Religion Dispatches
…See, there is no war on women, only an elitist war on conservatives!) You’ll see that resolve tomorrow. The high temperature in Washington is forecast to be 15 degrees. But I’d bet marchers come out in force, and you’ll see more than a few signs, and hear more than a few comments, about Governor Cuomo. …
Read More…proof of Millennials’ unfamiliarity with the diversity of teachings in America’s religious institutions such that they aren’t aware of the alternatives that are better aligned with their values. Whatever the reasons, it’s now evident that churches get one chance to get their message on LGBT treatment correct and that they get the message wrong at their own peril. While some celebrate the decline of religious affiliation in America, I think it wou…
Read More
…very idea of a Christian nation means something very different to Black Americans who happen to be Christian). But Christian nationalists are rarely so open about it. If any senator was likely to say the quiet part out loud, Hyde-Smith would have been a good bet. She joked about sitting in the front row at a public hanging during her campaign to win a senate seat in the state which had the highest number of recorded lynchings. The Christian Nation…
Read More…other “may have originally been accompanied by symbolic gestures.” You can bet you’re going to see some of those, Wooster-Group style. Another was created in response to a popular fake Shaker performance devised by a “troupe of apostates,” characterized in the lyrics as “fools” and “vile persecutors.” What would the ladies of Sabbathday Lake—and they were mostly ladies for a long time, women’s life expectancies being longer—think of this present e…
Read More…r’s controversial scholarship or endorsed her methods. The board of the American Academy of Religion, in drafting their statement of support, merely defended her right to interpret Hinduism the way she wanted. While it remains to be seen whether the controversy can bring Doniger’s research back into the forefront, one thing remains clear: the proxy war between two well-entrenched critics of the Nehruvian model of Indian governance—in India and acr…
Read More
…— an incident which, committed anywhere else in the world, would prompt American conservatives to level claims of anti-Christian persecution — change any American minds? Now we have Operation Protective Edge, which, Noam Sheizaf writes today, could have been avoided. Instead of claiming that Hamas rocket fire into civilian areas in Israel left it “no choice,” Sheizaf argues, “the Israeli leadership could start dealing with the root causes of those…
Read More
…s in its insistence not only that there is no possibility for adjudicating between competing worldviews using human reason, but that our safest bet is to rely on the Holy Spirit and an essentially literal reading of the Bible for our understanding of truth. Christian presuppositionalists also argue that there can be no neutrality among competing worldviews, which is what allows them to so casually denounce points of view to which they are ideologi…
Read More…, New Hampshire, and Iowa) promoting a creationist film called The Genesis Code, and holding fundraising receptions. The moralistic film follows an unbelieving hockey player and a Christian journalism student who struggle with “reconciling their scientific studies and what’s taught in the Bible” as he falls for her and she uses their relationship to “guide” him “toward God.” You can read a “pro-family” review here that warns of sex (kissing) and n…
Read More
…remaining unburdened by the many contemporary issues related to religious freedom. Those promoting the model resolution include BJC (The Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty), and organizations from American Atheists to The Interfaith Alliance and the American Humanist Association—all of which are members of the Blitz Watch Coalition, which was formed to combat the Christian nationalist and Dominionist state legislative campaign called Pr…
Read More
…orms of speech. While Miller’s attorneys based their arguments on both the Free Speech and Free Exercise clauses of the Constitution, Judge Lampe declined to comment on the latter “because the case is sufficiently resolved upon Free Speech grounds.” But his ruling made clear that Miller denied service to the lesbian couple because she “is a practicing Christian and considers herself a woman of deep faith.” Not long after Judge Lampe exempted Mille…
Read More