Religion Dispatches
…commissioned by the largest organization fighting for LGBT rights, but the numbers [pdf] show that the sample actually skewed right. Of the 800 registered voters polled 38 percent were strong, weak, or independent-leaning Democrats with 41 percent identifying as strong, weak, or independent leaning Republicans. Conservatives outweighed liberals by 38 to 18 percent, and a full 74 percent of those polled identified as religious. Some 40 percent clai…
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…featuring Bill McKibben, Medea Benjamin, Ash-Lee Henderson, and Corrine Sanchez will discuss the significance of King’s vision for the current moment. King’s speech, given to a packed Riverside Church exactly one year before he was killed in Memphis, is notorious for the way it provoked fury, condemnation and distress at the time. Fury from the Johnson Administration and its pro-war supporters; blistering condemnation in the mainstream media; and…
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…nd activist in her own right, make this same joke on countless occasions, including on a webshow last month. But as Christopher Hitchens once wrote, “The literal mind can never understand the ironic mind.” The Christian Nationalists were as humorless and theocratic as always, responding to “awoman” with fiery denunciations worthy of a preacher slinging hellfire and brimstone from the pulpit. The denunciations are predictable and not worth repeatin…
Read More…tary readiness. Several other military-commissioned and GAO studies have concluded that open service does not undermine military readiness, troop morale or national security. In addition 24 countries, including Israel, allow openly gay service members without any adverse affect upon military cohesion or readiness. As for natural disasters, Levin may want to study up on what causes earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes. I don’t see “gays and lesbia…
Read More…h, although Doniger does make use of such data for the modern period that includes the presence of anthropology. However, the second and more troublesome error is Shukla’s view of scholarship on religion. The interpretative dimension is not what is wrong with the study of religion—or of any discipline for that matter. Rather, interpretation is the activity that enables disciplines to develop and to grow. It is not only academics who would have pro…
Read More…ommunication of some victims and accusers. In 1995, the Church established stronger guidelines and new protocols for reporting abuse, including a 1-800 number for local clergy. …
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…sure that this afternoon’s announcement will “inspire confidence.” Quel coincidence! The profound damage done by Team Obama to economic fundamentals today will not be fully felt during his administration, even if he serves two terms, so it was probably politically shrewd to go this way: not fighting Finance’s stranglehold over the economy and over the government itself and saving his political chips for health care and education and energy. Politi…
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…ican American), there would be no Beasts of the Southern Wild. Also, by coincidence, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil blowout occurred on the first day of shooting the film in April of 2010. As Zeitlin puts it, “The oil spill happening created this sort of strange, life imitates art on set… The whole time you would wake up in the morning and check the oil and it would get closer and closer… it was really eerie.” Zeitlin’s commentary aside, Beasts depi…
Read More…es range from $700 to $800 million per year. But this is less about the principal than the principle. The FFRF believes that clergy aren’t paying their “fair share,” making life more expensive for the rest of us. Never mind that it works out to less than $2.50 per citizen. The FFRF has a good chance of winning. Although I’m no constitutional scholar, the parsonage exemption does seem to privilege one set of citizens over another. I find it hard to…
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…w research I’ve written about elsewhere in this column reveals that experience (which my dad obviously provided me a lot of) directly affects who we are and how our DNA is expressed, regardless of that DNA’s origin. What does concern me is the type and power of DNA knowledge, and how gaining access to it at home, alone, could be a problem. As my student discussing his “real” self and Dorothy Nelkin and Susan Lindee in The DNA Mystique effectively…
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