Religion Dispatches
…ding up to this year’s election.“ (For more on Pray the Vote, go here) The promo for Craig Detweiler’s new book Into the Dark reads: “Detweiler, a well-respected film expert and media spokesperson on Hollywood and Christianity, examines forty-five twenty-first-century films that resonate theologically—from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Little Miss Sunshine—offering groundbreaking insight into their scriptural connections and theological applica…
Read More…l like scum and ashamed of who we are, we turn to things that make us feel better—drugs and alcohol perhaps. Being rejected by family, church and society can bring on depression or violence in acting out our frustrations. Early death, though, for our community can be caused by any of these problems … and sometimes violence from those outside our community who believe the world would be a better place without us. So, no, LGBT people are not addicte…
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…inciple that imagining creates reality has captivated modern readers,” the promo copy explains. The publisher probably didn’t expect the book to resonate quite so uncomfortably with the political moment when they chose November 8th—Election Day—as its publication date. But indeed, Donald Trump’s distinctive style has roots in the spiritual tradition of which At Your Command and The Secret are both a part. Neville was just ahead of his time. Born i…
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…unless they converted to Christianity. The same applied to countries like Guyana, where my wife’s dad and others of his generation took Christian names for schooling purposes. It was based on the idea that one couldn’t get educated—or enlightened—unless they rejected their identities. Sankaran conveniently dances around the subject of forced or coerced conversion of Hindus and other non-proselytizing religious groups. He goes on to explain how he…
Read More…th his members too, before leading the People’s Temple into the jungles of Guyana. Long however, is in interesting historical company. After all, Father Divine called himself God on Earth, and so did Yahweh Ben Yahweh, but Long is taking his “kingdom” to the next level of church pimping. His adaptation of the conservative Christian penchant for all things “Jewish”—being anointed by a fake Rabbi—is a new twist in the prosperity game. Make no mistak…
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…d cult members as helpless losers, these comedies reinforced a distinction between healthy, “normal” religion and deviant “cult” religion. Basically, these jokes relieve our anxiety that our own religious beliefs and practices might be just as strange as than those of the cult. But satire can just as easily call these distinctions into question. In 1998 The Simpsons aired an episode about cults in which Bart opines: “Church, cult, cult, church. So…
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…e amendments are: (1) sex defined as male and female only. (2) Marriage as between one man and one woman only. (3) Protection of religious freedom in church education, (4) Limits on LGBT public promotion. We believe these amendments make explicit what the Constitution already implies. [NEAB Vice President Scott Stirm] also reported that the new Trump administration in Washington has committed to appoint a pro-family values US ambassador to Belize….
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…inline counterparts. So in 1954, Congress enacted the provision of the tax code at stake in Gaylor v. Mnuchin. A House committee said that the aim of the new subsection was to treat equally those ministers for whom churches provided housing and those who were paid housing allowances instead. The sponsor of the legislation, Illinois Democratic Rep. Peter Mack, justified the law in terms resonant of the fight against communism: Certainly, in these t…
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…uples. The third criterion Dr. King identifies is that “an unjust law is a code that a numerical or power majority group compels a minority group to obey but does not make binding on itself. This is difference made legal. By the same token, a just law is a code that a majority compels a minority to follow and that it is willing to follow itself. This is sameness made legal.” For same sex couples to have legal access just like heterosexual couples…
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…. So it’s more about representation and identity than it is about specific codes or laws.” Even though some political activists in Middle Eastern and North African countries promote “Islamic law” in reaction to the imposition of European-style government and legal systems on them, there is no single school of thought on what shari’ah, or divine law, is or means—and there is no single, accepted legal code. “If Islamic law were some book where you c…
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