Religion Dispatches
…ish memorial chapels in and around New York City openly offer cremation in phone conversations. Researching this article, I discovered that cremation was a part of the recent history of my own family. Cremation has inarguably become a part of contemporary Jewish life, perhaps for the better. “I just don’t feel it’s right that the dead should take up space on the planet that could be used for the living,” explains Linda Winters, sixty-eight, a reti…
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…e, in 2012, we won the first judgment in Oaxaca,” Méndez marveled during a phone interview last week. “In the two years [since], we have succeeded in covering almost the entire country. Even some LGBT rights supporters are a little mystified that marriage equality rulings haven’t sparked a national backlash. The fight over Mexico City’s 2009 marriage equality law brought strong opposition from the country’s Catholic hierarchy. Yet while some state…
Read More…s, in our phones. We hold a whole world of difference every time we open a phone. And the response to in the world around is at best insult, and so often violence, a reality which is the living experience of many you here. Welby also addressed a January gathering of Primates, which voted to suspend the Episcopal Church from questions on doctrine or policy for three years because of its move to bless same-sex unions. Scotland: More Gay Politicians,…
Read More…or healing for parishioners, but realized his position perhaps was not the best one from which he could provide solace or healing given this particular situation. So he asked me and another colleague to intervene. It was a tough but rewarding experience, one I carry with me whenever I speak or write on this issue. So understand, when I criticize the church and its authorities harshly, it is because I feel the pain of those who suffered abuse, and…
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…ld. In the past decade, the Roman Catholic clergy abuse, News of the World phone-hacking, and Wikileaks scandals have marked new, and only very incompletely explored, ethical territory as we sort out the best ways to balance personal privacy and public safety as these are impacted by our engagement with new media. But even given difficulties defining necessary and appropriate boundaries of personal, professional, and institutional transparency, we…
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…ntroversial. I don’t like being controversial. I get abused a lot in mail, phone calls and that sort of thing. I don’t enjoy that. But, if you are controversial in the public arena, the people who have given up on Christianity say, “My God, there must be something more to this story than I realized.” So, being controversial is my doorway to the generation of my own children. “The primary issue in the Christian church today is to get away from orig…
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…continued to be revealed. And religious groups in Oakland have done their best to respond. Rabbi Mark Bloom of Temple Beth Abraham held a memorial service on December 8th. Rev. Deborah Avery of First Presbyterian Church announced a memorial concert and benefit taking place on December 9th. And prayer services, vigils, and fundraisers have begun all over the city, in venues both secular and religious, including in many of the remaining warehouses,…
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…priests”) were trying to control what we think or prescribe what was the “best” religion or which people were the “best” citizens based upon their religious beliefs. If people were to make informed political choices themselves, they had to be free to think for themselves, especially about religion. For Jefferson and his supporters, religious freedom for all was central to our democracy. What’s most striking to me about the Virginia Statute is the…
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…priests”) were trying to control what we think or prescribe what was the “best” religion or which people were the “best” citizens based upon their religious beliefs. If people were to make informed political choices themselves, they had to be free to think for themselves, especially about religion. For Jefferson and his supporters, religious freedom for all was central to our democracy. What’s most striking to me about the Virginia Statute is the…
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…holic women defied the Vatican and found a bishop to ordain them. They now number 50 or so, have their own bishops and ignore Vatican decrees that they are excommunicated. A lot of BBBGs got out of Catholic universities as fast as they could so they could say what they believe and teach freely. Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza went from Notre Dame to Harvard and pointed out that Jesus never ordained anybody. Christine Gudorf left the University of Day…
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