Religion Dispatches
…any other name) a Reconstructionist? And as Gerson noted in his essay, the number of people who can be labeled in this way would “fit in a phone booth.” (Actually there are significantly more than he recognizes, but I take his point.) My point, though, is that this is the wrong question. Far more interesting, I think, is to look at the influence of Christian Reconstruction; how has it impacted the style of the conservative Christianity that makes…
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…phone conversation, Fr. O’Donnell also dismissed any concerns about the influence of coal money on the public policy statements of the diocese. “It’s just a non-issue in such discussions,” he told me. “I’m flabbergasted the topic is even coming up.” Certainly a deeper and more sustained conversation is necessary. In order to yield fruit, such conversations require some degree of financial transparency on the part of the church. This is rarely an…
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…ere not companionship-based. They were economic arrangements. Okay, that’s number 1. Number 2, let’s say that your wife didn’t provide you with a male offspring. A man could take another wife and another wife and another wife until one of them did. This is the “sanctity of marriage” that is being protected. Are you kidding me? Wow. Okay, so that’s Old Testament. Then along comes Jesus. Well for those of us who follow Jesus, I always like to point…
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…ar crimes and genocide, are continuing what they began in the 1985-2002 conflict and genocide. The government began to isolate us from the outside world by cutting off power and cell phone towers. One hundred people sought refuge in the town’s Catholic church. They were forced out with tear gas. Some were hauled away by security forces. Some were killed, among them a priest, an attorney, aid workers, and people targeted because of their ethnicity…
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…ngress, enslaved Blacks in a state would be counted as three-fifths of the number of white inhabitants of that state. Enslavement written into our founding document is something we have never fully reckoned with as a nation. And we have been reaping this bad seed of a beginning ever since while trying to ignore the fact that we do not legally, politically, socially, or theologically practice the belief that all lives matter. The murders of Sterlin…
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…nd them. The controversial document that resulted from a summer morning conflict in 1843, yet continues to influence a now-global church, then, demonstrates modern Mormonism’s continual struggle with prophetic authority, scriptural inerrancy, and gendered realities. More broadly, it reveals the constant tension religions must negotiate: maintaining some form of religious consistency while also adapting to new cultural expectations. Plural marriage…
Read More…e religious right. While opponents to Prop. 8 have filled the streets of a number of cities with thousands of angry and steadfast demonstrators, religious right groups appear see the anti-same-sex marriage amendments that passed in California, Arizona, and Florida as a much-needed culture wars booster shot. With pro-gay civil rights demonstrations continue across America, pro- and anti-gay spokespersons squaring off in debates on radio and televis…
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…ist facing the bewildering array of current economic problems stick to the numbers or engage in psychological analysis? We could do worse than break down the current cast of characters based on that question and that approach. Greenspan was a number cruncher, Brooks observed, and unfortunately for him, human psychology caught up with him in the “housing bubble.” The current debate over Timothy Geithner is being conducted in similar terms. No one d…
Read More…on to Texas, another anti-evolution bill was also introduced this month in Florida. HB 1854 would require “a critical analysis” of the teaching of evolution in public schools. The bill is little different from legislation currently in committee in Tennessee, which says that educators may not be prohibited from “helping students understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of exi…
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…f Ibn Tulun in Egypt. Image via Scott D. Haddow/Flickr. 2008 Summer Olympics – Opening Ceremony – Beijing, China 同一个世界 同一个梦想 – U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program – FMWRC. Photo via U.S. Army/Flickr. “New Month’s Day—Snowdance” photo by Snugg LePupp/Flickr. Adam and Eve (oil on panel) by Lucas Cranach the Elder.”Wanderer” image by Alice Popkorn/Flickr….
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