Religion Dispatches
…that plane on it with “Mission Accomplished” emblazoned behind you. You’re welcome.) I remember when 9/11 happened. I was driving to another day at work fixing our ships and submarines when I heard about it on the radio. It was eerie. At first they said a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. Sad, but to an eighteen-year-old it was an interruption to my morning music (it was the same day Jay-Z’s The Blueprint came out and I was hyped!). A few…
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…to conduct our life together at the National Youth Event in a manner that promotes a community of faith.” Literally, that manual spent three times more words trying to get the kids to drink water instead of Coca-Cola in the heat than it spent on its entire religious/theological content. It made me wonder if the football players or UCC kids had more rituals and prayers during their weeks. L: Your example catches the flavor, but there is more to sa…
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…me foreign forces” he didn’t name. He also accused gay people of trying to promote themselves… Lokodo, a former Catholic priest who condemns homosexuality, has previously been accused to leading efforts to foil the public activities of LGBTI Ugandans. Serbia: Prime Minister names lesbian to cabinet Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic announced that he would appoint Ana Brnabic to his cabinet as minister for state administration, which would make her t…
Read More…that made the President’s speech seem flatter than most was the altogether welcome, and altogether adult, decision by the leadership of the two main parties to weave themselves together, thereby working against the endless intrusion of partisan shouting and handclapping on two sides of the chamber that tended to double the length of such speeches in the past decades. This was the very sort of thing that led Chief Justice Roberts to suggest last ye…
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…2009, the Vatican announced a special “Apostolic Constitution” that would welcome these restive Episcopalians and Anglicans into the Catholic Church, allowing them to bring with them some of the glorious liturgies and music of the Anglican tradition. While I’ve seen no evidence of Anglicans and Episcopalians “swimming the Tiber” en masse (pardon the pun) to Rome, the Vatican’s overture struck me at the time as opportunistic, even cynical. Ignorin…
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…the soul-destroying practice of theologized tolerance that says, “You are welcome to exist among us, but we cannot affirm the goodness, value, or worth of your life(style).” This is a particularly popular discourse among “moderates” who rest proud that they aren’t like Westboro and for whom tolerance seems virtuous. Secondly, free speech does not necessarily lead to greater freedom for the marginalized. Free speech and a tolerance for all views p…
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…ests to step out of the dark. Bishops may well need to brace themselves or welcome with open arms a greater honesty in this matter. Meanwhile, for the gay priest who suffers under the church’s disparagement of his God-given sexuality and is urged to negate an essential part of who he is, the pope’s stated preference not to judge is balm in Gilead. Like this story? Your tax-deductible $5 or $10 will help us pay writers, coders, interns, and editor…
Read More…ek that the group and the Iranian Lesbian and Transgender Network (6Rang) “welcome the decision by the Islamic Republican of Iran to accept 139 of the 291 recommendations and to partially support 59 recommendations put forward by the 28th session of the Human Rights Council that address the rights of sexual minorities.” Despite the limitations, this is the first time the Islamic Republic has acknowledged ill-treatment and torture of the LGBT commu…
Read More…BT community, or for a clear statement that LGBT people and supporters are welcome to participate in the Church’s sacramental life and ministries.” At the Washington Post, Anthony Faiola and Michelle Boorstein highlighted the pope’s urging that the clergy not wield “moral laws” like a weapon. More than anything, it amounted to an exaltation of traditional marriage while recognizing that life, in his own words, is not always “perfect.” Yet rather t…
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…ts before murdering them in their sleep, so Dylann Roof received a cordial welcomed into Emanuel Church’s Bible study. He sat placidly with his victims for an hour before pulling out his gun and killing those who had welcomed him. Who is to know what the slain church members thought, at first, of this taciturn young white man who had knocked on the church door, asking to see the pastor? He sat at table with them, perhaps even engaged in discussion…
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