Religion Dispatches
…virulent that hatred has become. Americans are willing to throw religious freedom and tolerance out the window, a posture all too familiar in the nation’s history and sadly contradictory to the sacred principles upon which this country was founded. Opposition to the construction of a Muslim community center in New York; the brutal attack on a Muslim cabbie; the proposed burning of Qur’ans by a small church that created a media sensation; the pass…
Read More…ious 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 would be deeply sad for those who wanted a church that delivered on its promises of inclus…
Read More…ed into the legislative history of each of these laws, I think it’s a fair bet that when they were passed the religious exemptions were intended to protect a very small percentage of the population with religious objections to vaccination, like Christian Scientists or some parts of the Amish community. It’s unlikely that the exemptions were intended to be used by the growing number of well-educated and well-off parents whose version of a “natural”…
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…f giving abortion-rights advocates a pass when it comes to suppressing the free-speech rights of their opponents.” Despite the grumbling concurrence, abortion opponents are celebrating a victory for the free speech rights of their sidewalk counselors, even portraying women who have been or will be talked out of abortion as the beneficiaries of the ruling. “These buffer zones have not only denied pro-life activists their right to speak, but have al…
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…tay on YouTube,” it said. Google is, in effect, walking a precarious line between advocacy of free speech and incitement to violence. Blocking the video might encourage copycat endeavors to prohibit other material, yet most would no doubt agree that endless provocation of violence must also be avoided—or at least mitigated. All companies that allow people to post content online—Facebook and Twitter, as well as Google—have grappled with similar is…
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…places like Bolivia; we’ve never asked whether there might be a connection between NAFTA’s effects within Mexico and the urgent need of Mexicans to reach El Norte, even risking death by dehydration to get here. Free market fundamentalism seemed to work out pretty well for us. To be sure, we could see the enormous wealth beginning to concentrate at the top of our own society. But as long as enough trickled down to us plebeians (and as long as we co…
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…than a historical summation, described by Rakove thusly: “Disestablishment promoted free exercise, and free exercise made establishment superfluous.” Beyond Belief recounts this history, and, while Rakove touches on the present, his focus is the past. But it’s impossible to read Beyond Belief and not notice that, in their desperation to “make America great again” Trump, Pence, and the other Christian nationalist politicians and judges have turned…
Read More…book is part of a series for tweens profiling individuals “working for the betterment of the world in which we live and who are motivated primarily by their Christian faith.” Other titles in the series include Heisman Trophy Quarterback Tim Tebow and U2 front man Bono. If you prefer poetry to biography, you can write a haiku to Glenn Beck here. Muslims still face opposition to mosque building in the United States. A mosque in Temecula, California…
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…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…
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