Religion Dispatches
…ility of meaningful dialogue. Which, in fact, is the very awareness Gordis appears to lack. After seeing my comment, Rabbi Gordis contacted me through Facebook and we had a private conversation. He was, as one can imagine, very upset at my use of the term “fascist.” In a previous personal message sent to me the day before he read my accusation, he acknowledged our differences and asked if I wanted to have a conversation. I replied I would be happy…
Read More
…linear terms that might make some sense. First, the objection: this never happens. Find me one example of when a short-term protest movement led to a long-term paradigm shift. Such shifts happen gradually, over time. “Occupy” movements are for short-term change. My prediction is that Occupy Wall Street will peter out once the snow starts falling in earnest. Bloomberg et al. just have to wait. No one’s going to camp out in Zuccotti Park when it’s t…
Read More…ave endorsed the measure. It proposes to redefine the basic word “person,” applying it to fertilized eggs. The goal of this mischief, as many have noted, is to outlaw all abortions with no exceptions—even for rape or incest, or when a woman’s life is in danger. This would mean that, in Mississippi (or the several other states like Florida and Ohio that are drafting similar measures) it will be safer to be a fertilized-egg-person (FEP) than a woman…
Read More…e different organizations that serve LGBT/SGA Mormons to explore different approaches to LDS homosexuality: Affirmation, the nation’s oldest organization of gay Mormons, North Star and Family Fellowship. The Circling the Wagons conference will feature Jimmy Creech, a former United Methodist Church minister defrocked for marrying LGBT couples, as well as LDS LGBT ally Carol Lynn Pearson. Utah State University professor Renee Galliher will present t…
Read More…cigarette and a beer (both forbidden according to the LDS Church’s dietary code, “The Word of Wisdom”), more substantial coverage this week is focusing on Romney’s service as bishop of his LDS congregation in Belmont, Massachusetts in the 1980s. On Monday, the Washington Post offered a revealing account of Bishop Romney’s interactions with Boston’s robust Mormon feminist community during tense years for the movement, when the LDS Church played a…
Read More…s for Ron Paul, whose campaign dismissed the Trump debate as “beneath the office of the Presidency and flies in the face of that office’s history and dignity.” Televangelists have offered presidential candidates many circuses, from Huckabee’s appearances on Copeland’s program, to Rick Perry’s prayer rally last August, to John McCain’s short-lived dalliances with Hagee and Rod Parsley. Trump’s indulgence is just the latest iteration of the same ven…
Read More…the evidence I have is small, but I think it’s significant. In her recent appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show, Gingrich’s half-sister Candace Gingrich-Jones said that while her brother did not attend her wedding (since he was out of town) “they did send a gift.” As someone who has anti-gay siblings, I find this to be significant. The siblings that refused to attend my wedding never, ever sent a gift. Any acknowledgement of my marriage to my part…
Read More
…same Torah and commentaries, study the same Talmud, live by the same legal codes, and adhere to the same basic belief system. Yes, the haredim have a very narrow reading of these sources but it’s a safe bet that they can cite chapter and verse to support their views—often more adroitly than their modern counterparts. In his Mishneh Torah (Code of Law), Maimonides explicitly advocated the position that women should stay mostly in their homes. The k…
Read More…The elderly couple who owned the B&B had invited us down to the Victorian appointed living room to watch television with them that evening. As Buchanan’s speech (which Molly Ivins once remarked “sounded better in its original German”) got around to gays and lesbians – an uncomfortable silence permeated the room. “Americans are a tolerant people. But a majority believes that the sexual practices of gays, whether a result of nature or nurture, are…
Read More…um, which is conducting state-by-state analysis of primary results in what appears to be an effort to get a statistical grip on the religious vote. Pew Forum data from last weekend’s contest in South Carolina shows that evangelical Christians did play a major role in the Gingrich victory. Of the two-thirds of Republican voters who self-described as “born-again” or “evangelical,” 44% voted for Gingrich, 22% for Romney, and 21% for Santorum. This is…
Read More