Search Results for:

VIPREG2024 how to use 1xbet free bet promo code Egypt

Lincoln, Clinton, and Trump: From Strategy to Spin to Straight-Up Bullshit

…nder certain circumstances, to trim the truth in the service of a higher cause. The difference between these two conceptions of Lincoln is revealing. By pausing to examine each of them, we may better understand the way mendacity normally functions in the political realm, and the ways in which, on some occasions, mendacity may violate the tacit rules that keep that system stable. Lincoln’s reputation as a person of absolute integrity has been a sta…

Read More

Hail Santa! War-on-Christmas Outrage Over Satanic Tree Reveals the Self-Serving Ambiguity of ‘Religion’

…ernment property in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, violated the establishment clause. The court ruled 5-4 that it did not, largely because the crèche was surrounded by other symbols that evoked Christmas but were not Christian, like Santa, reindeer, etc. As Sandra Day O’Connor explained in her concurrence, “The display celebrates a public holiday, and no one contends that declaration of that holiday is understood to be an endorsement of religion. The ho…

Read More
A desolate road in Israel lined with security fencing.

Decadence, Sickness, and Death: Mourning and the Israel-Hamas War

…incere belief that coexistence was possible. Peace Now, founded in 1978 to promote a genuine and just peace between Israel and Palestine, was a real, forceful movement in the 1980s, with some political power. No more. In fact, it is today’s protest movement, a mostly centrist movement, which has taught us that Israel has transformed into a more ethnocentric, illiberal, even autocratic, right-wing society. Many are against this, but the mere fact t…

Read More

US Offers Help For Investigation of Bangladesh Killings

…the United States, which they want to impose “the new Moral Agenda” which promotes abortion, marriage between lesbians, gays and transsexuals. The president and director of the Christian Action Group spoke on a panel addressing “The new global agenda and its implications in the Dominican Republic.” They warned that international institutions like the Organization for American States and United Nations are pushing an agenda that would “destroy the…

Read More

Why “Family Values” Defined Conservative Christianity (and Why “Religious Liberty” Has Replaced it)

…family at the center of their political agenda. This agenda—defending and promoting family values—resonated with evangelical Christians because it spoke to two of their central convictions. First, evangelicals believed that gender was part of the created order, that men and women were created by God to fulfill different roles. In traditional families, men provided and protected, while women bore, reared and nurtured children. Movements that viewe…

Read More

Will SCOTUS Call the “Bluff” of Religious Liberty Activists?

…going to allow religious objectors to completely opt-out of laws by continually re-defining the burden on their religious exercise, regardless of the impact on third parties and the harms done to them. And you can bet if that strategy succeeds here, we’ll see it in use very soon in other contexts, like exemptions to LGBT non-discrimination laws and marriage equality protections. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that….

Read More

As a Religious Studies Professor I Disagreed With the Hamline Firing — But Now I’ve Changed My Mind

…ditions are diverse. No, higher education cannot flourish without academic freedom. Yes, professors are only human and don’t deserve to be fired over a single disagreement or unintentional offense. But was this particular offense actually unintentional? Ultimately the direct cause of the controversy is that the instructor knew she was going to offend the Muslim students entrusted to her, and she did it anyway. That’s a pretty good example of punch…

Read More

The Man in the Red Dress: My Unlikely Friendship with Cardinal Francis George

…United States church that demanded zero tolerance in cases of clergy sex abuse. Still, his personal pastoral response to the emotional and spiritual needs of clergy abuse victims was not what it might have been, at least not in the early days of the scandal. I held Cardinal George’s feet to the flames on many occasions and often wrote things I’m sure he wished I hadn’t, not least of all his 2006 mishandling of the case of Daniel McCormack, a young…

Read More

Turn On The News: The Times Has to Make a Choice: It Can’t Laugh at Satanic Claims and Take the Christian Right at Face Value

…ry takes place in a context closer to home. Putting that failure in a funhouse mirror simply allows us to clearly see inconsistencies that otherwise seem normal. If a European arts and culture story can treat conservative opposition to an artist as transparent and unpopular nonsense, why shouldn’t an American-focused piece do likewise? Instead, we’re forced to listen to supposed Christian mouthpieces, who represent not much more than their fax mac…

Read More

The Plot to Turn the Synod into a “Plot”

…nt of the total number of the members mentioned in articles V and VIII. Despite this, Douthat assures us that “as a Catholic,” he expects “the plot to ultimately fail; where the pope and the historic faith seem to be in tension, my bet is on the faith.” It’s a measure of how deeply conservative Catholics identify the “faith” with the doctrinal orthodoxy of JP II and Benedict that Douthat actually believes he speaks for Catholics more authentically…

Read More