Religion Dispatches
…Western Muslim Brotherhood, seem poised to take power throughout the Middle East as a result of riots that have already toppled one Arab regime and are threatening others, in what some are calling only the latest wave of an Islamic ‘tsunami’ sweeping the globe.” Oh, and look! The Brotherhood has learned its tactics from Bill Ayers and Code Pink. Don’t you love living in a fact-free world?…
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…it seems, carries fresh disclosures about priestly pedophilia in Ireland, Germany, and (most appallingly) at a Catholic school for the deaf in Wisconsin. Sadly enough, priestly pedophilia is old news by now. What’s new, in the opening of court documents that the Vatican sought desperately to suppress, is that the Catholic hierarchy stubbornly refused to deal with these cases in a way that would protect children against further abuse by predatory…
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…le Americans celebrate Labor Day with picnics, BBQs, and weekend getaways, Germany-based FIAA GmbH is releasing the beta version of The Bible Online: Heroes, the first installment of a projected series of MMORTS (massively multiplayer online real-time strategy) “games” based on the Bible. MMORTS games take place in a world that continues to exist and evolve even while any given player isn’t playing. According to the press release, there is an RPG…
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…despread sexual abuse throughout Europe—first in Ireland, then in Austria, Germany and other countries—is the third such round of endemic abuse and cover-up. The first was in the 1980s in the United States arising out of charges of abuse in Louisiana; clean-up was, of course, promised. Those charges were followed by the 2002 Boston Globe exposé; clean up was again promised, but the bishops and cardinals responsible are, in one way or another, stil…
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…occupy a blessed, privileged role in the divine scheme, though he has also promoted, in his sermons and literature, theological themes derived from classic Christian tropes identified by many writers, such as James Carroll in Constantine’s Sword, as forming the core of historical Christian anti-Semitism. Hagee adds some contemporary touches—such as his variation on a classical conspiracy theory alleging that “international financial power brokers…
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…cism as a cultural given is coming to an end. The Roman Catholic Church of Germany is on the skids. Revelations of abuses in Catholic institutions are coming thick and fast. Ironically, one of the actors who plays Jesus in the once-a-decade Passion Play at Oberammergau this year has “researched the bureaucratic steps needed to leave the church officially last year.” ‘Jesus’ leaving the Church; a Saturday Night Live moment for sure! In developing c…
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…ference. Mormon women travelled from as far away as New York, Florida, and Germany to take part in the collective action organized by the group Ordain Women as a gentle and symbolic demonstration against pervasive gender segregation in LDS Church administration and leadership. All observant men and boys over the age of 12 are eligible for ordination to the Mormon lay priesthood, and the Church’s theological, liturgical, financial, and administrati…
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…re overshadowed by talk of China, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico, Israel, Iran, Germany, Ukraine, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Yemen, and those faceless “migrants” coming from countries where, according to Trump, violence is actually down (due, we’re left to assume, to their departure). You see, Harris touted that there were no “American military boots on the ground around the world,” as though the US doesn’t have a whopping 750 military bases in at l…
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…rdain Women effort. Julia Murphy, who flew in from her home in Heidelberg, Germany, said, “I know it’s a long way. It’s worth it!” Heather Olson Beal of Nacogdoches, Texas, said, “This wasn’t easy for me to do. I’ve lived with a lot of fear and I can’t say publicly a lot of the things I feel about gender inequality in the church. This is a way to say it.” “I hope that the leaders of the church would see that we are ready to contribute more,” s…
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…My answer was that this habit is common to all European intellectuals, in Germany, France, Spain, and, naturally, Italy: all countries where a scholar or scientist often feels required to speak out in the papers, to comment, if only from the point of view of his own interests and special field, on events that concern all citizens. And I added, somewhat maliciously, that if there was any problem with this it was not my problem as a European intell…
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