Religion Dispatches
…nce of a double standard for abortion facilities; the speed with which the new regulations were handed down and compliance mandated; and the perception that the new regulations are intended to get around federal law), the measure has been controversial. In a recent editorial, the Kansas City Star criticized Governor Sam Brownback for signing the bill, claiming that “[t]he move reflects the same disdain for Kansans that Brownback has shown in other…
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…itrary process—our selection from the relatively tiny sample of the year’s new texts we saw—and a reflection of the multiple conversations that intersect at New York University’s Center for Religion and Media, which is where I’m writing from. Much is missing from the list—my Islamic and Buddhist authorities let me down—and while Fucked Up’s new album, The Chemistry of Common Life, will probably show up on some “best of” lists compiled by hardcore…
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…he original game designers provided for the creation of additional levels, new characters, new environments, and scripted events. Some of the most popular platforms for machinima are Second Life, Halo, World of Warcraft, The Sims, and even Grand Theft Auto. Because of its self-reflective and journalistic style, Molotova Alva has been dubbed “the first documentary shot entirely in a virtual online platform.” The Second Life avatar who stars in the…
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…hem less apparent by making them seem exceptional. So, with regard to this new effort in New York, we must ask: What does this new coalition bode for the future? Will our willingness to celebrate this new interfaith effort sideline us from the equally important effort to refuse to support callous religious opposition to sex education? To condom distribution and needle exchanges? To inclusion of LGBTQ persons? To the real illogic of wishful thinkin…
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…ngry and betrayed. The archdiocese, after all, is the largest landowner in New York: what would be done with these properties? Answers were not forthcoming. When news trickled out that the archdiocese had spent $175 million dollars to restore St. Patrick’s Cathedral in advance of Pope Francis’ visit to New York, anger tuned to bitterness. And with Cardinal Dolan’s history of having shifted diocesan funds around during the sex abuse scandals when h…
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…ght transgenderism, if we frame it as an attack against your children” The new 12-region structure of a leading New Apostolic Reformation network. On a practical note, Pfeiffer also announced the new national structure of USCAL, which will be the body that seeks to more methodically deliver on their religious and political vision. They aim to take a less top-down, more bottom-up approach to “reformation,” and emphasize the local church. He and oth…
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…t critic James Wood’s recent, provocative essay/review of Terry Eagleton’s new book, itself a broadside against the New Atheists, in particular Richard Dawkins. Readers who are scholars of religion were puzzled, too. What exactly are Wood’s own views, and what do they tell us about the way “religion” is regarded by certain public intellectuals? Since we are already riding piggyback here, I will ignore Eagleton’s and Dawkins’ books in order to expo…
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…ent of the obfuscation and blame-shifting when I realized that the bulk of new philanthropy going on in New York in the 1990s—an interventionist philanthropy very much focused on support for the deserving poor—was being initiated by committed Democrats. One fast-rising new charity raised staggering amounts from hip young Democratic money managers at its annual galas. It spelled out its approach in big bold letters for all to see: no, we do NOT fun…
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…e of analysis that I find more troubling. McWhorter deems wokeness to be a new religion. Had he simply declared wokeness a new ideology or simply stayed with his third-wave antiracism construct we could have simply debated the merits of his argument. Yet his declaration of wokeness as religion serves not as honest assessment of religious thinking in the form of social justice activism. Instead, religion is invoked as a ready-made punching bag for…
Read More…ool Aid” and I don’t use that term lightly. I’ve believed since my trip to New Birth back in 2010, when Long promised to fight his civil case, that New Birth was a cult-like organization. Long’s hold over his congregation reminds me of Jim Jones. That may sound harsh, but Jim Jones slept with his members too, before leading the People’s Temple into the jungles of Guyana. Long however, is in interesting historical company. After all, Father Divine …
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