Religion Dispatches
…ers and churches], if they can disassociate from mainline churches [in the United States], which are part of the gay agenda. So [the African churches] cut the relationship, and then the American conservatives take over financially. That’s how the war is being fought. Thus, when the Africans come [to the United States] they have nothing to do with mainline churches; instead they side with American conservatives against mainline churches. And the ma…
Read More…ermining these ordinary virtues. It’s actually quite useful to look at the United Methodist vote as a blow against the rule of reason. All of the mainline denominations (the so-called “seven sisters”), including the United Methodists, claim to be guided by reason and human experience along with the authority of the Bible and church tradition. They all say that Jesus stands for inclusive love: no one is to be regarded as “less than.” The United Met…
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…blishment of the state, but one would be hard pressed to learn this in the United States. One reason might be that we in the United States don’t have as strong a tradition of public intellectual dissent as do other, older societies. Within Israel, a younger state, there is a tradition of political engagement that its European founders brought with them to Palestine. As in Europe and Latin America, Israel’s most prominent writers are also public in…
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…nd institutions and the 2021 insurrection at the capitol. No longer is the United States the world’s oldest continuous democracy, according to Polity. Political science research has shown that anocracies are most likely to experience civil war in the first few years of their durations and that transitions into anocracy from democracy (as opposed to transitions into anocracy from autocracy) leave states at a higher risk for civil war. The United St…
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…ion was so boisterous that efforts to put a question about religion on the United States census fell apart. In the legal and social struggles, Catholics and Jews had effectively helped create a new right in the United States: the right to religious privacy. Concluding his work, Schultz demonstrates how the tri-faith concept softened the ground for civil rights activism and how the “Judeo-Christian” notion became so powerful that even enemies of re…
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…lls a “conflict” and its lack of resolution, FWI is aggressively resisting United Nations and United States policy regarding homosexuality. In January, FWI hosted 26 UN staffers from 23 different countries for a two-day conference on how to resist UN initiatives on sexuality. The conference was co-hosted with the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage, a group that is linked with the WCF. The only supporter listed on FACH’s website is Don Feder,…
Read More…o wield political power, don’t represent everyone of that faith. Catholics United, for example, countered the opposition of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops when it opposed a health care reform bill that conservatives falsely claimed included federal funding of abortion services. At the same time, Catholics United won’t address the USCCB’s stance on abortion or contraception, but Catholics for Choice certainly does. The spoils shou…
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…critical moment. Chissano ended his letter quoting Nelson Mandela: “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Russia: Putin Tells Gays to ‘Leave Kids Alone’ But Arrests Rainbow Flag-Waving Teen As the Olympics approach, the biggest concern of Russian officials may not be international opposition to the country’s anti-gay laws but the threat of terrorism related to on…
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…ustice. On matters of same-sex love, this is not as easy as it sounds. The United Methodist Church in its Book of Discipline holds that “no self-avowed, practicing homosexual shall be ordained or appointed in the United Methodist Church.” The Reconciling Ministries Network and many individual Methodists oppose this policy. To date, there has been no church-wide General Conference agreement on changing the policy. But in 2008, the Methodists entere…
Read More…al Assembly to approve the ordination of gay ministers. According to Radio Free Europe, the Moscow Patriarchate said earlier this week that “formal contacts” with the Church of Scotland and France’s United Protestant Church – which voted to allow blessings for gay weddings – were now pointless. It said: “We regretfully acknowledge that today we have a new divide in the Christian world, not only regarding theological subjects, but regarding moral i…
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