Religion Dispatches
…d while Christian triumphalists fight to make their version of history the official one in textbooks, there’s plenty of room for reasoned, researched, and temperate documentaries. There’s a valuable public role for these kinds of series’ even if they only wind up preaching to the converted. Furthermore, while the documentary necessarily leaves out a plethora of other stories, the show’s excellent accompanying Web site provides a wealth of material…
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…r political violence—the difference being that she’s an elected Republican official. She’s stated that there were “more gallows needed” for the Right’s political enemies and has called for “more rope and less inflation” on the right-wing site Gab. And speaking of Gab—another escalation, even by AFPAC standards, was the speech by Gab-founder Andrew Torba. His rant, filled with the language of “spiritual warfare” and extreme religious rhetoric, mana…
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…oes business. So I think a faux Religious Left is being manufactured as an official counterweight to the Religious Right in the media and as a sop to the actual stirrings among religious progressives. BB: There has been some talk about a so-called resurrection of the “religious left“ in this country. What is the mainstream media referring to when it talks about a “religious left“? How do you see the development of an authentic “religious left?“ FC…
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…ves, but stay-at-home motherhood continues to hold a place of privilege in official church discourse. Among Mormons in North America, it certainly remains the cultural ideal. That’s the ideal Ann Romney embodies, and observant and conservative LDS women came to their digital barricades late last week to defend it in their status updates, tweets, Pinterest boards, and texts. But on Friday, Feminist Mormon Housewives blog founder Lisa Butterworth (h…
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…ures of Hernandez taken from the Archdiocese website—and scrubbed from the site days after they were submitted as evidence—which showed him participating in official Church activities and retreats through March 2010. Birge and her attorney identified a prior victim, who anonymously gave a statement for the plaintiffs, alleging that Hernandez attempted to rape her under very similar circumstances several years earlier. In their response, the Church…
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…red light once again. According to the Washington Times, “a senior Israeli official said that Israel has not asked for US aid or permission [to attack Iran] because the Netanyahu government doesn’t want to risk being told ‘no.’” The obvious point is that when the United States says “no” and means it, Israeli leaders kneel down and obey; which is why Barak is so worried about Israel being “driven to its knees.” This is the plight Israel finds itsel…
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…“pro-life feminists” by refusing to allow one of their organizations be an official co-sponsor of the Woman’s March on Washington. The dust-up started after Emma Green reported in The Atlantic that a Texas-based group called New Wave Feminists had been granted partnership status in the march in the interests of promoting “intersectional feminism” according to Bob Bland, one of the march’s co-chairs. Green painted a portrait of “pro-life feminists”…
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…ics support reproductive choice and LGBT equality even though the church’s official positions are vehemently opposed to both. Sometimes there’s a nugget of truth to the right’s persecution stories—as when a school official wrongly limits a student’s religious expression—but more often, persecution claims evaporate under the slightest examination. The BuzzFeed story about the Gainses’ pastor was, in my opinion, a mistake—but not part of an ongoing…
Read More…en threat to Baxley. Not to be deterred, the Attorney General responded on official state letterhead as follows: “My response to your letter of February 19, 1976, is—kiss my ass.” Baxley’s response falls right in line with Sikh traditions. Sikhs of the 18th century banded together to resist bigots who terrorized and oppressed minority communities. Because Sikhs staunchly insisted on standing up against injustice and inequalities, the rulers of the…
Read More…e of African descent. Controversial issues like these are not addressed in official church materials, and in many congregations, Sunday meetings reflect a highly orthodox, literal approach to Church doctrine and scripture. Even mentions of Smith’s polygamy have been scrubbed from Church lesson manuals, returning only in a newly released book on Mormon women’s history. The culture of shame and silence that surrounds these subjects within Mormon cul…
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