Religion Dispatches
Poor Joel Osteen. I’m not sure why he keeps going on national news and talk shows when he knows that, inevitably, he’ll get cornered on the gay question. It happened to him again when he appeared on CNN this week with Soledad O’Brien and a panel of guests including Deepak Chopra and Richard Socarides, an openly gay Democratic strategist. Osteen offered his signature pained full-toothed smile as he explained, again, that homosexuality is like lyin…
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Adam Clayton Powell called it “cheap grace,” but we might call it “cheap atonement”: the effort by sinners to select which sins to acknowledge and repent. Pope Benedict XVI ended his heavily protested visit to England with a heartfelt apology for German bombings of England during the Battle of Britain; though he refused to accept Christian responsibility for the Holocaust, blaming it instead on pagans and atheists. Given that Cardinal Walter Kasp…
Read MoreHonestly, I can’t believe I am about to write a post in defense of Joel Osteen—but the attack launched on him by Albert Mohler Jr. for Osteen’s latest appearance on Piers Morgan’s show prompts me to do so. Mohler, the president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, writes over at The Christian Post that Osteen’s inability to stand up for Christian convictions makes him the worst kind of Christian spokesperson. It’s…
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…way from the hard work of repentance, who tickle our ears with promises of cheap grace, and offer a vision of the cross of Jesus that has nothing to say to the crosses, and lynching trees, of history. But, if we do, we will be settling for the gospel of Caesar, not the good news of Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is time to put down the chalk, stop drawing pyrotechnical conspiracy theories that play into our worst fears and listen, instead, for the diffi…
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…ic reasons, or to have simply voted “against Hillary Clinton.” Stetzer and McDonald also awkwardly try to argue that abortion and the Supreme Court were not key reasons for white evangelical Trump support, despite noting that abortion is a critical reason many white evangelicals categorically refuse to vote for Democrats. The Billy Graham Center/LifeWay study attempts to get results similar to Ekins’ on race by differentiating between self-identif…
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…We have an unprecedented access to cheap goods, yet we must recognize that cheap 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 in…
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…e success either. The opening weekend saw sales of more than $6 million in tickets. That’s the kind of number that will inspire others to try and figure out the formula for the faith-and-family blockbuster. Yet, with the cost of the film reportedly exceeding $30 million, it’s an open question whether or not the Left Behind reboot will get a second installment. The marketing problem of evangelical movies is still, stubbornly, a problem. The general…
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…ou’ll read an excerpt below—has surprised me, too. I wish I could find my airline companion and 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 ou…
Read MoreAt oral argument in Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. and Conestoga Wood Specialties, Inc. v. Sebelius this morning, the Supreme Court justices spent a great deal of time questioning the lawyers in the case about whether corporations have a religious conscience, and whether Congress intended to protect it when enacting the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). What was most striking, though, was how all three female justices, Sonia So…
Read More…ry of Gender and Child Development Raziah Ahmed, and Opposition MP Marlene McDonald, both of whom shared the Archbishop’s sentiments.” ‘All children have the right to care, love, support and interventions where needed in keeping with the rights of the child,’ Ahmed told Newsday. ‘I don’t think that anybody should be thrown out because of their sexual orientation,’ McDonald said, ‘Not at all.’ ‘I do not subscribe to discrimination because of your s…
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