Religion Dispatches
…hat some forms of slavery are permitted by biblical law. While criticizing American slavery as violating a number of biblical requirements, however, he did not view it as inherently immoral. By promoting McDowell, and by extension Rushdoony, Barton promotes a “biblical worldview” in which slavery is in some circumstances acceptable. This worldview (like his discussion of the three-fifths rule, which minimizes the rule’s dehumanization of slaves) d…
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…orted being physically assaulted over their unbelief, although for African-American respondents the number is 2.5%. Meanwhile, 12% of respondents experienced threats of violence, and 2.5% experienced vandalism (14.2% and 3.2%, respectively, for Latinx respondents). None of these facts make the experience of “coming out” as nonreligious the same as coming out as LGBTQ, but they do nonetheless show that disclosing one’s nonreligious identity can be…
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…ations to refute such claims seem to have had little effect on many middle Americans—not surprisingly the exact demographic targeted by AiG. The Ark Encounter’s planned home in northern Kentucky will situate it, like the Creation Museum, within a day’s drive of two-thirds of all Americans, some 40% of whom, according to the latest Gallup poll, affirm the creationist view that God created humans sometime in the past 10,000 years. Opponents have fra…
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…e. I feel an enormous level of personal responsibility to represent Muslim Americans and Islam, and to present them both in an objective and relevant light. This responsibility and focus on the Muslim American facet of my identity has taken priority over other facets of my identity for so long that sometimes I forget that they even exist. I see this in many friends too. General Powell’s simple and honest words that October day took me completely o…
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…ms, a new approach to children’s rights has emerged. While portions of the American Right have begun to embrace the language of children’s rights, they are using that language to promote their anti-child agenda. These efforts have been successful on many fronts, opening opportunities for the American Right to promote their ideology around the world and even in spaces like the United Nations. A pair of recent books from some familiar voices on the…
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…irtight claims to divinity, it’s made for some problematic theology in the American context. Simply put, what we witness in American Christianity is a battle over which Christianity represents Christ and his perfection, thus conferring ultimate and total authority upon opposing interpretations of the Christian faith. Perhaps it’s my own Jewish experiences that allow me to favor Jesus’ humanity over Christ’s divinity. My own personal history with J…
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…borne that name. Guns have always symbolized “the frontier.” And for vast numbers of Americans, the cultural idea and ideal of the frontier have symbolized what they think their nation is all about. Out on the frontier, the classic story goes, a man simply must have a gun and the freedom to use it. He couldn’t survive without it. He needs it to get food for his family and to defend them in times of danger. But as long as potential enemies out the…
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…ght The Christian Right, which has been an increasingly powerful factor in American politics for decades, has benefited from a strangely persistent culture of denialism. We needn’t review the number of times that reporters, scholars, and religious leaders declared that the Christian Right was dead, dying, or significantly diminished. That it’s still here and stronger than ever is sufficient reason for all of us to try to get it right. Chief Justic…
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…t documents the behind-the-scenes work ADF is doing at the Organization of American States and its Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The push into Latin America follows earlier expansion of its presence in Europe. Today, ADF is one of the largest conservative legal organizations in the United States, with a budget dwarfing those of sister groups like the Becket Fund and Liberty Counsel. Indeed, one might argue that it is chiefly responsib…
Read More…’t think the Bible says anything about democracy” “lobbed a grenade at the American Jewish establishment.” In other words, at the heart of the American Jewish establishment’s pro-Israel cause is a claim to support democratic values in the Jewish state. “By claiming democracy doesn’t matter, Adelson was sabotaging the case for Israel that the American Jewish establishment has been making for decades,” Beinart writes. This is evidence, Beinart argue…
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