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This is Not a Religion Column: The Audacity of Compromise…

…nation’s corridors of power.” Obama’s political application of Genesis in Denver (one of at least three scriptural allusions in his acceptance speech) is a case in point. “I am my brother’s keeper,” he declares, a slight revision of the actual biblical story. God asks Cain where his brother Abel is; Cain, who has of course murdered Abel, indignantly demands, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The reasonable response is not “Yes”; it’s, “Answer the quest…

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Churchgoers, Stay Home—It’s The American Way

…Cedar City, Utah, and Andrea Catlett, an ecumenical Christian in suburban Denver, have taken this opportunity to sample virtual services and sermons at distant churches. “We’re not assembling in a place,” Catlett reflected, “but we’re assembling in the heart.” The usual hassles of regular observance no longer pose obstacles. David Chang, Tracey Deutsch’s husband, now has time to bake challah for nearly every Shabbat, and their family participates…

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How Much Did Jesus Care About Sex?

…cost of true discipleship. The price it was called upon to pay was all too cheap…We gave away the word and sacraments wholesale; we baptized, confirmed, and absolved a whole nation unasked and without condition…Was there ever a more terrible and disastrous instance of Christianizing the world than this? It’s regrettable, I think, that “cheap grace” has turned into a kind of meme that Rod Dreher can toss into his debate with Andrew Sullivan without…

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Beyond Alarmism and Denial in the Dominionism Debate

…church, they’re marinating, so to speak, in the the various teachings of a number of people. I’ve covered many an event where I’ve been waiting in line to get in, and the inevitable conversation with the people around you goes something like this: they ask first where you go to church, and second which teachers you admire, and then you get into a long conversation about the relative virtues of all of them. A really good example of how all these te…

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Episcopal Church Assault Data Reveals the Dark Side of Inclusive Christianity

…a random sample size and therefore isn’t statistically representative. The number of individuals reporting victimization in Episcopal spaces is alarming nonetheless. However, I would argue the data is more likely to under- than to overestimate the scope of the abuse that occurs. To see why, the survey results must be interpreted in light of the Episcopal Church’s larger culture of inaction around sexual violence. See no evil, hear no evil… LGBTQ+…

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My God, David Brooks

…d secularity is precisely the thing that Taylor’s book misses the most—the nova effect of choice at every turn, the encomiums, the warnings, the incessant buzz of our almost authentic, almost perfect selves calling us to read (or not to read) Taylor, among other things. All those mundane moments that enable us to better situate ourselves vis-à-vis this thing out there called religion. Taylor does not appreciate the Leviathanism that is the most ap…

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Sacred Texting: When Religious Writ Gets Wired

…ability of cell phones to be used for impure activities, some Jewish cell-phone users have requested so-called “kosher” phones. The idea is to offer conservative Jews a phone that is free of “corrupting influences” of the sort that are already avoided by ultra-orthodox Jews through a ban on television and some radio. Reuters reported in February 2008 that Bezeq Israel Telecom launched a new “kosher” landline phone service, which will block calls…

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Power Up: Turn Off the Cell Phone

…plugged-in lifestyle doesn’t really get at the heart of the issue. I think the Amish, of all people, have it right. It’s not so much about what you as an individual are doing or not doing, as the effect technology has on the community: Why not make life easier and just put [a phone] in the house? “What would that lead to?” another Amish man asked me. “We don’t want to be the kind of people who will interrupt a conversation at home to answer a tel…

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“Saints Are Only Human”: Leaving the Church, But Heeding this Pope’s Lessons

…slogans about immigration reform. On line I heard that parishes with large numbers of undocumented immigrants had received many tickets. No outside food or water, statues, gifts or selfie sticks were permitted. Despite 10,000 folding chairs, most of us would have no choice but to stand. Once in my appointed place behind the last row of seats, I found myself in a community of fellow pilgrims, lottery winners from local parishes, nearby colleges, an…

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No Buddhists in Washington?

…llace of the Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, Roshi Joan Halifax of the Upaya Zen Center, Bhante Kondanna of the Staten Island Buddhist Vihara, Jan Willis of Wesleyan University, and two-time Colbert Report guest Lama Surya Das are just a few names that come immediately to mind. President Obama has said: The particular faith that motivates each of us can promote a greater good for all of us. Instead of driving us apart, our varie…

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