Search Results for:

VIPREG2024 how to use 1xbet free bet promo code Cambodia

The Vile Attack on Salman Rushdie Reminds Us of the Value of a Free Society — But is Our Outrage More About the Criminal Than the Crime?

…in part because they opposed his brutal regime—that murderously restricted free speech as well. When a writer is accused of blasphemy, it’s easy for us to be outraged. But when a writer is punished by a government we support, perhaps because that support advances our national security interests, we have rather less to say. Only recently, The New York Times extensively reported on the abuse, torture, solitary confinement, and even executions that a…

Read More

Putting the “Protest” Back in Protestant: Reclaiming the Spirit of Resistance

…rganized religion (religio = binding) in their lives. Protestantism spawns free thought and free radicals (some of them toxic) the way a prism breaks light into uncountable and unclassifiable hues. So while it is definitely not fair to count the great unchurched free radicals of the 19th and 20th centuries as official Protestants, there is no doubt at all that, unofficially, that is just what many were: not just the towering Lincoln but also such…

Read More

The Subway Sandwich Artist Argument; When “Religious Freedom” Isn’t About Religious Freedom

…only consider granting a religious exception if the law “involved not the Free Exercise Clause alone, but that Clause in conjunction with other constitutional protections.” Scalia’s caveat invites the kind of argument that Phillips and his supporters are making in Masterpiece Cakeshop, namely, that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s decree that mandated Phillips to respond equally to custom orders for same- and opposite-sex wedding cakes burd…

Read More

The End of Roe and the Assault on Trans People — Fail to See the Bigger Picture and We’ll Never Be Free

…from the same evil corrupting our public life. And none of us will win the freedoms we deserve unless we do it together. Liberation is collective. This means that no person is free while their neighbor is shackled, but it also means that we will never break these chains without a universal and reflexive commitment to one another’s thriving. Abortion rights and gender care help people achieve the fullness of who they know they’re called to be. And…

Read More

Mitt, Moochers, and Mormonism’s “Other” Legacy

…y, for example, the Prophet Brigham Young opened Mormon churches for their use until they could build their own houses of worship. Knowing something about the Catholic Mass, the Mormon director of the Saint George Tabernacle Choir directed his group in the singing of the Catholic liturgy, in Latin, so that a high Mass could be sung for the newly arrived Father Scanlon in 1873. Catholics have been extended free airtime on Mormon-owned radio station…

Read More

Is It OK To Use a Cellphone in Church? Pew Surveys the New Etiquette

…out how people use their cellphones, they’re entering vague territory, because there’s no agreed-upon definition of “use.” I’d wager hard cash that if you asked the exact same question about churches after priming people to think of Bible apps, those opinions would be very different. “Oh, that kind of ‘use’! That’s generally okay.” From Etiquette to Ethics This brings us to our second insight, which is that it’s very hard to measure etiquette thro…

Read More

Morality and Marriage Vigilantes and More in Global LGBT Recap

…ularly attacked. Suicide is common, they say, and so is alcohol and drug abuse. But because the LGBT community’s existence isn’t legal in Zambia, help for its members is often unavailable. “No one wants to fund LBGTI programs because they are deemed illegal,” says Kennedy Palangwa, a program officer at ZANERLA. “The secrecy surrounding LGBTI hampers everything.” ZANERLA stands for Zambia Network of Religious Leaders Living With Or Personally Affec…

Read More

Do Not Attack the Writer

…ed the code of conduct for comments on National Catholic Reporter. His post is a primer on violating NCR’s own rules for respectful conversation. Maybe someone at NCR can give him a much-needed tutorial. NCR Comment code: Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Use appropriate language. Avoid vulgarities and slurs. Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don’t aid the discussion….

Read More

Televangelist Watchdog May Be Forced to Close Its Doors

…as Trinity has argued repeatedly, the problem results from gaps in the tax code, and lax enforcement of rules within it: because televangelism ministries, granted tax-exempt status as “churches,” do not have to file tax returns, their financial activities remain hidden. What’s more, although IRS rules prohibit excessive compensation of non-profit executives, and theoretically authorize the agency to fine non-profits whose executives receive such c…

Read More