Religion Dispatches
…ian youth, who have proven to be singularly unmoved by the Abstinence Only policies of their elders. Why else did her alleged son-in-law-to-be not take down his “My Space” page, fail to register to vote, and why does he show no current interest in his alleged fiancé, or the semi-sacrament of matrimony? The Democratic Party, with its new leadership, has a rare and inspiring opportunity to listen to a younger generation, and even to conservative rel…
Read More…of the list of priorities for the new Congress, along with sensible fiscal policies,” Concerned Women for America leader Penny Nance responded in her own letter. “I’d like to know which one—support for the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, eliminating taxpayer dollars from funding embryonic stem cell research, or defunding Planned Parenthood—the signers of the GOProud letter have a problem with.” Actually, GOProud, like most fiscally conservat…
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…American politics, but we’ve hardly made it to the promised land. Economic policies pitched to the benefit of “all” are more likely to gain support than those perceived to play favorites. Anti-Gay Resolutions If you understand yourself as rooted in tolerance, Pursue the repeal of California’s Proposition 8. At first glance, this might seem like nothing but trouble for a new Religious Left. You are, after all, made up of elements that span from sec…
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…urch and state,” for most that doesn’t prohibit clergy from advocating for policies that reflect their values. It’s true that mainline denominations have shrunk in recent decades—a trend now being seen among some evangelical denominations as well—but mainline Protestants still represent about 18 percent of Americans and nearly a quarter of voters. They’re swing voters who’ve been following their clergy in moving slowly but steadily away from the G…
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…lking about poverty, homeless, income inequality, substance abuse and drug policies. We need to listen to it with a different ear. That’s what the trap church was about.” In the service, Wortham explored the church’s role in trap culture and encouraged the crowd of attendees, mostly black Atlanta professionals, to become involved in local organizations such as Street Groomers, Black Lives Matter Atlanta and Housing Justice League. Though the Pink…
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…he first companies to include sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policies and actually offers “partial coverage for transgender surgery (effective in 2006) to its existing coverage of other transgender-specific health benefits.” In the words of Homer Simpson, “D’oh!” Two thoughts come to mind while reading this: 1. Good on Google for doing something Congress should have done when they passed health care reform. Removing the unfair taxati…
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…n Phyllis Schlafly and others could still make a viable political case for policies designed to confine women to the domestic sphere. Even the Republican Party has now embraced working mothers. And, as we have been repeatedly reminded, white Christians can no longer claim or exercise cultural homogeny. But where Douthat errs is in assuming this means conservative Christians are no longer, or will not be in the future, a significant political and c…
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…ncarceration During World War II. Among other revelations, Blankenship shows how Christians ministering to Japanese in the camps learned to “challenge the constitutionality of government policies on race and civil rights.” That’s a lesson to be taken to heart in these challenging and dispiriting days at present, with more to come. …
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…ancestry, this country has vacillated on the razor’s edge. The immigration policies of Donald Trump aim to return us to the darker eras of our history, consequentially erasing the history of vulnerable groups who are part of the fabric of this nation. Since the horrific events of 9/11, terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and its successor ISIS have desperately sought to radically change the tapestry of American life, to erase Islam in America, to put t…
Read More…n a decade, Carter has been working, without success, to reunite Baptists. Policies during his administration played a role in forming divisions within the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC); in fact, the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC began in 1979 during his presidency, a move that was very closely linked to the rise of the religious right in American politics. Randall Balmer, in his book Thy Kingdom Come, recounts the precipitating event tha…
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