Religion Dispatches
…aithful to encourage them to “vote Catholic”—i.e. vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket. Leading the charge is Bishop Daniel Jenky, of Peoria, Illinois, who is calling for all priests “by virtue of their vow of obedience to me as your Bishop” to read his letter on the election at each mass they celebrate this weekend. The letter, addressed to Catholic believers, is an appeal to the “threat to religious liberty” because of the HHS mandate. Since Bishop J…
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…ty—very slightly—as a man who ran for president six times on the socialist ticket between 1928 and 1948, and who inspired a lot of people. But it’s also about his three brothers, Evan Thomas, the conscientious objector my father wrote about, and Ralph and Arthur, who were soldiers. The book is about their family drama during that time, as each decided what his conscience demanded in these extreme circumstances. All of the brothers were deeply invo…
Read More…y three times the survival rate of those in third. One would only use “raw numbers” if one was trying to make a point not supported by the numbers. In biblical patriarchy, the refrain of “women and children first” hides an agenda whereby the women are “first” only insofar as they keep their place which is subordinate to men. I wrote about the fallout when they don’t in my book, Evangelical Christian Women. And in Quiverfull, RD’s Kathryn Joyce sho…
Read More…inding members that gaining entrance to heaven isn’t like buying a lottery ticket. There is no magic to it, no speaking in tongues, no handling snakes, no eternal security. You work hard here on Earth, quietly, diligently, to retire in eternity. Your works are an outward manifestation of your faith, and your faith is what saves you. A young woman wedged in behind an organ calls out, “Somebody pick a hymn,” and somebody else calls back, “How about…
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…t got the ball rolling. Clearly in need of a conservative Christian on the ticket, and not being the favorite of evangelicals like James Dobson for his previous stances on social issues, McCain decided to tack toward Pentecostals, gaining endorsements from John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Those short-lived fiascoes left him in search of endorsements from prominent Christians. What Game Change did not show was how Richard Land and others had promoted Pa…
Read More…candidate and the trouble that ensued from bringing her on the Republican Ticket. Palin has been in full-tilt mode, bringing out her supporters to condemn the movie, in an attempt to deflect the depiction of her performance as a troubled, unstable VP candidate. Palin’s obsession with President Obama’s vetting as a candidate only serves to put the spotlight back on how unprepared Palin was not only as a candidate, but to take the office of vice pr…
Read More…nt with a values-neutral approach to work, livelihood, and the marketplace? Why does religion play an outsized role in the politics of gay marriage and contraception but apparently has no say when it comes to big-ticket items like national spending and economic policy? That profound disconnect certainly did not originate with Romney, but it may in fact be the key to understanding how he would lead and govern….
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…things spicy in the bedroom, flirts with a police officer to get out of a ticket, and tells Corinne to trust her body, that it will tell her what she needs. The film is unexpectedly funny, and much of the humor happens when the two women are together. It is rare to see a film that presents friendship between women as a powerful source of laughter, resistance, knowledge, and love. So many of the films I see in theaters are written by men for men a…
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…hday meal. I could find them “distasteful,” or “unappetizing,” or any of a number of options my mother would suggest. My brother could “disagree” with Nixon’s policies, but he could not profess hate for the man. “You don’t know him personally. You cannot possibly ‘hate’ him,” she would insist. “Hate” was a big-ticket word not to be squandered on annoying siblings or corrupt politicians. My mother’s semantic ethics on this point have stayed with me…
Read More…nia only happened fifteen years ago; I wish I could buy my interlocutors a ticket to Sarajevo, and answer them only after their visit. We should not forget that Europe’s violent spasms ended but very recently, and with the death of those generations who intimately recall Nazism and the Holocaust, Soviet Communism and the Gulag, it is possible the temptation to return to ugly ideologies will only increase. Recently, the Boston Review covered the ri…
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