Religion Dispatches
…MLA Laurie Blakeman was moved to tears by the amendment, telling the National Post: “It’s hard to contain my joy… I came into politics to change the world and today I changed the world.” …
Read More…we don’t do it so it must not have been revealed. A cursory examination of change on Catholic views of the death penalty and usury make quick mincemeat of that argument. Church teachings change and mature as it becomes obvious that contemporary needs for justice resonate with ancient insights. We have learned that killing people who act badly only results in more evil; charging sky-high interest rates offends the common good. Male-only deacons (pr…
Read More…othing, it appears, would substantively change under HB 1125. Nor would it change the already existing, and problematically worded, kinds of religious groups that can currently offer such religious unions. Those permitted to perform a religious marriage service in Oklahoma are to have “been duly ordained or authorized by the church to which he or she belongs to preach the Gospel, or a rabbi…” Apparently Christians and Jews and Baha’i (thanks to a…
Read More…in four years will be “utterly” different with more LGBT candidates. Cuba: Change and challenges for LGBT community The Washington Blade’s Michael Lavers, concluded his reporting from Cuba with an in-depth story on the changes that have taken place and lingering challenges facing LGBT activists in Cuba. His story reflects divisions among LGBT Cubans on the visible role played by Mariela Castro, the daughter of current President Raúl Castro, who ha…
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…ng myself to the almost all white, suburban church I attend. Will anything change—will anything even nod in the direction of change let alone press toward any sort of action (and what would that be?) that might invite change—during “the most segregated hour of the week,” as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously put it? Now, the priest at my church is a fine preacher. I am certain she was up through the night retooling a sermon on the week’s gospel…
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…mote fair wages for all, especially low-wage workers to work for fair tax policy to join coalitions supporting constitutional change to get money out of politics and limit the power of corporations to participate in events and initiatives organized to promote justice and fairness to take nonviolent, direct action to the streets and halls of corporate and government power to advocate immediate action on climate change to replace our fossil fuel…
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…the venerable rightwing business-focused bill mill American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) provided a forum to NACL at its annual meeting in Austin, Texas in December 2019. There, Rapert claims to have secured nine state chairs. He says that NACL is modeled after ALEC and seeks to convene legislators like ALEC does, but “to address major policy concerns from a Biblical worldview,” and to “train and elect Christians to serve in public office…
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…regulations,” and vaguely referred to environmental regulations, economic policy, and foreign policy that were “moving in the direction of a nanny state,” a “Western European social model.” The contraception coverage requirement, Sweeney said in his speech, was “abnormal” and “not how things should be.” He warned of a “brand new form of bondage” due to people who “want to dip their hands into the government treasury.” While Sweeney’s speech sound…
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…and why their position might not seem well thought through: This is not a policy idea for these people, it’s a prophecy idea. It’s a theological idea for them. And so, in these circles, when they talk about abortion, they’re not talking about policy. […]The conversation is: Abortion in any form is a form of child sacrifice. That empowers demons to have more control over America. […] Abortion to them is an arena of spiritual combat [and] one of th…
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…eligious view. Although that decision was later ruled moot because HHS had changed its policy and did not renew the USCCB’s contract (provoking the Republican accusations of anti-Catholic bias), the ACLU maintains the legal reasoning still applies. If it does, the ACLU argues, the bishops’ claims that the new Prison Rape Elimination Act regulations violate RFRA would not prevail, since RFRA cannot trump the Constitution. “It’s a stretch to argue,…
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