Religion Dispatches
…’s called an X chromosome, which means we can’t have a baby,” he said on a Houston radio show to justify the oft-repeated claim that requiring plans to cover the health care costs associated with a pregnancy is unfair to men. Setting aside whatever meaning we might make of the fact that the legislator confused the X and the Y chromosome, Republicans are now on record as opposing insurance coverage for contraceptives, for abortion (even for health…
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…rday, that conventional story was on view: voters for whom abortion is the number one motivating issue, trying to send that message to both candidates and observers. There, on the statehouse steps, another kind of conservative evangelicalism was on view: that of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar of 19 Kids and Counting fame, who have endorsed Santorum. That these icons of the contraception-eschewing wing of evangelicalism marched behind the Knights of C…
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…y within you, and that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for for years in this country. The odd Yoda-like phrasing of “the dogma lives loudly within you,” aside, Feinstein was asking a fair question about how the execution of Barrett’s religious beliefs would comport with her duties as a judge—a question that Barrett herself had raised, albeit in an article written some years ago. Barrett assured the…
Read More…what we revere about him changes?” Gay theologian Bob Shore-Gross told the Houston Chronicle that the billboard, while offensive to some, reveals just how deep Jesus’ humanity goes. Jesus has been depicted over the centuries as African American, Native American, and even female. So, “it was inevitable that Christ is portrayed as queer.” I fully expect that this billboard will meet the same fate as St. Matthew’s in the City’s other risqué portrayal…
Read MoreA number of developments in the lawsuit against Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) have taken place since I first covered it for RD back in early March. On May 14, a second amendment was filed to the suit: [The suit] adds three new plaintiffs, making a total of 11. Five plaintiffs are now using their real names, and the rest are pseudonyms. It accuses church leaders of conspiracy, negligence, misrepresentation and intentional infliction of emotiona…
Read More…mong the critics was the Brotherhood of the Orthodox Clergy Association of Houston, Texas, which delivered a “stinging rebuke”: We find it unacceptable for Orthodox Clergy, who have been given the charge to instruct and guide the laity, to suggest that the moral Tradition of the Orthodox Church needs to change with the times or with the prevalent culture….We are all the more concerned that members of Fr. Robert Arida’s parish who identify themselv…
Read More…in Dearborn, Michigan. Meanwhile, Whole Foods is defending itself after a Houston blogger posted an internal email that advised local stores not to promote their halal products during Ramadan. A collection of relics from Pope John Paul II, including a capsule of his blood, will tour Mexico this fall. Rev. Roy Bourgeois has been officially dismissed by his religious order, the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, for his support of women’s ordination….
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…he wake of recent revelations oozing from the Southern Baptist Church. The Houston Chronicle reported that as many as 700 people were sexually abused, mostly when they were children. I held my gut as I thought about the devastation that these families went though; how the grief and betrayal rippled through the survivor, the family, and the whole church. This wound would be a pain that they would carry for the rest of their lives. Because when peop…
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…stor Bob Roberts, Jr. In that conversation, you praised your “shepherd” at Houston’s First Baptist Church, Dr. John Bisagno, who was the first to ask you to teach “under [his] authority.” You said, “There is no doubt that there was a male authority over that church … but lots and lots of women surrendered to ministry under his pastoring.” (12:59) You benefit from maintaining a neutral posture on complementarianism the way white women benefit from…
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…ith conservative activism on school boards in Texas. Recover America lists Houston’s Second Baptist Church as one of its partners in training “Biblical Pastors” and “their people” to confront “the darkness of the culture.” It’s through these amorphous alliances between today’s “mainstream” Christian Right and the NAR that both “spiritual” and political warfare are waged against LGBTQ people in schools and society. The Truth & Liberty Coalition’s B…
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