s how it works, that’s what they’re trying to do that; it doesn’t always succeed, but they’re doing the best they can, they’re adjusting along the way, they’re improving.” If we had that knowledge, we would blame a lot less because we would recognize that many of t…
Read More…lled for men and women. The Pope’s representative in the U.S., Apostolic Nuncio Archbisohp Carlo Maria Viganò, is scheduled to speak at this weekend’s march by the National Organization for Marriage, though San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, facing an uprising from parishioners frustrated by his anti-gay statements, has decided not to make a return appearance. Ireland: Religious leaders spar on marriage equality referendum Religious le…
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…Haredim could decide to pack up and leave if the government gave them financial incentive to do so. That is, unless the Haredi “facts on the ground” grow roots, the whole settler project could collapse. In a July 27 article in the New York Times, “In West Bank Settlements: Sign of Hope for a Deal” Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner point out the soft nature of Haredi sympathy for their ostensible partners. The article shows that while the Haredim…
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…I reached for my phone, but I found nothing. At first I laughed at my instinct, my muscle memory. The phone, with its glowing screen, gave me solace and control. But I was tied to my cushion for another hour, and in this ashram for another day, so email would have to wait. I panicked. My heart raced. Would my editor be asking for me? Would a reply from that politician’s secretary sit unanswered in my inbox? Was my updated resumé sent to that recru…
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…ne describes the data. So once again, let’s imagine that the church attendance rate is lower this year than last year, let’s say it’s two or three percent lower all of a sudden. Does the headline say that religion is “on the skids” or that “America is losing its faith”? That’s more the journalist’s or the editor’s fault than the pollster’s fault. Polling usually doesn’t produce news. It usually just produces possibly interesting information—it isn…
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…in every state would still be necessary—without a bit of cognitive dissonance concerning her “states’ rights views.” In the end she did little more than repeat Renuart’s suggestion of adoption. The “culture of life” meant little more than banning abortion and encouraging adoption. Standard coverage of the event merely documented the repeated assertion that this wasn’t about politics, but I think they are being inadequately critical in taking org…
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