Religion Dispatches
…ns when the openly gay Anglican bishop, Gene Robinson, was confirmed). The code word for most of that uproar is “anti-Modern.” So the irony of Catholic anti-Modernism multiplies, morphs, turns back on itself. The logic of Catholic anti-Modernism, as it were, is capitalist to the core. The Vatican looks at the world map and analyzes new growth markets. When one source of material resources dries up, the empire marches determinedly on. From this per…
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…f SB 522 becomes law. The bill also highlights the fact that Texas marital code still only identifies “a man and a woman” as the two parties who may apply for a marriage license. Even for Texas Republicans, this bill is a mean-spirited (though not at all unprecedented) attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage equality in pursuit of accommodating a vocal minority who claim their faith trumps their neighbors’ pursuit of life, lib…
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…Corinthians”) as ordinary Americans are with the loopholes of the IRS tax code…‘The Art of the Deal,’ his campaign biography by default, is a human billboard for pride and lust…‘I’m a greedy person,’ he told an Iowa audience, ‘I’ve always been greedy.’ Prothero’s explanation is structured around the notion of evangelicals’ loss of their fundamental religious identity through politicization. In supporting Trump, Prothero insists, evangelicals “are…
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…nly true “Catholic teaching.” Complex and debatable issues are treated simplistically in ways that insult the subtleties of the Catholic moral tradition and the rich moral traditions of all the world’s religions. The bishops focus mainly on what I call the “pelvic issues.” These they call “intrinsic evils” — artificial contraception, same sex unions, and abortion. These issues are freely discussed by theologians in all the world’s religious tradit…
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…tion about how to embody their vision of a genuinely inclusive, free, pluralist United States. I’m sure that taking back patriotism with “country over party” rhetoric will benefit them strategically—but what does it say about the broader vision that it was accompanied by chants of “USA! USA!” and a “tough on crime” stance embodied by a sheriff who once worked with right-wing wackos on their (at best) morally dubious anti-trafficking missions? Once…
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…aren’t so much sober accusations of individuals’ crimes than an insiders’ code for ‘elite liberals.’ The Satanic abuse panic of the 1980s and 90s led to the persecution and false convictions of many innocent people and caused traumatic rifts in communities. The panic involved gothic stories of bloody ceremonies conducted by community-members in black robes, including graphic claims of child and adult sexual abuse and rumors of specific “cult” loc…
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…ation practices took place in a community of aspirants abiding by a common code of conduct and observing a shared set of rituals. While deemed necessary for liberation, meditation practices like mindfulness were not sufficient. The accompanying rules and relationships were just as important. Modern-day mindfulness takes this twentieth-century shift to lay meditation one step further, sanctioning meditation as a technique developed in the midst of…
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…carefully-prescribed and ordered way of life. This often causes fundamentalists to lack the ability to empathize with or “stand in the shoes” of other people, especially when the experiences or circumstances of the other people do not square with the way things are “meant to be.” Instead of seeking to understand the lived and felt experiences of other people, fundamentalists often try to enforce conformity on them. Empathy does not serve this pro…
Read More…News Service in a story about some campaigns hiring faith engagement specialists: “In coming years, Democratic candidates in particular may need to focus on hiring a ‘nones engagement’ specialist alongside a faith-based one.” Invoking religion is unlikely to convince conservative Christians to come over to liberal Christianity. It may, however, energize conservative Christians, white evangelicals, and Christian nationalists while turning off the “…
Read More…port was released, Monk openly appeared (in possible violation of military code) at the Values Voters Summit for a panel. The Liberty Institute’s Jeff Mateer put his hand on Monk’s shoulder and praised him, saying, “We’ve gotten phone calls from military members who are undergoing discrimination…and with the exception of him, those folks that have called us have all wanted to remain anonymous. Sergeant Monk, to his credit, is willing to stand up.”…
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