Religion Dispatches
…ames to the curriculum, but it also downplays the struggles that countless Americans have made against oppression. McLeroy said his goals have always been: Students should learn about “divine providence” and “In God We Trust”; children should understand the Constitution; they must understand that the United States is a “Constitutional republic”; and they must be taught the principles on which this country was founded, including “American exception…
Read More…idst the accusations from two men that they’ve had “inappropriate physical contact” with state Rep. Nikki Haley, the Palin-endorsed gubernatorial candidate, comes Knotts’ interjection: “We already got one raghead in the White House. We don’t need another in the Governor’s Mansion,” Knotts said during a live internet interview this week on Pub Politics — a laid back program usually conducted over beers in a local Columbia bar. Knotts issued an ap…
Read More…h their summer when they heard about the jobs scraping oil from beaches. A contact told them if they wanted to be hired, they should be here by 8:00 the next morning. (They work temporary jobs and each summer, they live in a different place. Last summer, Kumrits worked on a sailboat in Maine, even though he had never sailed in his life.) Now, they’re shoveling tar balls off the beach for $12 an hour, time-and-a-half overtime. They say it’s becomin…
Read More…it “child abuse.” From On Top: Bryan Fischer, director of analysis at the American Family Association, said Phillips was being exploited by adults for “dark political purposes.” “There is nothing about homosexual conduct to be proud of and much to be ashamed of,” he told Fox News. AFA President Tim Wildmon called Phillips’ inclusion a “form of child abuse.” “He’s obviously just parroting the nonsense he’s been told by manipulative adults,” Wildmo…
Read More…ocal mosque for the tarawih prayers and come out with out making any human contact. I think this is part of my preparation for hajj: how to perform the ritual requirements without invoking the politics of justice at every juncture. For example, in this mosque the women’s section is completely separated from the men’s, in a large room. Therefore to hear the imam, there is a speaker system set up. The volume on this puts young people who listen to r…
Read More…myself with the cloaking garments of prayer worship. When I must make eye contact and even hold conversation with others, next week. After all, Allah resides every where, even in the gender-apartheid mosques, so why not share it with Her followers? Before the blogging is over I will discuss how the Qur’an can both come down in one month, Ramadan and at the same time take 23 years… Editor’s Note: To follow all of Amina Wadud’s daily posts, as she…
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…er structure was clouded in a questionable history of inappropriate sexual contact with children? Or would you seek to place your family’s treasures, time, and talents elsewhere? Would YOU tell your catholic neighbors to send their children back to the same parish and priest that allowed children to be sexually abused? Would you tell them its only a “wreck?” Or would you tell them to find another church home? Those who left New Birth came to y…
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…not formed on Facebook, they were enriched by students’ continued digital contact. The problem with regard to churches and other religious communities (and we see this over and over again with Facebook group pages whose only visitors are the minister and the technophile parishioner who championed the church’s foray into the digital domain) seems to be that there’s not enough social to go around. That is, if church were, indeed, a robustly social…
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…adult members. What happens when adults over the age of consent come into contact with a foreign-seeming religious group like the Hare Krishnas and suddenly eschew their previous life and values? In such situations, those left behind frequently adopted the explanation of brainwashing: namely, that an inauthentic religious group deceptively ensnared the converts against the wishes of their true selves and kept them bound in abnormal patterns of be…
Read More…fessor Sullivan’s objection to the notion of religious freedom? Addressing American liberals and the dissenters on the Court, she writes: You cannot both celebrate religious freedom and deny it to those whose religion you don’t like. Human history supports the idea that religion, small “r” religion, is a nearly ubiquitous and perhaps necessary part of human culture. Big “R” Religion, on the other hand, the Religion that is protected in constitutio…
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