Religion Dispatches
…s, but the numbers [pdf] show that the sample actually skewed right. Of the 800 registered voters polled 38 percent were strong, weak, or independent-leaning Democrats with 41 percent identifying as strong, weak, or independent leaning Republicans. Conservatives outweighed liberals by 38 to 18 percent, and a full 74 percent of those polled identified as religious. Some 40 percent claimed the moniker of “born again,” and 33 percent said they attend…
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…embly, the sisters officially called for gun control legislation and signed 800 postcards demanding Congress members to pass immigration reform. As LCWR past-president, Sr. Pat Farrell said to the Assembly, “Expressing what we really think and feel, with transparency and vulnerability, is for the brave of heart. It is, however, what we are being asked to do in our current conflict. All of a sudden the world is looking to us.” Like this story? You…
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…e trajectory of deacon-priest-bishop is relatively recent—only about 700 or 800 years in the long history of the Church. In fact, the earlier understanding is that the deacon would become a bishop! I sometimes wonder if the naysayers are more afraid of women bishops than of women priests. But, in modern times, we have reestablished the tradition of a diaconate lived permanently. All priests are also ordained deacons, and in the most formal of litu…
Read More…in books published The Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger. The 800-page book includes over 50 pages of references and covers a vast history that spans 50 million years—a magnum opus from a highly acclaimed scholar of Hindu traditions. A few months after The Hindus was published in the United States, it was favorably reviewed in the New York Times. The award-winning Indian essayist Pankaj Mishra praised the work as “staggeringly compre…
Read More…ment does not collect information on its religious composition, but a 2009 international report estimated the number of Muslims at around 24,000, comprising less than one percent of the country’s population. Most are of Lebanese, Palestinian or Indian descent. Though small, Panama’s Muslim community has grown increasingly ethnically diverse. The first Muslims to come to Panama were African slaves brought over by Spaniards in the mid-sixteenth cent…
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…foundation. They call for Israel to reform itself to be in compliance with international law and to offer justice to its past victims. As expected, the Israeli government and American Jewish organizations parroting its talking points attacked the organization as “antisemitic” and its report as “libelous,” cheapening these grave terms to describe facts they don’t like. None of them addressed the actual evidence of Amnesty’s report. The response see…
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…ca’s next President should keep in mind that transnational threats require international cooperation, and international cooperation requires respect. The Republican response here reminds me too much of our age of “Freedom fries” and condescending attitudes—remember “old Europe” and “new Europe”? The overwhelming majority of Muslims condemn and reject terrorism, but many Muslims are too busy fighting ISIL to offer their denunciations of extremism….
Read More…erson tells Freedman that the Senator had “concerns” about Cook’s “lack of international diplomacy qualifications.” Freedman acknowledges that others raised those same concerns when Obama nominated Cook (also known as “Dr. Sujay”) in June. Here at RD, Anthea wrote at the time: Dr. Sujay’s resumé, with no discernible international policy experience, her close ties to the Clinton administration, and several ill-defined business ventures, suggest tha…
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…to prevent any reference to “non-traditional” families in UN documents and international agreements. In a year-end email gloating about its successes in doing so, Ruse bragged that his group is committed to keeping “sexual orientation and gender identity” out of human rights law and says “we have been able to consistently stop this phrase from entering into international law.” “Gender Ideology” A year ago, Polish bishops launched a campaign agains…
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…own them, but that has had more to do with the pastor taking a job with an internationally funded NGO than with the offerings of parishioners. I think that if we tell the story of the prosperity gospel, and of Pentecostalism more generally, as a story of hucksterism, we miss a lot of what makes this religion so compelling. Plus, we suggest that the folks who flock to Pentecostal churches can’t tell when they’re being duped, and after watching the…
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