Religion Dispatches
…ir husbands. These organizations all promote literature, lectures, conferences, and other materials intended to promote this perspective, as well as the starkly delineated gender norms and expectations upon which this view is based. I’d be willing to bet the t-shirt will be showing up at homeschool conventions across the country this spring….
Read More
…erently evil…Our nation’s youth do not need activist indoctrination that fixates solely on past flaws and splits our nation into divided camps… Taxpayer-supported programs should emphasize the shared civic virtues that bring us together, not push radical agendas that tear us apart. The GOP senators go on to fulminate over what they call the “infamous” 1619 Project, created by the New York Times, which was mentioned in the Education Dept.’s announc…
Read More
…d adults in his life, linking that childhood trauma to his own early homosexuality and announcing his deliverance from homosexuality as a lifestyle. While Mclurkin begain talking this way as early as 2002 it is undoubtedly his comments in 2009 that are the source of the withdrawal of his invitation to the DC event. In 2009, at the annual Holy Convocation convention of the predominantly black and Pentecostal Church of God in Christ denomination, Mc…
Read More
…this year), Benedict prepared a statement on social networking platforms. Expressing again his deep anxiety about “authenticity” in the media age, Benedict warns that “the significance and effectiveness of the various forms of [online] expression appear to be determined more by their popularity than by their intrinsic importance and value.” One can imagine the pope wringing his hands in frustration at the lack of civility in online arguments about…
Read More
…d I realize I don’t care. • Riding the volume knob, I split the difference between waking my parents and coaxing all the ecstasy I can from the TV’s tin-can speaker. I don’t know how to take this I don’t see why he moves me He’s a man He’s just a man Should I bring him down Should I scream and shout Should I speak of love Let my feelings out? I never thought I’d come to this What’s it all about? —Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, “I Don’t Know How…
Read More
…they’re clearly the most feared subcategory. When atheists support same-sex marriage, for example, it’s not because they don’t believe in marriage, it’s because they believe in love and commitment. When they insist on removing creationism from public school curricula, it’s because they believe in the power of science and reason to improve the human condition. And if one should really need proof that atheists are as moral as any other group, they…
Read More
…nmental Protection Agency’s informing us last week that man-made carbon dioxide—a gas that humans exhale and plants need to live, a gas that represents less than 0.1 percent of the atmosphere—is a dangerous pollutant threatening to overheat the world. (While the newsroom at the Philadelphia Inquirer has been gutted, Santorum gets paid $1,750 per column to foist such misinformation on a poorly informed public.) In all fairness, Santorum makes one g…
Read More
…ago where months before I spent a good deal of time trying to understand. Explaining is not defending except for those who prefer a life of uninformed hate.” He also disagreed with Smith that he “had written a pro-Obama book that would draw evangelicals away from McCain.” And he pleads with the right-wing Christian readership that has pre-judged his book to remember that “being a Christian and a conservative is not tantamount to having a brain byp…
Read More
…orld, and no school of thought to belong to. These things we have come to expect from our moral theories, and “faith-based” politicians depend on them. There is no proof for the existence of God or that this Jesus really walked on the earth with which to combat the nonbelievers—I may be one myself, but I won’t let it keep me from reading Stringfellow. What remains is the spirit, the shadow, or the ghost that has been following me for these years f…
Read More
…ngelicals have built their cultural capital on a platform of straitlaced sexual morality, there’s been extraordinary tolerance among this group for politicians who commit what are traditionally considered immoral sexual acts—so long as they meet certain conditions. If the politicians in question are white, straight, and come off as “tough guy” protector types (think Roy Moore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Donald Trump), a persona more common among co…
Read More