Religion Dispatches
…threat of eternal damnation. Both liberals and conservatives need to do a better job at digging deeply into the scriptures to find ways to sow affection and dispel the discord we inevitably create with our textual wars over sexual orientation and gender identity. If either liberal or conservative interpretations continue to widen the rift between us, then neither side has gone deep enough in its understanding of scripture. Many on the religious r…
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…Focus on the Family, the champion of family values, somebody that I might bet a hundred bucks is one of the five most influential evangelicals of the 20th century. What is his relationship to Paul Popenoe? Audrey Clare Farley: So Dobson went to work for Popenoe as his assistant, before he founded Focus on the Family in 1979. And so, as his assistant, he authors all kinds of publications, which were basically Popenoe’s ideas for a public audience….
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…er says mildly, “something very disturbing about the state of intellectual freedom at Catholic universities. Where, if not in Catholic universities, can controversial issues be discussed?” One must pose this question to leaders of our many Catholic colleges aud universities: Regis College and St. Michael’s University in Toronto, for example. Obedience, even servility, to ecclesial power reigns. Critical Catholic thinkers who diverge from the views…
Read More…al 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 conservative freshman don’t appear to be the kind of politicians who would need schooled on the proper Republican talking points, Bachmann’s taking no chances, as…
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…in rise above to heal his family, his community, his legacy.” The ten-part BET documentary, executive-produced by Vick himself, relates the star’s infamous story through a series of testimonies, events (including a heartfelt speech Vick gave as part of his involvement with the Humane Society’s End Dogfighting campaign), and interviews with family and acquaintances. A contrived attempt at redeeming himself in the public eye, The Michael Vick Projec…
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…r from Italian parents of LGBTQ+ children who met with Francis in September 2020. They gave him their book entitled Lucky Parents: The Testimonies of Christian Parents Struggling with the Discovery of Homosexual Children. In words that surely echoed through the empty Vatican halls this Lent, they wrote: “If Mother Church does not have the ‘power’ to bless this love, we as parents, who are called to listen and support our children, can bless them t…
Read More…) to potentially controversial (adoption and LGBT issues). But it’s a safe bet this community didn’t expect a “best blog” competition to devolve into a witch hunt—literally. The “Faith Blog” category seemed dominated by homeschooling, “Biblical Womanhood,” “Biblical Patriarchy,” and so-called family values moms, and who apparently thought they own the category of faith (though Circle of Moms doesn’t exhibit any signs of being explicitly religious)…
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…n these pages that paranoia about the president being the Antichrist stood between Obama and winning over evangelicals, advances this argument again in the Times, noting that these apocalyptic views “could help define the 2012 presidential campaign.” Sutton provides a brief history of the apocalyptic fervor of American evangelicals, and its impact on our politics. But for Democrats pondering over how Obama can win reelection, I found this to be th…
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…f? I think this book can go a long way to inform people about the tensions between democracy and social control in American history. And it can teach people a lot about how evangelical Protestant traditions have changed over time, including the ways they have reshaped strategies to engage the political realm. I’m afraid there are no pleasurable parts of this book. In fact, it’s really grim. People with relatively good intentions did bad things. Bu…
Read More…doctrines and policies. But that doesn’t mean that he “gets religion” any better than the rest of us who report from the pews at the back of the worship hall, or from all of the unauthorized places—homes, schools, street corners, campuses, government—where religion wields major power. A few weeks ago, Mattingly criticized RD for running my story on a recently-installed, openly-gay Mormon congregational leader in San Francisco. Get Religion insist…
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