Religion Dispatches
…presidential bid by Texas Governor Rick Perry: The Rev. Laurence White of Houston, a Lutheran pastor, helps organize pastors nationwide for “restoration project” get-out-the-vote campaigns. In a perfect world, he said, evangelicals would be counting on Fort Worth-trained minister Mike Huckabee to help turn out conservatives for primaries and precinct conventions. Without Huckabee running, White said Perry can become the favorite “because we live…
Read More…pt for ¼-inch beards worn by those with diagnosed skin conditions. Gregory Houston Holt, who goes by Abdul Maalik Muhammad, claimed that although his Muslim faith required him not to trim his beard at all, he was willing to compromise at ½-inch. “You’re really just making your case too easy,” Chief Justice Roberts told Muhammad’s lawyer at the opening of oral arguments in October 2014, just before Justice Alito proceeded to make short work of the…
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…rs’ might be a misnomer in regard to a Terence Malick film, nevertheless a number of details of Tree of Life are revealed in the following essay. —eds. Since watching Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life a few days ago, I’ve been trailing my daughters: slowly, deliberately, unsure if I’m a cinematographer or a parent. In spite of my lifelong love of cinema (and teaching and publishing on the topic for the past decade plus), I rarely take video of m…
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…o slow to answer the call to the ministry. Seymour studied under Parham in Houston in 1905. Jim Crow laws meant he had to take his instruction from outside the classroom. Parham was horribly racist, with a quick temper. Seymour, on the other hand, has been described as kind and considerate. In spite of their differences, Seymour and Parham began street-preaching together. Though his character was temperate, Seymour’s theology had a hellfire streak…
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…ies to serve their neighbors and neighborhoods. From Seattle and Portland, Houston and Austin, to San Diego and Birmingham, Ala., Marion advises congregations about how their buildings can belong to the broader “parishes” that surround them. Writer and musician Jesse James DeConto, who works with churches in Durham, N.C., to host a monthly Beer & Hymns sing-along at a local brewery, recently talked to Marion about how churches can offer a ministry…
Read More…the hallmarks of the neo-Pentecostalism that pervaded his prayer event in Houston, The Response, last month. No revelations straight from God. No signs and wonders. Just an ordinary, lost and broken guy with a Road to Damascus moment stripped dry of spirit-filled moments of lightening and tongue-talking. Clinical, if you will. And notably free of policy. Purely confessional. But still, aw, shucks, how can he be expected to know much vocabulary, e…
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On Monday, in a since-deleted tweet, President Trump shared a video of Houston-based, Cameroonian-American doctor Stella Immanuel touting the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine for treating COVID-19. On its own, of course, there’s nothing particularly newsworthy about this; the President has been touting the anti-malarial drug for months now, despite the fact that it almost certainly doesn’t work. It’s also unremarkable that the President is con…
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…slims, Hindus, and Buddhists each accounting for approximately 1%. But the number of unaffiliated Texans—aka “nones”—come in at 18%. Although these figures may suggest that Texas is still a “Christian State,” employers, particularly in high-tech and research centers surrounding Houston and Austin, need to attract workers who often come from diverse backgrounds. Religious provincialism can be off-putting to prospective employees. The Texas Legislat…
Read More…speech to the NAACP was a rousing, good ol’ camp meeting time in downtown Houston. With his trademark boldness, Biden’s speech to the NAACP showed the delineation between the Democratic Party’s idea of society and the Republican idea of society. Most importantly, Biden connected with the African-American tradition of oratory and rhetoric, much to the delight and response of the crowd. President Obama was absent from the convention except for a tw…
Read More…as. This attack was baseless, inaccurate, biased, and ineffectual. But the Houston Chronicle reports that the institute’s funding comes from many conservatives: The Fordham Institute also gets funding from the Walton (Wal-Mart) Family Foundation, the William Simon Foundation, The Hoover Institute and other conservative players. “We could be described as right-of-center,” Institute spokeswoman Amy Fagan said. “We support education reform and are d…
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