Religion Dispatches
…was a testament to the best of human efforts to join together in common cause. 10. RD celebrates its Two-Year Anniversary (February 4th). Sorry. This may have been sacred to only a few… Can you blame me? *** Finally, just so I can’t be accused of slapping the label on any old thing, here is a list of items in the news that, for too many Americans, have nothing at all to do with the sacred—they are thoroughly mundane, lacking in urgency, ultimate…
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…all things through Christ who strengthens me.’” A comment from Charity enthuses, “When things begin to seem really dark, God always sends a light to show us the way! Lila, you are a tremendous inspiration.” Commenter Mika’l Qualls is reminded “of Corrie Ten Boom and others like her… I feel better going to sleep at night, knowing that God has someone in place who is on the frontlines fighting against this tremendous evil.” And commenter Karen West…
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…ear reactors? Certainly. Does it strengthen our resolve to develop an ever better understanding of seismology? You bet. Do these guarantee that, going forward into an age of accelerating climate change and rapidly depleting oil reserves, we won’t take one hit after another to our most deeply-held belief as modern people: that we can do a better job of running the planet than the planet can? No. There is no guarantee whatsoever that we will emerge…
Read More…isten to pseudo-historian David Barton at gunpoint. While his name doesn’t appear on the list of the company’s “master historians,” Huckabee is clearly following Barton’s template where everything is spelled out in terms of good versus evil and anything in between is simply airbrushed from history. They’re like a Sarah Palin speech crossed with those Davey and Goliath cartoons that my generation used to watch out of desperation on Sunday mornings…
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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…alking about the rest of us.) As far as students go, they need to practice noticing and talking about the skills and habits they’re getting in religious studies. They’ll have to articulate these things to their parents and prospective employers. I bet they can do it better than I have. When they do, they’ll be a lot more ready to take over the world, and that will be a good thing. This essay is based on a talk given to Brown University undergradua…
Read More…or of the Senate, asserting that America was on the road to moral ruin because of the separation of church and state. In the speech, Miller backed former Judge Roy Moore (of Ten Commandments fame) and the crafters of the Constitution Restoration Act, which would have stripped federal courts of jurisdiction to hear Establishment Clause claims. He said: I stand shoulder to shoulder, not only with my Senate cosponsors and Chief Justice Roy Moore of A…
Read More…The result, though, is it makes it easier to legally shoot people. Now, I bet you see where this is going. The column is so terrific it really needs to be read in its entirety. Seriously. Read it. But Argento does see a potential downside to the plan. Of course, some people may object because of all of that stuff in the Bible about caring for the poor and being your brother’s keeper and such. They may point to the Sermon on the Mount, in which Je…
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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…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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