Religion Dispatches
…h and state that Obama should be praised for observing. Other items on the list are no surprise: Obama skipping the right-wing sponsored “National Day of Prayer” but having the audacity to actually speak to gay and lesbian rights groups and promise to move their issues along during his presidency, or Obama’s continuing commitment to abortion rights. The one on the list that puzzled me the most was this one: In the midst of the worst economic downt…
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…able to participate in the editorial meeting, someone followed up with the list [of interviewees]. They were all white, and I found that strange. I brought it up, and we were able to add a bit more diversity to the list, but just little things like that. A lot of outlets focus on celebrity Christianity, and that seems to be what drives a lot of the coverage. So in the beginning, I fell into pursuing the stories that people seemed to respond to the…
Read More…uld be easy to assume that these people are resentful because of this long list of outrages they feel they’ve suffered, but the truth is perhaps the other way around. They have compiled the list because they feel resentment. And what do they resent? I think it’s the loss of a social pecking order. We are approaching a point in both demographics and culture where no one group can set social norms. It seems likely that Harvey’s brand of the politics…
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…ues currently taught by various Christian denominations. According to this list, mainline Protestant denominations such as the United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church claim that homosexuality is not antithetical to Christian teaching, while PCUSA supports an inclusive understanding of marriage and is “generally LGBT affirming.” Even denominations such as the Catholic Church and the United Methodist Church—whose official theology still hol…
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…had occupied the No. 1 position on the Wal-Mart inspirational best-seller list, showed up on Wal-Mart’s list of top 10 best sellers for seven weeks, and made the USA Today top 50 best-seller list for six weeks. * * * * Esther is a favorite Old Testament figure of many evangelicals, a heroine who saved her people from a genocidal plot masterminded by the evil vizier Haman through her influence as the wife of the King of Persia. When she and her co…
Read More…All in all, few American news sites carried comprehensive features on the list as did the BBC, the Times Online, and the Sydney Morning Herald, to name a few. Okay, the Vatican condemning sinful behavior is not a news flash, but the frame it provides—specifically, engaging the contemporary world in a collective reconsideration of systemic and personal sin—is noteworthy. We forgive our peccadilloes all too easily, which is why the Vatican wants a…
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…it turns out, is a former national field director for the Susan B. Anthony List, who, well, let them tell it: However, Klobuchar’s comments left some abortion-rights and anti-abortion activists cold. The anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List tweeted that the Minnesota senator is “still extreme & out-of-touch,” pointing to her record of abortion-rights votes[.] Could it be that Crawford was being strategic in his questioning and reaction to Klo…
Read More…funded abortion from this legislation,” said Marjorie Dannefelser, the SBA List’s president. Yet their campaign to settle for nothing less than Stupak-Pitts is, as Jodi Jacobson ably chronicled at RH Reality Check, filled with misinformation. Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, claimed, without basis, that the Senate bill would “redefine” abortion as health care. In fact, no health plan would be required to cover abortion serv…
Read More…y qualified to teach the course, as opposed to the other two people on the list. I’ve got a deal for Bachmann. I’ll take her seriously on this if she takes the final exam in AP history and gets at least a C on the test. I’d be willing to bet a sizable amount of money she can’t. Actually, I’m just amazed Christine O’Donnell wasn’t on her list. Bachmann’s suggestions shows just how tightly sealed the right-wing echo chamber has become. While the new…
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…h the world—in this particular worldview anyway. Immediately following the list of what’s not wrong with (and what is right about) Israel, Goldberg writes: “If this can be so stipulated, we can move on to a more difficult conversation…” It’s a shameless rhetorical strategy: Just accept my assertions and then we can proceed with the conversation. Or, to put it another way, now that the reviewer has claimed (and the reader has agreed) that Israel an…
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