Religion Dispatches
…e in recent memory, such as the shooting at the Jewish Community Center in Seattle and attacks on the mosques in the wake of 9/11. Theories of religion and violence are abundant in religious studies—even more so since 9/11. Some scholars focus on the ways religions find justification in their own scriptures for acts of violence. Others focus on the ways economic and political oppression create a cult of martyrs; the only meaningful life is one whi…
Read More…m of sustained measure to stop the CDF and the Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle appointed to oversee the CDF mandate to carry out reforms in the LCWR. New President Franciscan Sr. Florence Deacon will lead the LCWR during this time. She will have to forge a path to keep the organization intact, while dealing with clerics who would rather watch and censure than engage in dialogue. As a Church Historian, I applaud this move. Anyone with an eye to…
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…n their flannels and Doc Martens like they were headed to a coffee shop in Seattle. And then there was the clan of wealthy white male students, whose fathers were top doctors at the best L.A. hospitals or executives at the biggest movie studios, who let their pants sag, tagged anything that didn’t move with graffiti, seemingly wanting to rewrite their own history to appear as if they grew up on the streets of Compton instead of Rodeo Drive. Needle…
Read More…shortly after speaking in Isla Vista he learned of yesterday’s shooting at Seattle Pacific University, a small evangelical institution. “If you [evangelicals] think this was only happening in strange and alien places,” he said, “welcome to our own living room.” Schenck, a lifelong member of the NRA, admitted that his is a “minority opinion,” but the “unholy alliance” between his brethren and the gun rights behemoth is “a critical theological and m…
Read More…oning.” The bill’s language is based on sample legislation proposed by the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, an organization that promotes intelligent design. The Senate version is scheduled for the Senate Education Committee on April 20. In March, the Sensuous Curmudgeon predicted that of the record number of creationist bills that have been introduced in states across the country, the Tennessee bill would be the one to become law. So far, he’s…
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…d with brain cancer in 2000, he and his wife joined a support group in the Seattle area, where they lived. They watched others deteriorate. “We knew it would be a slow, painful death,” Nancy Niedzielski said. In 1997, Oregon voters approved the Death with Dignity Act, which allows terminally ill people to ask their doctors for a prescription for lethal drugs. When his pain intensified, Randy Niedzielski said he wanted to move to Oregon, where he c…
Read More…f insurance coverage for contraceptive medications. But not KTTH 770 AM in Seattle, Washington; a station owned and operated by Bonneville Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As protests mounted Monday, a KTTH spokesperson defended Limbaugh, using a boilerplate statement from his syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks: AM 770 The Truth is committed to providing its listeners with access to a b…
Read More…ueer Muslims of Boston. But these and other organizations, such as Noor in Seattle and El-Tawhid Juma Circle in Toronto, are filling a long-ambiguous space within Muslim communities. As Shahar said, “I’m over people within the LGBTQ Muslim movement telling me the movement is young and therefore we need to wait a little bit longer before rolling up our sleeves and helping folks among us.” Australia: Surviving Spouse Describes Ordeal Caused By Lack…
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…st-like person in the room. Another time I sat in a dear friend’s one room Seattle micro apartment as they welcomed friends back home. The group had all graduated from an elite, private, evangelical Christian high school that cost as much per semester as my seminary had. They had composed the school’s “Geography Club”. Ostensibly for students with enthusiasm regarding geography to gather and share in their common love. In practice, it was the scho…
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…ormon memoir, Ricks self-published Hippie Boy in 2011. Shortly thereafter, Seattle-area teacher Margie Bowker gave the book to her at-risk high school students. They had no problem relating to Ricks’s protagonist, a young girl trapped rather than supported by the safety net religion is supposed to supply, trying desperately to acquire some security despite parents who repeatedly put her in harm’s way. Ricks’s memoir inspired students to begin writ…
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