Religion Dispatches
…the whole “prince of the church” thing more literally than some of their fellow prelates. Here’s a rundown: • New York Cardinal Timothy “Capitalism is King but you can get your birth control at 7-11” Dolan lives in a 15,000-square foot neo-Gothic mansion on Madison Avenue appraised at $30 million. • Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who warned a few years back that the local gay pride parade might “morph into something like the Ku Klux Klan,” l…
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…th care, tax policy, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be a hard sell to well-formed Catholic consciences. I presume that the Weigels of this world are boxed in on the abortion issue in ways that make it hard to move. Or, less likely, they are still enamored of President Bush’s failed economic policies that have impoverished the middle class and threatened the existence of those who are poor. Perhaps they prefer to support bans on abortio…
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…e have we heard this debate between psychoanalysis and religious belief lately? Well, for one, through the Church of Scientology, but of course, we know that it has a much longer history with many who we might in the modern Western world classify as “mad” being treated as holy fools in other cultures. And of course, this history of mental illness may explain why Amanda is such a blabbermouth and says things that are so destructive to the interests…
Read More…directly to profits. Breitbart News, where Yiannopolous works, is a privately held company, so it does not have to disclose much financial information. But his provocative claims probably haven’t been bad for its bottom line. The joy of provocation does not explain white supremacy. But, while the alt-right didn’t invent white supremacy, this particular cocktail of troll-ish pleasure, countercultural ethos, threat, and old-school racism does seem…
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…the past, whether at organizing unions or fighting for equal rights, they seldom bet their future on politicians. They fashioned their own institutions — unions, women’s groups, community and immigrant centers and a witty, anti-authoritarian press — in which they spoke up for themselves and for the interests of wage-earning Americans. The story emerging about #occupyWallStreet is not about the protest itself, but that the NYPD has used excessive f…
Read More…The result, though, is it makes it easier to legally shoot people. Now, I bet you see where this is going. The column is so terrific it really needs to be read in its entirety. Seriously. Read it. But Argento does see a potential downside to the plan. Of course, some people may object because of all of that stuff in the Bible about caring for the poor and being your brother’s keeper and such. They may point to the Sermon on the Mount, in which Je…
Read More…knock the United States off its global perch, there has always been one excellent reason to bet on a second American century: We have more babies than the competition. [taps on x-ray board and draws circles with pointy thing] Ah, see, I think we may have a problem in this area here. Because while there is a general sense in which “we” Americans “have babies,” there is also a more specific sense in which “we” women who undergo pregnancies and give…
Read More…: “Amen! I didn’t used to think so but I do now.” We’ve seen Cameron speak out against homosexuality and embrace the far right agenda by speaking at CPAC, but and it remains to be seen if he’ll embrace the rest of the “biblical worldview” promoted by Vision Forum and Christian Reconstruction: biblical patriarchy, eliminating public education, and any public assistance for the poor, etc. In any case I’ll bet that Monumental will be a contender for…
Read More…this shift. It’s possible that it was a number of factors about organized religion itself that put off those who left the church and that homophobia was simply among the most egregious, or possibly it’s proof of Millennials’ unfamiliarity with the diversity of teachings in America’s religious institutions such that they aren’t aware of the alternatives that are better aligned with their values. Whatever the reasons, it’s now evident that churches…
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…nlightening and heartbreaking. “As a Muslim, and a Black person, I don’t feel like I belong,” she said, “and I don’t think I’ll ever belong in a community where they don’t value me as a member.” I’m largely unfamiliar with Hamline, but it appears to be a majority White school in a majority White state (where I also live), so it’s a safe bet that Muslims make up only a small portion of the campus community, putting them in an already precarious pos…
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