Religion Dispatches
…ential material,” said Mpofu. “Oh yeah,” echoes Bourland. “In my heart, I just begin to pray, God, let this woman rise to this place that you want her to go,” said Mpofu. “Number one, she’s a Christian. Number two, she’s a woman.” Watch a short video montage of the conference here. —Ed….
Read More
…l I could no longer live with it. Then, one day while I was talking on the phone in a dark room, just like that, I shed my belief in a literal “first couple.” Strangely, I don’t remember who I was talking to or what the conversation was about, but all at once I understood and it felt great. Yet my childhood belief had provided protection for me and had given shape to my understanding of God and even of myself, and what did I have to replace it wit…
Read More
…statement on the issue of fracking, which is also affecting an increasing number of communities in the state, it has not publicized it widely either. The same reluctance to speak loudly and clearly can be seen in the Diocese’s response to worker justice issues. In 2013, during the Fairness at Patriot campaign, when church officials were asked why the bishop was not saying anything publicly in defense of the miners whose pensions and insurance wer…
Read More
…ere not companionship-based. They were economic arrangements. Okay, that’s number 1. Number 2, let’s say that your wife didn’t provide you with a male offspring. A man could take another wife and another wife and another wife until one of them did. This is the “sanctity of marriage” that is being protected. Are you kidding me? Wow. Okay, so that’s Old Testament. Then along comes Jesus. Well for those of us who follow Jesus, I always like to point…
Read More…make a “Passover offering.” Seven is a biblically significant number, the number of completion and perfection, and in this spring of 2007 the Praise-a-thon began on Easter Sunday, the seventh day of Passover. If you make the Passover offering, Munsey claims, God will give you seven blessings: God will dispatch an angel to lead miracles; rid you of your enemies; bless you with prosperity; heal you; give you longevity; give you an inheritance you k…
Read More
…tional, Human Rights Watch, and The UN Refugee Agency. The debate over how best to respond has begun. The anti-genocide Enough project of the Center for American Progress, for example, has called for arming the south with “air defense capabilities” to protect civilians from aerial bombardment. Allegations of ethnic cleansing by the SAF and allied militia during the invasion of Abyei in May foreshadowed the current crisis, and indeed this is the sa…
Read More…have been a helpful tidbit for Wills’s column. But if there’s no time for phone calls or web searches, well, at the very least, there are fact-checkers. And here’s a modest proposal for the editors at the New York Review of Books and the New York Times and every other publication that will be running a lot of Mormon content this campaign season but has no Mormons on its editorial staff: Hire a Mormon fact checker. There are a number of advanced g…
Read More
…ilding Bridges meeting spot to find what she described as a “sea of Sunday best and strollers,” including her own—festooned in rainbow streamers. It was important, explained Luana Uluave, a straight LDS mother from Cottonwood Heights, Utah, for believing and churchgoing Mormons to organize and gather with other Mormons who understood their deep commitment to their faith. Mormons Building Bridges participants prepared signs with verses from LDS hym…
Read More…eer put his hand on Monk’s shoulder and praised him, saying, “We’ve gotten phone calls from military members who are undergoing discrimination…and with the exception of him, those folks that have called us have all wanted to remain anonymous. Sergeant Monk, to his credit, is willing to stand up.” Let’s read between the lines here: Monk is, quite literally, the best example of discrimination against Christians in the military that the Liberty Inst…
Read More…a statue of George Washington. A total of two messages suggested that the best way to block the Satanic monument was to also remove the monument to the Ten Commandments. But virtually all of the messages were opposed to the monument, ranging in tone from bewilderment to anger to tears. What they shared was a complete lack of understanding of the establishment clause or its implications for government institutions—not to mention a staggering level…
Read More