Religion Dispatches
…nity to sue the pants off of anyone who would deny us accommodations or refuse to host our wedding or shoot photos for the event or bake a cake. Have some couples sued over this? Sure … and I’m a bit dubious about how it advances our rights. An article in the Baptist Press gives a rundown of some current lawsuits and how they are “squashing religious liberty.” Certainly, the religious right has made “religious liberty” code for “we reserve the rig…
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…ld” by her father to the groom. The Modern Orthodox protesters’ cause in Beit Shemesh is legitimate. Their critique should not, however, be limited to the egregious acts of the haredim, but to the injustices embedded in the very religious system they live by and defend. Schoolgirls should dress according to dress codes dictated by their parents and their schools. People should pray using any liturgy they want, and get married by the rabbi…
Read More…to defend “traditional” marriage and defend “religious liberty,” which is code for defending the religious right’s ability to bully gay and lesbian people at will using God as their shield. But, wait, there’s more. Gingrich has hit the conservative Christian trifecta by sitting down with the Des Moines Register’s editorial board to affirm that opposition to marriage equality stating that there is a “big difference between saying that you’re to ha…
Read More…d the policies of the institution they serve. This, of course, does not excuse Romney’s egregious incidences of coldness and disrespect towards women as reported in Salon and elsewhere. But it’s wrong to depict Mitt Romney as some kind of hardliner, because as far as Mormon men of his generation go, on gender, Romney is rather moderate. Given the scrutiny of Romney’s time as bishop, it also helps to understand more about the roles of bishops in LD…
Read More…about a brokered convention, and being willing to serve. These are merely code words to try to rally her flagging base of supporters to give money to SarahPac. To push back on the HBO movie, SarahPac commissioned a video, “Game change we can believe in,” a highlight reel of Palin on the 2008 campaign trail. Of course, the Pac is fundraising on the movie, hoping to get $20.12 for the 2012 race. While Rick Santorum has taken Palin’s 2008 role over…
Read More…nce “same-sex attraction” or “same-gender attraction,” while adhering to a code of morality that forbids all sexual contact outside the bounds of heterosexual marriage. Others claim and openly affirm a gay identity while carefully negotiating a path to maintaining church activity and membership. All of these paths entail profound risks, costs, and consequences. All require a level of conscious deliberation on matters of sexuality and spirituality…
Read More…there is broad agreement on what is called “delayed ensoulment.” That was code for saying that the fetus does not attain to personal status until it is well formed. Early miscarriages could not be named or given religious funerals. Saints Augustine and Thomas Aquinas held that the early fetus had the moral status of a plant, and that not even God could infuse a spiritual, person-making soul until the fetus was developed; some put this today at si…
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…to galvanize huge swaths of the mainstream, the Occupy movement is too diffuse (circle) to do so. Having lodged that objection, I now want to answer it myself. Because there is a linear argument that can be teased from the all-circular Occupy strategy, and I will state this case in the best linear terms I can find. Let’s start with some epistemological humility. It may well be that the Occupy movement will plant some seeds of alternative ways of t…
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…cannot avoid. Queer spiritual consciousness is inherently distrustful because it has seen how rules, codes, and even the operation of conscience itself can be tools of oppression and self-repression. Of course, straight people ought to come to this realization also. But religious queer people have to. Yet once we have had our moments, done the work, and cultivated the mistrust, what is next? If it is not libertinism, then what is to be our guide?…
Read More…a to Pharaoh, appeared via videotape at the inaugural Freedom Federation conference last year at Liberty University, saying, “we know you love us and want to commend you for unconditional support for state of Israel,” adding that “Christians and Jews share the same future.” That’s code not only for no state for the Palestinians, but a perpetuation of illegal settlements and purging of Palestinians from occupied land. For Danon, Hagee, and friends,…
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