Religion Dispatches
…venues like Ave Maria University. As a result, the effect that belief in Satan exerts on American politics has gone under the radar, concealed by the false narrative that America has become a secular culture. This is a problem for voters, who need to know not only the policies of presidential candidates, but the worldview that informs those policies. Baudelaire wrote that the devil’s greatest trick was convincing the world that he doesn’t exist. I…
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…practices), in reality Muslims have suffered because of pernicious Western policies for several centuries; and jihadi violence was born out of a sense that Muslims had been rendered powerless and marginalized by the West. In India, the fragile material condition of not only Muslims but many other groups—in a situation where marginal minorities are, together, the overwhelming majority of the Indian peoples—has made the Left more ready to flirt bold…
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…Catholics could vote for Barack Obama because of his strong social welfare policies: The bishops need to look at our Catholic News Service; they need to review their coverage of [the Church’s moral and social teachings] and give some new direction. Spence accused the bishops of succumbing to pressure from far-right Catholic sites like the Lepanto Institute, Church Militant, and LifeSiteNews, which accused him of having “an agenda that is in direct…
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…d basic dignity, and then call themselves “pro-life.” They’ll gladly enact policies that dramatically increase infant mortality and thrust millions of children into poverty while claiming to care about children’s health. They fetishize their guns, mulishly clutching the instruments of the leading cause of death for America’s children with an unrivaled passion. They rail against life-saving vaccines and masks, and the scientific consensus behind th…
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…s of conscience that are not experienced by others. These include laws and policies regulating: • apostasy and religious conversion; • blasphemy and religious criticism; • compulsory religious registration, usually with a government proscribed list of permitted religions; • religious requirements or restrictions on government ID cards and passports; • religious tests for citizenship or participation in civic life; • religious control of family law…
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…er Bethany branches switched to LGBTQ-inclusive foster parent and adoption policies while others did not, resulting in a confusing patchwork that, as of early this year, has been replaced with a Bethany-wide policy of allowing same-sex couples to foster and adopt. At least as late as 2014, internal communications from Bethany executives continued to stress that “God instituted marriage as a life-long covenant between one man and one woman,” and th…
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…ich allows faith-based student groups to defy a school’s nondiscrimination policies if those policies conflict with the group’s “sincerely held religious belief.” HB 1362 aims to prohibit public schools from affirming trans students’ identities, and categorically bars them from appropriate facilities on campus. HB1805 and its Senate companion, SB 892, would allow child welfare agencies to refuse to serve minor clients if doing so would violate the…
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…Rithambra, an ascetic orator and ardent nationalist, describes government policies for inclusion of Muslims as “cutting open the Hindu chest” like the dissection of a frog, and compares Muslims’ presence in India to “a lemon in milk,” evoking both disgust and a sense of impurity. These images construct a sense of Muslims as violating national unity, or shredding and penetrating India’s boundaries. Figuring difference as violation evokes shame and…
Read More…ntuition would suggest that economic development is the cause, and pro-gay policies are the effect. The more affluent a society, the more educated, the more democratic, the more networked, and so on. But the [Williams/USAID] report also suggests that anti-gay policies may harm economic development. The discrimination against, marginalization of, and criminalization of LGBT people removes them from the job market, among other things. “This research…
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…d what he means by “fully integrated.” Country Club Republican optics—MAGA policies The afternoon saw a thematic shift to foreign policy and the role of state power. First up is Elbridge “Bridge” Colby, a Trump official and remnant of the old guard of Country Club Republicans amidst NatCon’s wild mix of Twitter trolls, brash right-wing populists, fundamentalist preachers and theocrats. Despite the stereotypical DC “Insider” look, with his blond co…
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