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‘God Made Them Male and Female…and Eunuch’: Why the Biblical Case For Binary Gender Isn’t So… Biblical

By Tony Keddie

…n a man and a woman, and, besides, there were no same-sex marriages in the New Testament world. Mark and Matthew present Jesus’s teaching as a narrowly defined discussion pertaining to the interpretation of a law in Deuteronomy. The texts don’t reject gay marriage; they don’t even address it. Matthew’s Jesus does, however, recognize nonbinary gender in the grand finale of his teaching on divorce in a verse that conservatives routinely omit. After…

God-Haters Can Be Great Company

By Bernard Schweizer

…point has not gotten across. Jake Meador’s review, online at Christianity Today, is a case in point. I truly appreciate the favorable things he has to say like “Schweizer has written an engrossing history.” At the same time, I feel that I need to set the record straight regarding the main quibble that he has with my book. In Hating God I go to some lengths to explain why atheists are not, and in fact cannot be, haters of God in any genuine sense…

Evolution Challenged in ‘Textbook’ Case: As Goes Texas, So Goes the Nation

By Lauri Lebo

…, in contrast, was outlining a strategy was to attack science’s naturalist worldview by upholding the strength and weakness language in Texas’ science standards. “These two systems of thought, with completely different starting points for their worldview, are not slightly opposed to each other but fully dispute the other’s claim; to not do so would show a weakness in their own beliefs,” he wrote in the e-mail. “Also, these two opposing systems giv…

Why Can’t the Vatican Hear Women?

By Patricia Miller

…ignity and reverence for all persons. As women we have pondered upon these words. Our contemplation leads us to state that the Church in its struggle to be faithful to its call for reverence and dignity for all persons must respond by providing the possibility of women as persons being included in all ministries of our Church. I urge you, Your Holiness, to be open to and respond to the voices coming from the women of this country who are desirous…

AIG: On Charisma and Routinization of Greed

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…p the movement alive in any significant way, they ironically must create a new machine, and a new office, to maintain that charismatic memory. Weber refers to this as the routinization of charisma. The charisma moves, from the person to the office. The prophet thus tragically gives birth to a new priesthood, requiring his or her followers to look elsewhere for the white-hot epiphany only the charisma of personhood can provide. It seems to me that…

Why Christian Fundamentalism Is Still a Big Deal in U.S. Politics, And How It Got That Way

By Eric C. Miller

…red. They celebrate local victories while announcing imminent national destruction. This paradox is rhetorical—meaning that it’s constructed in and through language. I’m a student of rhetoric and, in this book, I’m not particularly interested in whether fundamentalists “really” represent localism or really speak as an oppressed minority. What’s important is that they say they do, and this paradoxical claim drives and justifies political action. In…

How Did the Buddha Become a Medieval Saint?

By Peter Manseau

…a trek through languages and across cultures, to become something at once new and not-new. “Our task,” the authors write, “will be to ask not how stories circulate among religions, but how religions circulate among stories.” This is a humble enough declaration, but its implications are profound. What if we have our textual understanding of how religion works precisely backwards, in thinking that religions make use of stories to convey moral lesso…

Homeschooling and American Exceptionalism

By Julie Ingersoll

…Forum. I have written about Phillips here, here and here. Christian Reconstructionist founder Rousas John Rushudoony is often called the father of the Christian homeschooling movement and convention lectures are frequently informed by Reconstructionist readings of the bible, in which the Old and New Testaments are a continuous narrative, and in which Biblical Law provides the basis for understanding our obligation to obedience, the exercise of dom…

Indonesian Volcano Update: Yes, it’s a Religion Story…

By Mark Woodward

…the first group of evacuees you encountered, you moved on to the next. Sometimes you picked up a local guide along the way. Often two or more shipments arrived at informal evacuation centers almost simultaneously. These efforts also supported small businesses, especially those specializing in nasi bungkus. Most of these family operated food stalls that usually cater to Yogyakarta’s large student population. Providers in the vicinity of Sunan Kalij…

Reactionary White Buddhists Have Joined The Fight Against Critical Race Theory

By Ann Gleig

…Apramāda is to bring Buddhist perspectives to bear on questions facing the world today—a task of urgent importance in an era when public discourse is often clouded by divisive ideologies and partisan animosity.” One article title suggests that Buddhists should leave their politics at the temple door. On further reading, however, it’s clear that it’s not politics per se but rather a certain type of politics that aren’t welcome. To give a hint: as t…