Religion Dispatches
…her than try to change God’s standards” (1-14-08). 6.) TOP TEN COMPARISONS BETWEEN RELIGION AND DENTISTRY: Between Google ads for “oral sedation” and “dental fear,” blogger Mark Wright writes thoughtfully about many things. On this list he points out, helpfully, that “Both Dentistry and Religion benefit financially from your sins” and reminds us that “In Religion there is the promise of Heaven. In Dentistry there is only Hell.” 7.) BOOKLIST’S TOP…
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…mmigration or health care. Yes, the storytelling business is messy and diffuse. It doesn’t lend itself to sound bites as readily as the “I’m right/you’re wrong” confrontational throwdown does. But religious progressives in particular might well benefit from going this route, because so many of us have journeyed farther and over rockier ground than have our conservative counterparts. Storytelling is already powerful when we hear the stories of ot…
Read More…were often mistaken for sisters – and still are. People recognize the bond between us, but often hesitate to recognize – or completely deny – the reality of that bond. I know of gay men, lesbians, and transgender people who have been harassed, accosted, even beaten up, because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, or even a perception of “deviance.” A dear friend of mine lost her son several years ago in Greenville, South Carolina. He wa…
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…ike Fox News and the editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal to their cause. . . . [T]he left must realize that when progressives achieved success in the past, whether at organizing unions or fighting for equal rights, they seldom bet their future on politicians. They fashioned their own institutions — unions, women’s groups, community and immigrant centers and a witty, anti-authoritarian press — in which they spoke up for themselves and for t…
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…(I would disagree with BU’s characterization as ‘awful’, seeing as we all used/abused the term to some degree), but has become more of a burden as time has gone on. Any label is usually exclusionary, and artists usually hate them. I most certainly believe in an afterlife, and would call myself a Muslim. HR: This question of blasphemous content is so interesting, because there is such a long history of these types of lyrics and approaches in Islam…
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…t Orsi) or Rebecca’s Revival (by Jon Sensbach). Orsi’s book is classic because it focused on everyday religious experiences of Italian immigrants, a cluster of activities that many outsider observers considered to be “bad religion.” Orsi did, and still does, find ways to battle that idea. Sensbach uses the story of a formerly enslaved Moravian to give readers a new understanding of how Protestantism came to North America. It’s beautiful. It’s a re…
Read More…o acknowledged two valid perspectives on religious experience: one that focuses on religious institutions, their policies, their projects, and the “official” story, and another that focuses on the way religion is lived everyday in “unofficial” yet very real ways by common people of faith. Mattingly clearly cares about promoting precise descriptions of orthodox institutional religious doctrines and policies. But that doesn’t mean that he “gets reli…
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…verty terms, despite their socially progressive nature. Regardless, they caused an immediate revolution and contraception use escalated rapidly. These days, Mexican women on average have 2.1 children, down from seven in 1974. The Church, not surprisingly, tried to convince Mexicans of contraception’s moral hazards, though in many cases, Church leaders clearly realized they were on the losing side of the battle. “Undoubtedly some clergy turned a bl…
Read More….” That is, men are in the image of God in terms of authority over their households; women are created in God’s image in a decidedly different way, sometimes called “reflected glory.” Even complementarians, who try to stake out a moderate position that sounds a lot like the squirming around Bachmann did last night, end up saying the essential differences in the way men and women are created make distinct roles for them in the family, the church, a…
Read More…about Mormonism is not easy for multigenerational Mormons like Romney, because faith is also family, ancestry, ethnicity, and culture. Romney hails from a storied family at the core of Mormon culture. He is a man who probably donated about 20 hours per week of his time to Church affairs during his service as a lay congregational and regional church leader. It has been one of the prime definers of his personal identity. But what happens when a risk…
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