Religion Dispatches
The Grinches that comprise the family/membership of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas have a knack for turning stomachs. Whether they’re brandishing signs at gay pride parades condemning gays and lesbians to hell or protesting the funerals of U.S. soldiers, they seem to be spreading rage and distaste wherever they appear. Now, the WBC folks are on the warpath in Washington State against the big guy himself – Santa Claus. Westboro Baptist…
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It was a little over three years ago, on December 20, 2005, that Judge John E. Jones III issued his ruling in Kitzmiller v. Dover that intelligent design was not science, but merely repackaged creationism—and that it had no business in biology class. The hoopla was immediate and enduring. Jones’ decision launched headlines across the globe, not to mention celebrations by the trial’s plaintiffs, their legal team and science experts (who send “Merr…
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Ten Questions for Jonathan Walton on Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism What inspired you to write Watch This? My interest in African American religious broadcasting came from what I perceived to be the gaps in the fields of African American religion and Religion, Media, and Culture. For the most part, scholars of African American religion in general and black theology in particular theorize about Afro-Protestantism in…
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Ever since my daughter and I noted in the pages of Religion Dispatches that some End Times believers consider Barack Obama a serious contender for the Antichrist, I’ve kept my antennae out for the ongoing development of this discourse. Though certain conservatives floated the idea as a trial balloon during the presidential campaign—notably in an interview with John Hagee on the Glenn Beck show—that rhetoric has seldom been heard in the public squ…
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In early April of last year, at a conference in Jerusalem of American evangelicals organized by Pastor John Hagee, Benjamin Netanyahu told the audience that Israel had no better friends than America’s Christian Zionists. “This is a friendship of the heart, a friendship of common roots, and a friendship of common civilization,” Netanyahu said. Now, nearly a year later, with Netanyahu cobbling together a ruling coalition in Israel, three men of the…
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This June, HBO will launch the second season of True Blood, a soap opera featuring psychics, vampires, and shape-shifters based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris. The story takes place in a world where vampires have discovered a synthetic beverage that can slake their thirst for blood. No longer a threat to humans, many vampires reveal themselves to the public, form advocacy groups, and begin dating human waitresses. Se…
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Yahoo has just bought the domain name “OMG.com” for a cool 80K. They plan, it is assumed, to use the URL for their newish entertainment portal, which serves up “celebrity gossip, news, babies, couples, hotties, and more—omg!” Oh my God. It is certainly safe to say, at the very least, that the word “God” is the most vacuous word in the English language. In 21st-century America, no other word is so empty of meaning that it can span linguistic usage…
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Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home By Rhoda Janzen (Henry Holt and Company, 2009) Which is better: to battle against religious stereotypes, or to have a faith completely unknown to others? In my case, my family’s religious persuasion—the Church of God, the congregational Christian church based in Anderson, Indiana—is often mistaken for something else, if not entirely misunderstood. I may not be the best person to explain no…
Read MoreWhen members of the anti-gay group the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) gathers next month in Philadelphia for their annual convention, they’ll be facing a lot of baggage—theirs certainly, but also luggage being brought to them in protest. Truth Wins Out, a group that works to expose the scientific quackery of groups like NARTH, will sponsor a “Lift My Luggage” protest on Nov. 6: The notorious “ex-gay” group…
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Update II: Go here for full hoax story. Update: Box Turtle Bulletin is now reporting that despite several different sources on this story, it may well not be true. Yes, a young man was murdered, but his connection to Integrity Uganda is now being questioned. Sources in the U.S. and Uganda now tell me that the young man in question was not connected with Integrity Uganda, and that Bishop Christopher Senyonjo did not make the statement attributed t…
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