Religion Dispatches
…of who we are who we love, we want to try our hand at institutions that are brand new to us. There may be a day when church leadership and membership, as well as marriage, is old hat to us. Until then, we will relish our new found freedoms, even as we remember the pioneers who gave their lives to make it possible….
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…cision was totally off his radar screen: “I’m—I’m totally oblivious to—to what—that’s not even my agenda.” According to OneNewsNow, the news service of Donald Wildmon’s American Family Association, Warren “issued a clear endorsement of the marriage amendment while speaking to church members[:] ’We support Proposition 8—and if you believe what the Bible says about marriage, you need to support Proposition 8.’” OneNewsNow also published the “complet…
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…their own research, to discover the truth for themselves, while insisting that much of what we think we know, and most of what we’re told by the mainstream media, is a sham. Jones—as persona or person, as character-actor or journalist, as you like—speaks from a location of sincerity. His exaggerated emotionality loses no force if it’s seen as a theatrical device. His claims—to challenge normative narratives of news, to expose conspiratorial plots,…
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…voyage around the world? The show itself offered an intriguing answer to that question. What struck one most about the show was the overwhelming weight, even the burden, of time. Special attention was paid to Darwin’s early bouts of seasickness aboard the HMS Beagle, to his later bouts of homesickness, and then to the sudden decision by the captain—after rounding the southern coast of Africa—to return to South America for further longitudinal rea…
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…thin the church and innocent bystanders are falling victim. Grace provides freedom from that.” By making these bold statements, Revolution markets its brand of Christianity to a distinctly reactionary crowd; some looking for a new form of the religion they grew up with, others who simply like the idea of a religion without the work. And although McCracken warns against rebellion—or, more accurately, the rebellious nature of hipsters, leading to in…
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…of ex-Christians because in his estimation, “We do not have commandments that leave anyone out, and we do not judge, we do provoke questions, mock ourselves and our strange belief and others. But we leave judgement to the courts. We may not agree with every court decision, but we are always looking for proof.” He adds that the reaction he gets from Christians about the UCB depends on the Christian. “There are good Christians and bad Christians, a…
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…Falwell and encouraged him to organize evangelicals as a ‘Moral Majority’ that would promote a ‘pro-family’ politics. Once formed, the Moral Majority and its allies mobilized evangelicals to join Catholics in the fight against abortion by advancing a novel and tendentious interpretation of the Bible. “The Bible clearly states that life begins at conception,” Falwell declared, referencing Luke 1:39–44 and Psalm 139:13–16. “Abortion is not birth con…
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…equitable balance; that would be grotesque,” he writes. “But the truth is that whatever deity, entity, energy, or random genetic flux produces sick children also produced Roger Federer, and just look at that down there. Look at that.” Wimbledon that year was a religious experience, Wallace says, a kind of grace, an experience of another, better world. And the thing about grace is that it’s inherently good; it’s never inappropriate, even when it sp…
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…“Always. It’s because I’m not quite an atheist and it worries me. There’s that little bit that holds on: ‘Well, I’m almost an atheist. […] There’s just one niggling thing. Once I shave that off, we’ll be fine and dandy, and there won’t be any questions left.’ It’s either my saving grace or a major problem that I’m going to have to confront.” 8 Part 6: Ziggy, Deconstructed: A fourfold exegesis of glam rock’s sacred text, an album thick with Christo…
Read More…stand and refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance in class. Will believes that until gays and lesbians receive the same rights and recognition as heterosexuals in this country, the phrase “liberty and justice for all” is just a farce and he refuses to be a part of it. Phillips was speaking at the Big Commit Sunday in Washington DC, a counter-rally to the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage’s wrap up of its “Summer for Marriage” tour. (Hat…
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