Religion Dispatches
…ology of resistance in the Trump era means to hold standards of whiteness, American civil religion and American Christianity accountable. The three act as insidious agents affecting cultural zeitgeist so much that black clergy and black gospel singers can unblinkingly offer prayer for a president who receives support from the alt-right, but were vocal critics of Obama surrounding same-sex marriage. To forgive representative powers and principaliti…
Read More…elated to a wider culture of racism, both in South Carolina and throughout American society. It seems that within the culture of racist apocalypticism there is a division of labor between dreamers and doers, prophets and martyrs. Numerous hate crimes and terror plots were inspired by The Turner Diaries, including Timothy McVeigh’s attack on the Oklahoma City Building in 1995. Turner and his allies blow up the FBI headquarters using a fertilizer bo…
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…l identity of the victims. This was a crime that was deeply and tragically American. In the Jesus movement, the disciples petitioned their leader on the nature and framework of prayer in the context of Roman oppression and Temple-state tyranny (Luke 11:1-13). While Dylann sat this past Wednesday, disturbed no doubt, saturated in the spiritual exchanges of the people of Emanuel, he might have been ruminating on another prayer: “Lord, teach us how t…
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…ce, especially during the 1600s, was contested within New England. Race prejudice was just as real but far less contested due to the fact that it represented a struggle not between relative social equals (as in the case of religious contestation between white Protestants factions) but, rather, between white colonial forces and their subjugated African and Native American contemporaries who were considered “inferiors.” And as historian Perry Miller…
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…ur country. And you have to go.” There couldn’t be clearer evidence of not just derangement, not just a crazed loner, not just an evil assassin, but of the basest, most naked racism. Yet I’m sure there will be the doubting Thomases of what motivated the murderer of Pinckney and his fellow worshipers. There will be those who pin it on evil or mental illness but will balk at naming terrorism or racism. They will be reluctant to talk about South Caro…
Read More…So, good if they’re afraid of the religious left. It means we’re doing our job. And just in case anyone missed the number of religious progressive groups endorsing the rally, here’s a list culled from One Nation site. Their list of endorsers is pretty long, so I apologize if I missed somebody: Rainbow PUSH Coalition The Shalom Center Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations Sikh Coalition The Religious Institute The Community Church of…
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…low this historical trajectory. Perhaps the most galling figure is Captain Johnson, appointed by Gov. Jay Nixon to oversee the Ferguson Police and the National Guard. Johnson appeared at a local church to apologize to Michael Brown’s parents, garnering much praise from the crowd for his respectability and Christian piety. Yet while Johnson placates the public with appeals to Christianity he simultaneously sanctions violence at the hands of the sta…
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…but Americans are still leaving church in droves. This and other powerful juxtapositions are just part of the reason many of us now refer to American “Christianities,” rather than the singular “Christianity.” The five key stories below evoke questions that religion-watchers will be asking for years to come. 1. The Emptying of Church Pews The trend that has received a significant amount of attention, from religious observers as well as religious l…
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…des only needs the will to legislate a student debt jubilee that blows oxygen into the economic possibilities of younger Americans. Amen….
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