Deals 1 800-299-7264 Cheap Flights from Shanghai to San Francisco – United Airlines | Search Results | Religion Dispatches

The March for Life: Grassroots Movement or Agitprop?

By Patricia Miller

…ote that the march is hardly some spontaneous outpouring of grassroots anti-abortion opposition. Since its start in 1974, the March for Life has relied heavily on Catholic and evangelical students bused en masse in from elementary and high schools and students from pro-life college organizations. In fact, turnout at the march was notably scarce last year when a snowstorm stranded buses full of students on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The March for L…

Colorado’s Personhood Initiative Fails—For Now

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…consideration for the woman. To be sure, neither rape exceptions nor life-of-the-mother exceptions really make a lot of sense if you truly think that a fertilized embryo is a rights-bearing human being. But a life-of-the-mother exception, without a rape exception, gives a pretty clear picture of where the pregnant woman’s welfare fits into the picture. It’s saying, in essence: “Is being pregnant going to actually directly literally kill her? No?…

Prosperity Gospel Is Not the Only Problem with Joel Osteen’s Harvey Response

By Brie Loskota and Peter Gudaitis

…ts hard, people often turn to religion and spirituality. To not have a call-to-action or guidance makes the whole operation feel morally bankrupt. Accurate or not, any action the church takes now looks like Osteen’s attempt to save face rather than moral leadership and conviction in the face of a crisis. Despite its size and public image, Lakewood Church is not all that unique. Unleveraged assets exist within congregations of all faith traditions…

Covering Religion in The New Year: The Atheist Bus And More

By Diane Winston

…what and why will individual and corporate religious commitments shift vis-à-vis social concerns, political issues, and moral stands when less really is less—and more is not an option. I wonder, too, who will be smiling (more or less) when the smoke clears from Gaza. As important as covering who’s winning and why, Americans need reporting on how religious communities here—be they Jewish, Muslim or Christian—respond when religious entanglements be…

Malta Adopts Marriage Equality Over Objections of Catholics and Evangelicals; And More in Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…cher at a religious think tank who calls Protestant churches “the most well-connected and well-financed lobby machine in this nation”: Many South Korean churches took their cues from evangelical US megachurches that since the 1980s have expanded their influence through campaigns against abortion and homosexuality, Kim said. South Korea is also home to many megachurches, including the world’s largest congregation of nearly 800,000. But their reputa…

A Resurgence of “Ex-Gay Therapy” Under Trump/Pence? ABC News Report Offers a Platform to Hate Group Rep. Peter Sprigg

By Sunnivie Brydum

…orts,” is indeed “long-discredited.” But then they offer what amounts to an 800-word platform to the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg. The short piece serves as a teaser for Friday’s episode of 20/20, the result of a year-long investigation into several ex-gay “camps” located in the American South. The 20/20 segment features interviews with at least two young people sent to the camps—as well as self-described pastors and administrators of th…

As Florida Attempts to Make it Illegal, an Argument for the Sacred Work of White Discomfort

By Robert P. Jones

…cient leadership, and inadequate strategic compensation for my slight, 5’6” 130-pound frame. These criticisms often angered me and certainly made me feel uncomfortable or embarrassed in front of my teammates. But they were necessary for motivating me to be a better athlete. Spurred by the pandemic, I’ve now taken up cycling. As I’ve been inducted into cycling culture, I’ve been surprised to find that the word “suffering” is common parlance. You he…

New Poll: Repeal DOMA

By Candace Chellew-Hodge

…e 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 attended church once or more a week – two markers that usually make for anti-mar…

A Third Reconstruction? Rev. William Barber Lifts the Trumpet

By Peter Laarman

…talking about “entitlement programs,” “busing” and “law and order.” Divide-and-conquer politics broke up the coalitions of the Second Reconstruction and so-called progressives have accepted this as a given. Yes, San Bernadino was terrorism. So was Mother Emmanuel AME. So are the drone attacks on civilian homes in Afghanistan. So is the carpet-bombing of cities. But we have empirical proof that the Southern slave and Jim Crow states, where the gre…

National Association of Evangelicals Supports Immigration Reform, But Elsewhere Discord Reigns

By Donna Schaper

…the way, Jesus always said that the real sin is self-righteousness. The not-so-funny thing about sin is that when you keep on sinning, real people get really hurt. When you stop sinning, repent, and are forgiven for what you have done and don’t keep on doing what you did, often real people are blessed. Isn’t That a Kind of “Amnesty”? Can We Get Consensus on That? The rest of my reflections are on amnesty—what my religious perspective tells me is a…