Religion Dispatches
…sexist and patriarchal. So, that’s not what I mean either. If he was alive today, I am not exactly sure where King would stand on the issue of reproductive rights. King was a dialectical thinker. Thus, he could be both pro-life and pro-choice concomitantly, taking what he needed from one side or the other and rejecting the rest, and thus forcing the rest of us to consider the possible “good” on all sides as well as the inconsistencies of our own p…
Read More…o understand the different conceptions of religious freedom at play in the world today, their different social and political contexts, and their varied histories. Neither my work nor our project takes a position for or against religious freedom. To assume that it does is a misunderstanding of what is in fact a much broader and more encompassing set of research aims and objectives. We are interested in laying out the kind of work advocacy for relig…
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…ter still) to blame the very government they themselves have colonized, corrupted, and sabotaged—or (best of all) blame POC, immigrants, and Jews for ruining the American Dream. What this means in practical terms is that the Biden Administration will most likely fail because it won’t be able to deliver the goods people need, at which point a carefully cultivated proto-fascism will come roaring back. What it means is that Biden’s appeals for “civil…
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…onder, perhaps, what she would make of what we have done with her gift. We have made theology, and we have made women’s studies. And we have deconstructed both. We have certainly not made a world where women are free….
Read More…e decide whether we tell the truth, or benefit from telling lies. We decide, do I hate, or am I filled with love? We’re the ones who decide: do I think only about myself or do I care for others?” Carter delivered a gentle, yet powerful, exhortation to a Christian university run by one of Donald Trump’s chief evangelical surrogates. At one point during his address he identified himself as an “evangelical Christian.” At ninety-three years old, he is…
Read More…future. Not necessarily by choice, but by reality. Yes, they work hard. but they refuse to allow themselves to be trapped by their work. They believe that the world has changed and they believe their possessions will only hinder them in the new world….
Read More…utives or incompetent engineers or Obama or who-the-hell-ever we turn into today’s whipping boy. But the truth that everyone wants to deny is that the whole culture is sick from top to bottom. We’re all addicted to oil in ways we can’t even grasp, and nobody—nobody—has any plausible idea of how to break free from the system. There are plenty of ideas floating around, yes, but there are no easy answers to put into practice today. If there were, we’…
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…laveholding Religion and the Christianity of Christ. His words still ring true with regard to the empty prayers of the police in Ferguson “They attend with pharisaical strictness to the outward forms of religion, and at the same time neglect the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith.” If there’s to be any justice for the shooting of Michael Brown, the pandering religiosity of the law enforcement officials will have to cease. What…
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…ere were few greater acts to earn merit in God’s eyes. (Compare Abu Bakr’s rules of war, as delivered to his army, to ISIS’ practices. I pronounce the Prophet’s best friend a better interpreter of Islam than poorly reconstructed Ba’athists on the Muslim margins.) Suleiman stressed: “Freeing slaves” is so frequently mentioned as a meritorious act in the Muslim tradition that, in the 8th and 9th centuries, biographies of Prophetic companions cited,…
Read More…ion that Romney is actually a moderate at heart. It’s also being reported today that Jon Huntsman has once again reorganized his campaign, with the biggest news being his moving headquarters north to New Hampshire, where he’s currently drawing about 10% in the polls. In national polls, however, Huntsman hovers between 1 – 2%, raising some questions as to whether the Nirvana-quoting alt-Republican candidate will be allowed to participate in the Oc…
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