Religion Dispatches
…hate rallies, whether in anti-Semitic rallies in Germany in the 1930s, in Alabama in the 1960s, or in Yorba Linda this February. What kind of “cooperation” does King want? In reporting instances of planned violence, Muslims have been not just cooperative, but proactive. The Nigerian would-be airplane bomber was reported by his own father. The attempted Times Square bomber was first identified by a Muslim street vendor. Would that Ted Kaczinsky an…
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…heroes and heroines like Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old from Montgomery, Alabama who refused to give up her seat on the bus nearly a year before Rosa Parks. Within political discourse, however, King was still a powerful and potent weapon. On the right, Republicans were quoting King to oppose affirmative action, and anything related to continued expansion of civil rights on the basis of “the content of our character.” On the left, King was being…
Read More…e me bro!” When the head pastor at New Welcome Baptist Church in St. Elmo, Alabama told the church music minister that he was fired, the music minster responded with a taser. Problems continue to surround the Crystal Cathedral. Creditors say they will sue the megachurch if it blocks a sale of its large campus. Both Chapman University and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange upped their offers for the property to $50 and $53.6 million respectively….
Read More…though it was only two years ago. I met Kumrits and Jones at Orange Beach, Alabama, where they have been working as clean up workers. Two weeks earlier, they had been down in Clearwater, Florida figuring out what to do with their summer when they heard about the jobs scraping oil from beaches. A contact told them if they wanted to be hired, they should be here by 8:00 the next morning. (They work temporary jobs and each summer, they live in a diff…
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…r some people think. This is the court that upheld the Muslim ban; allowed Alabama to execute a Muslim without spiritual succor to stay on schedule; gutted the Voting Rights Act; claimed the only solution to partisan gerrymandering destroying equitable votes is to get out and vote; abused its shadow docket to allow churches to defy life-saving anti-pandemic measures and to effectively overturn Roe v. Wade; and rubber-stamped discrimination against…
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…n persons gunned down in Germany and eleven more than that in the state of Alabama. In the face of such enormity, words break and grief can overwhelm. An impulse for vengeance, like blind rage itself, is all-too-human and all-too-understandable. Yet these are poor places from which to engage in serious deliberation over matters of great moral complexity. Recall that the death penalty was originally designed so that cool heads would prevail over ve…
Read More…ir exhibitions. Decades later, in 1927, the legislatures of seven states — Alabama, Florida, Maine, Missouri, Oregan, Texas, and Wyoming — decided they needed state birds thanks to the efforts of progressive women’s clubs and their connection to the Audubon Society. And so it went, until recent years, when legislatures have begun to experience symbol fatigue. Part of it may have to do with how state symbol initiatives have become handy ways of int…
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…rprise to those who have been following this year’s presidential race. The Alabama pastor and former convention vice president soundly defeated his opponent 4,076 votes to 924 as expected. Yet persons unfamiliar with this particular body of Baptists may just be amazed to discover that Rev. Scruggs’ defeated opponent was Rev. Henry J. Lyons, past president of the NBC who was imprisoned earlier this decade for stealing millions from the denomination…
Read MoreAlabama Republican Robert Aderholt and West Virginia Democrat Nick Rahall have introduced a Congressional Resolution, timed to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, designed to express the body’s “gratitude” for the “influence” the KJV has had on “countless families, individuals, and institutions in the United States.” The bipartisan co-sponsors were lobbied by the small non-profit Bible Nation Society, based in Corunna, Mi…
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…less gained market share among the religious in recent decades. Recall how Alabama’s Republican governor, Bob Riley, a conservative Christian citing gospel principles, tried to bring some tax fairness to his state in 2003. Riley got smacked down hard by the Christian Coalition, which by that time had adopted “thou shalt not tax the rich” as its 11th Commandment. Even as corporate villains taste a tiny bit of populist pushback today, it still remai…
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