Religion Dispatches
…some of the nation’s most outspoken conservative bishops—and allies of the Republican Party—who seem to take the whole “prince of the church” thing more literally than some of their fellow prelates. Here’s a rundown: • New York Cardinal Timothy “Capitalism is King but you can get your birth control at 7-11” Dolan lives in a 15,000-square foot neo-Gothic mansion on Madison Avenue appraised at $30 million. • Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who w…
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…eek, however, we are witnessing a significant rhetorical departure. Yet as reprehensible as remarks from American Jewish leaders have been, the dehumanizing discourse among political and religious leaders in Israel—where I live and work—has for years been moving toward the grotesque. The images that have emerged from the Gaza Strip over the past three weeks of Israel’s assault, and the fact that the vast majority of those killed have been Palestin…
Read More…tate implications are quietly making their way through the system. The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) is a group of “atheists, agnostics and skeptics” with a Scientology-esque fondness for litigation. Recently the FFRF has gone after the so-called “parsonage exemption,” which allows clergy to forego paying taxes on income used for housing. Last year the FFRF sued the IRS, claiming that the exemption privileges clergy over laypersons and i…
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…os, cabins, Hobbit homes, or buckets of freeze-dried food. In this, Bakker represents an illustrative extreme—the reductio ad absurdum of America’s politics-as-entertainment culture, and the extraordinary fulfillment of all the ways that faith, apocalypticism, and the politics of fear can combine to help someone raise cash. Bakker has always had a nose for spectacle. In 1977, he started the PTL Satellite Network, making him one of the first religi…
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…e trajectory of deacon-priest-bishop is relatively recent—only about 700 or 800 years in the long history of the Church. In fact, the earlier understanding is that the deacon would become a bishop! I sometimes wonder if the naysayers are more afraid of women bishops than of women priests. But, in modern times, we have reestablished the tradition of a diaconate lived permanently. All priests are also ordained deacons, and in the most formal of litu…
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…een, trying to write a response to the representation, specifically the misrepresentation of Muslims, in American news media. Hoodfar’s statement that it wasn’t the fieldwork she chose, and yet she had to write about it, really resonates with me. How do I as an anthropologist who works with Muslim youth in Pakistan and the US make sense of this election and its implications for my participants, but also for myself, my family, and colleagues. So I’…
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…recognized the importance of involving “whole communities” into disaster preparedness, including faith communities. The United States has a deeply religious and diverse population, with more than 70 percent identifying as an adherent of a faith. FEMA has urged emergency managers and VOAD partners to increase their religious literacy and competency to serve all Americans. To that end, thousands of emergency responders have taken a FEMA course we a…
Read More…AAS Directors and Officers, urging them to reconsider—citing the possible repercussions to the AAS’ reputation. It will be outstepping AAS’ role if AAS allows the selection of keynote speaker for 2014 conf. and gets critiqued for allowing the forums of the body to interfere with the laws in many Asian states and thus interfere with the friendly and constructive relations between non-Asian Asian states (sic). In an effort to combat the support of…
Read More…lah.” Uganda: Will Anti-Gay Law be Christmas ‘Gift’ to the Nation? We have reported on efforts by anti-gay Ugandan lawmakers to draft a new bill to replace the Anti-Homosexuality Act that was thrown out by courts based on a procedural issue. Now a lawmaker on the committee drafting the new bill says it is ready and to pass to that the entire country can “celebrate it as a Christmas gift.” As Reuters reports, [President Yoweri] Museveni is walking…
Read More…Uighurs live in Xianjiang District of Western China, where officials have reportedly bulldozed over 800 mosques. Authorities have also detained hundreds of thousands of Uighurs in re-education camps. The scale of the suffering is difficult to imagine. In fairness, there’s been a lot of good reporting about the plight of the Uighurs. And yet I believe the outpouring of emotion for more recognizable places—especially Notre Dame—is instructive. Samu…
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