Religion Dispatches
…ted a church that delivered on its promises of inclusion, tolerance, and love and were failed so profoundly by churches in the stranglehold of homophobic rhetoric and abuse. Young people are repulsed by it. And if this atheist had to venture a guess, I bet that Jesus would be too….
Read More
…ditions are diverse. No, higher education cannot flourish without academic freedom. Yes, professors are only human and don’t deserve to be fired over a single disagreement or unintentional offense. But was this particular offense actually unintentional? Ultimately the direct cause of the controversy is that the instructor knew she was going to offend the Muslim students entrusted to her, and she did it anyway. That’s a pretty good example of punch…
Read More…ict was simply carrying on this tradition. Pope Benedict has more recently used text messaging to communicate with attendees throughout this year’s World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. His first message read: Young friend, God and his people expect much from u because u have within you the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus – BXVI. Now, as the Synod of Bishops meets in Rome, one person suggested Pope Benedict enter the blogoshere. Agnes La…
Read More
…feminism as these grave threats to the family. He would dismiss domestic abuse—that’s something that appears in later of his books. He would sometimes accuse women of faking it, just to get attention, that sort of thing. Even where he believed abuse was real, he never really thought of it as a good reason for divorce. Everybody had to stay in their marriage. And when he, when he ended up founding Focus on the Family he really gave all of those ide…
Read More
…rad students have wasted their potential on fruitless arguments in coffeehouses, we’re sorry. You’re going to want that free refill. Decaf, preferably, so you’re not up all night worrying about the disappearance of tenure and the surfeit of bad life choices you’ve made. “Algebra” by Emily Coble 5. Algebra For every time you’ve had to solve for x, a Muslim has duped you. Algebra was refined by an 8th century Persian Muslim mathematician, al-Khwariz…
Read More
…mmigration or health care. Yes, the storytelling business is messy and diffuse. It doesn’t lend itself to sound bites as readily as the “I’m right/you’re wrong” confrontational throwdown does. But religious progressives in particular might well benefit from going this route, because so many of us have journeyed farther and over rockier ground than have our conservative counterparts. Storytelling is already powerful when we hear the stories of ot…
Read More…were often mistaken for sisters – and still are. People recognize the bond between us, but often hesitate to recognize – or completely deny – the reality of that bond. I know of gay men, lesbians, and transgender people who have been harassed, accosted, even beaten up, because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, or even a perception of “deviance.” A dear friend of mine lost her son several years ago in Greenville, South Carolina. He wa…
Read More…ondering. Safe bet that this is the most often the word ‘atheist’ has been used in a single episode of a network drama. The wrinkle is that her daughter is part of a youth-y evangelical group, having converted a few seasons back. The writers use her for comic effect sometimes, as when the grownups are in crisis around the kitchen table and you suddenly hear a group of teenage girls belting hymns from the bedroom. But in this episode mother and dau…
Read More
…t are now familiar neuralgic issues: ordination, racism, sexuality, power, freedom of conscience. We did so because the U.S. Catholic Bishops were doing what the men in Rome are doing this week: discussing, debating, even voting on women’s issues without women being present, much less involved as equals. The U.S. men had women consultants too, several of whom resigned in the process. I watched a video of the event recently with deep consternation…
Read More…earch editor Wright, the University of Texas has launched its own investigation into the integrity of the study. But politically, the integrity of the study may be beside the point. The Witherspoon Foundation and Bradley Foundation apparently wanted a weapon they could use to fight marriage equality and they got it. It’s a safe bet that the Regnerus study will be cited by religious right groups for years to come, the way they have over the past de…
Read More