Religion Dispatches
The results of an online survey published in the latest issue of Skeptic Magazine show that atheists in America fear paying a high social price in coming out as a non-believer. “The Stigma of Being an Atheist: An Empirical Study on the New Atheist Movement and its Consequences,” written by Tom Arcaro, was based on the results of 8,200 people who identify as atheists or non-believers in God. The survey, “Coming Out as an Atheist,” was posted live…
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…ged to have planned to commit violent crimes? If so, having appointed ourselves as the arbiters of apostasy, we then cannot describe such people as Christian terrorists or Christian militias because by definition they have auto-excommunicated themselves. Finally, what terms we use depends on the occasion. While the media term of choice for the Hutaree was “Christian militia,” federal prosecutors have carefully avoided religious references. Assista…
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…Earth, Live and In Color But shame, outrage, and despair are not, in themselves, horrors sufficient enough to catalyze a full-blown case of PAEDD. To be truly out of your mind, you must be filled with an infinite love for something that you cannot touch. Fortuitously, as confronting hardship so often involves the magic of paradox, the way into the disease is also the way out from it. Pandora may seem like an exotic and impossible fantasy, but, sav…
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…ng the NCR or pressing liberals to be less wishy-washy in distancing themselves from him, and I wrote a book with a section on the NCR that ends with this reaction to a conservative leader from a radical Nicaraguan priest: “I do not see how we have the same faith; we do not believe in the same Christ.” Still, coming from precisely this posture, I do worry about mocking Robertson in ways that help rather than hurt his cause. So here is my own “top…
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…seriously, though. He vowed, “we are prepared to take steps to defend ourselves from an aggressive judgeship who thinks he can dictate to us our very relationship with God.” In the most recent Public Policy Polling survey, Gingrich is leading Romney among Florida evangelicals, 37-33%. But the evangelical makeup of the Republican electorate (38%) in Florida is virtually the reverse of South Carolina, where they comprised 65% of voters, and which is…
Read MoreFranklin Graham’s Fat Tuesday appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe came with his usual “dog whistle” to the Tea Party and Teavangelicals about Obama being a Muslim. Graham has done this before, back in April of 2011, when he discussed President Obama on This Week with Christiane Amanpour. Graham threw out all of the dog whistles he could, bringing up Jeremiah Wright, and pushing back on the panels’ direct question to him as to whether President Obam…
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…known as bacha bazi, or boy play; powerful Afghan men often surround themselves with young teenagers as a mark of social status. The Times editorialized, “The Pentagon’s indulgent, even complicit, attitude toward pedophiles among the Afghan militias that it funded and trained is indefensible, at odds with American values and with international laws Washington has taken the lead in promoting.” China: Filmmaker sues over censorship A documentarian…
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…as a teenager. In a statement to People magazine, Duggar, now 27, said: Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret. I hurt others, including my family and close friends. . . . I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation. We spoke with the authorities where I confessed my wrongdoing, and my parents arranged for me and those affected by my act…
Read MoreAmerican Evangelicals Attend Anti-Gay Summit in Moscow We noted last week that the World Congress of Families’ planned summit seemed to be going ahead generally as planned, though without the official WCF imprimatur. That’s exactly what happened this week, with WCF officials Don Feder and Larry Jacobs in attendance, along with Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage. Miranda Blue reports at Right Wing Watch that the event, whose the…
Read MoreKansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah was penalized last night for praying in the end zone after returning an interception for a touchdown. Tim Tebow has similarly prayed — although, apparently, the two prayers aren’t “similar:” one is Christian, and one is Muslim. The Kansas City Star reports Abdullah is a “devout Muslim” who promised himself that if he scored a touchdown, “I’m going to prostrate before God in the end zone.” Last night, he w…
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