Religion Dispatches
…y, “more than a church.” It is “a place of worship that was founded by African Americans seeking liberty” and “a sacred place in the history of Charleston and in the history of America.” Yet, as Obama noted, Emanuel, like other black churches, has been the target of violence, not just last night, but throughout its history. In an excellent essay at TPM, Benjamin Park writes about how black churches have long “served as a flashpoint for hatred from…
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…he potluck. You have said that you chose to focus on the corporate world because that way you can move the world’s most powerful people toward change. Yes. At the same time, the fact I’m doing it actually reflects a limitation on my part. For example, I don’t know how to teach children. I’ve never taught prisoners; I’ve never taught the disadvantaged population. I don’t know how to do those things. What I can do is teach the engineers and leaders…
Read More…for LGBTs, tell pastors to ‘guide’ voters Evangelical leaders urged political candidates to resist what they said were efforts by foreign groups to force abortion and gay rights on the country. From Acento.com, with English via Google translate: The Christian Action Group, the Biblical Foundation Church, and about 200 pastors and churches in Santo Domingo, said the Dominican nation is experiencing moral decay and social product of influence of co…
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…a of Christianity.” Instead of calling themselves Christians, many evangelicals call themselves disciples—an attempt to more closely replicate the first-century church. The purpose of this language is two-fold. First, it distances the non-denominational/evangelical church from historical moments of crisis such as the Crusades; and second, it is thought to bring its subjects closer to Jesus. The word “disciple” is said to be a more accurate descrip…
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…’s a delightfully weird blend of science fiction and fact, where technological forecasting slips into eschatology. The eye-roll came when I learned that the Transhumanist Party’s presidential candidate, Zoltan Istvan, is campaigning to end tax subsidies for religion and divert that money to scientific research. Transhumanism itself could be considered a new religious movement that, as A. David Lewis argues, enshrines technology as humanity’s ultim…
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…ncluding Imran Sarker, have stayed in the country and continue to publicly call for political and social reform and organize rallies after each attack and murder. But this is not an option for everyone. Now, after last month’s attacks on LGBT activists, aid groups are dealing with an entirely new field of requests for emergency assistance. There are simply are not enough resources to rescue all those threatened in Bangladesh. And even so—who would…
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…approaches to the same problems. Allow me to explain. Many Muslims are African-American. A rising proportion are Mexican. Where do the boundaries between these groups lie? If “Muslim” is separate from African-American, does that mean Islam trumps (sic) blackness? What happens with Eastern European Muslims—who are, by any reasonable definition, white and (obviously) European? Are their “culture and politics” more like white, Christian, Italian-Amer…
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…ll, for blackness is beautifully queer and queerness is beautifully churchical, beautifully ecumenical. Black church is nothing less than the practice and celebration of such queerness, of such strangely beautiful social life together. Black church is nothing less than the study—and therefore the practice and celebration—of emergent, experimental, expansive, ecumenical, unfinished socialities. That is what black church is. That is Emanuel. And it…
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…came a springboard for critical engagement as I began to develop a theological vocabulary to describe what happens in those spaces. I learned to love myself. I learned to be a healer in my community. Surely, gay nightclubs become religious spaces amidst the communitas of queer bodies inhabiting space together in kinship, but our people, Latin@s and Latin Americans, have a long history of creating ceremonial centers when our own homes became violen…
Read More…’ offices pretty much go directly in the trash. They pay more attention to phone calls and letters, but street protests don’t bother them at all, unless they’re on cable news, which they almost never are. Hashtags? Changing your Twitter avatar? Forget about it. Popular protest does play a supporting role in getting us to a point where something like the Congressional sit-in works. So do the organizations—including the religious groups—who sponsor…
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