Religion Dispatches
CNN’s Belief Blog has a great rundown of the lavish homes of American archbishops who haven’t gotten the memo from Pope Francis about a “church which is poor and for the poor.” CNN reports that “10 of the 34 active archbishops in the United States live in buildings worth more than $1 million.” The median home value in the U.S. is $174,200. Not surprisingly, that list includes some of the nation’s most outspoken conservative bishops—and allies of…
Read More…of the military, cause many to leave the army, and dramatically lower the number of recruits, perhaps leading to the reinstatement of a compulsory draft.” However, that belief runs counter to many studies already done that show lifting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell would not adversely affect the military in any way. In 1993 RAND Corp. concluded that openly gay people in the U.S. military do not negatively impact unit cohesion, morale, good order, or mili…
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…tween two influential groups in American political life. Both Catholic and non-Catholic Americans have been vocal supporters of American sisters in light of the Vatican’s assessment. Such support has given rise to the theme that it is American sisters—exemplified by the Nuns on the Bus and known for their work in communities around the country—who hold the grassroots power to bring politicians to task on justice issues from economic inequality to…
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…choice well chosen. In a secular age, Brooks reports, “Religious faith or nonfaith becomes more a matter of personal choice as part of a quest for personal development.” One senses that in Brooks’ reading of Taylor the principle of choice becomes its own form of transcendence—the difference that the secular age makes in all of our lives. Which is to say that Taylor and Brooks are not wrong about this particular change over time—more and more peop…
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…1986, the park welcomed six million visitors, making it the most attended non-Disney theme park in America. The bonanza didn’t last. In 1987, news leaked that Bakker had had a one-time sexual encounter with a 21-year-old in a Clearwater hotel room, and that he had paid her $265,000 in hush money. Then in December 1988, a federal grand jury indicted Bakker on twenty-four counts of fraud and conspiracy, based on a dishonest scheme he had used to ra…
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…orts,” is indeed “long-discredited.” But then they offer what amounts to an 800-word platform to the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg. The short piece serves as a teaser for Friday’s episode of 20/20, the result of a year-long investigation into several ex-gay “camps” located in the American South. The 20/20 segment features interviews with at least two young people sent to the camps—as well as self-described pastors and administrators of th…
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…re faith-based organizations, including both congregations and faith-based non-profits. Katrina revealed not only the shortcomings of federal, state and local government disaster response, but also faith-based organizations’ ability to mobilize in a time of need. Congregations and other faith-based organizations often serve as centers of communities. They have deep local knowledge, moral capital and the trust of the people they serve, including di…
Read More…g District of Western China, where officials have reportedly bulldozed over 800 mosques. Authorities have also detained hundreds of thousands of Uighurs in re-education camps. The scale of the suffering is difficult to imagine. In fairness, there’s been a lot of good reporting about the plight of the Uighurs. And yet I believe the outpouring of emotion for more recognizable places—especially Notre Dame—is instructive. Samuel Johnson defined sympat…
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…mportant marker of Eastern Christian identity—particularly as increasingly numbers of Eastern Christians became the simultaneous targets of Western crusaders and Islamic conquerors. In this context, rigid adherence to liturgical customs became a means by which to assert and preserve identity in the face of colonization and oppression. Conversely, adherence to Christian practices abandoned by the Christian West—if not in the Middle Ages then certai…
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…ms to be more or less okay with dropping $6.4 trillion—and killing at least 800,000 people—in an ineffective and counterproductive “war on terror.” When will we understand that defunding the police and defunding the Pentagon reflect one and the same struggle?) Finally, given how the practice of radical nonviolence implies a willingness to sacrifice, how much are you personally willing to sacrifice for the achievement of the long-awaited radical re…
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