Religion Dispatches
…mmigration or health care. Yes, the storytelling business is messy and diffuse. It doesn’t lend itself to sound bites as readily as the “I’m right/you’re wrong” confrontational throwdown does. But religious progressives in particular might well benefit from going this route, because so many of us have journeyed farther and over rockier ground than have our conservative counterparts. Storytelling is already powerful when we hear the stories of ot…
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…hunting grounds” called Dilmun is a nice place, sure, but also noted to be useful as a convenient location for trading. In their flood story which precedes Noah’s Ark, the gods (note the plural) decide to flood the world because the humans are making too much noise and keeping them awake at night. This idea of perfection and paradise that we associate with Eden really came along later, as the story evolved into the biblical canon. Okay. Back to Ir…
Read More….” That is, men are in the image of God in terms of authority over their households; women are created in God’s image in a decidedly different way, sometimes called “reflected glory.” Even complementarians, who try to stake out a moderate position that sounds a lot like the squirming around Bachmann did last night, end up saying the essential differences in the way men and women are created make distinct roles for them in the family, the church, a…
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…verty terms, despite their socially progressive nature. Regardless, they caused an immediate revolution and contraception use escalated rapidly. These days, Mexican women on average have 2.1 children, down from seven in 1974. The Church, not surprisingly, tried to convince Mexicans of contraception’s moral hazards, though in many cases, Church leaders clearly realized they were on the losing side of the battle. “Undoubtedly some clergy turned a bl…
Read More…o acknowledged two valid perspectives on religious experience: one that focuses on religious institutions, their policies, their projects, and the “official” story, and another that focuses on the way religion is lived everyday in “unofficial” yet very real ways by common people of faith. Mattingly clearly cares about promoting precise descriptions of orthodox institutional religious doctrines and policies. But that doesn’t mean that he “gets reli…
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…uman rights organization B’Tselem has collected evidence of beatings and abuse in custody (via Emily Hauser). Violent reaction in East Jerusalem is “no surprise,” says Jo-Ann Mort, writing in Dissent: [T]he rabid building for Jewish extremists inside of Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem and the lack of adequate building permits for Arab residents has angered the population. City services are scant. The atmosphere in the city fuels discontent. F…
Read More…nt of the total number of the members mentioned in articles V and VIII. Despite this, Douthat assures us that “as a Catholic,” he expects “the plot to ultimately fail; where the pope and the historic faith seem to be in tension, my bet is on the faith.” It’s a measure of how deeply conservative Catholics identify the “faith” with the doctrinal orthodoxy of JP II and Benedict that Douthat actually believes he speaks for Catholics more authentically…
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…ike Fox News and the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal to their cause. . . . [T]he left must realize that when progressives achieved success in the past, whether at organizing unions or fighting for equal rights, they seldom bet their future on politicians. They fashioned their own institutions — unions, women’s groups, community and immigrant centers and a witty, anti-authoritarian press — in which they spoke up for themselves and for t…
Read More…about Mormonism is not easy for multigenerational Mormons like Romney, because faith is also family, ancestry, ethnicity, and culture. Romney hails from a storied family at the core of Mormon culture. He is a man who probably donated about 20 hours per week of his time to Church affairs during his service as a lay congregational and regional church leader. It has been one of the prime definers of his personal identity. But what happens when a risk…
Read More…as happened at most houses—the missionaries always offered to shovel the householder’s snow-packed walk. Just to do a good turn. Plant a seed. Leave a positive impression. Knock as he might, a lot of doors are closing in Mitt Romney’s face these days. Minnesota. Missouri. Colorado. He may very well lose Michigan, the state his father governed. Polls even suggest that Arizona, which has a large LDS population and has been described as a Romney “fir…
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