Religion Dispatches
…dging from the Yelp reviews at the Topeka Abortionplex, they are totally fun. So, hats off to you, Rick Santorum! Our covenly maliciousness was no match for your powers of perception. Next, you’ll figure out that the whole sexism thing is a scam. It’s totally not true. I mean, women are absolutely listened to and taken seriously….
Read More…es who were fearful of Tea Party demagoguery on immigration. Edwards, for example, maintained, “we make a mistake in lumping all these people who are on the edge with that extremist element,” and “we’re missing an opportunity” to work with those people on critical economic issues. Edwards recounted — yes —a story of a constituent who came to a town hall, and told her that she was a tea partier, but liked what her congresswoman had to say. At one p…
Read More…trusive regulation” are “as wrong and immoral and stealing;” and the the tax code should be revamped “so we can rejoice together because it would stimulate economic growth.” But there’s more. There’s good, and there’s evil, and in laying out a parade of evils, Robison lists “radical Islam,” “terrorism” and “extreme environmental activism” all in the same breath. The players in Robison’s meetings reflect this agenda. They include Jim Garlow, the Ca…
Read More…areers for women; and reforming the media such that 1950s gender norms are promoted and “sex and the city lifestyles” are discouraged. He claims the only other alternative to these “reforms,” which he acknowledges are restrictions on women’s rights, is “the creation of a network of surrogacy facilities in low cost countries and basically ‘outsource breeding,’” with the state as foster parent because “career obsessed” women would not prioritize car…
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…to pick up one item and share what that item meant to us. In its segment examining so-called “ex-gay” therapies—religious programs that try to turn gays straight—NPR, as as Warren Throckmorton first discussed here, omitted vital pieces of “ex-gay” Rich Wyler’s biography, specifically that he is a “certified life coach” who makes his living counseling men who want to become straight. He co-founded Journey into Manhood, the 48-hour, $650 group ther…
Read More…e of his talks at Vision Forum’s 2009 conference, he presented a Calvinist teaching widely popular among Reconstructionists that when leaders depart from their biblically mandated and limited roles it is the duty of lower level officials (lesser magistrates) to “interpose” themselves between the people and those leaders. This is the theological context in which Reconstructionists suggest that gun ownership is a biblical responsibility, and the tea…
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…al of conducting original research in that field of social life. Though unexpectedly and to an extent against some critical opinions about my choice, I feel my CBST ethnography became the hallmark of my work. Myself, I am somewhat “schizophrenic” as my professional identity is divided between the Israeli field of research (that also made me adopt my name, Shokeid, years ago) and the more recent involvement with the LGBT field that started with my…
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…sively called “Unitarians Considering Christ” by Christians of more orthodox leanings who see the UCC as, well, spiritual but not religious.) Some religious people do indeed exhibit almost supernatural patience and compassion for their fellows, and it often does require great courage to stay in a congregation even when there is conflict and pain and, most of all, disappointment to be found there. But I also believe that for many formerly religious…
Read More…doesn’t recognize Israel, and “[a]s part of the 1993 Oslo accords, in an exchange of letters between then Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Palestine Liberation Organization met all of these conditions nearly 20 years ago.” Three experts on Middle East diplomacy told Kessler Perry appeared to be “remarkably uninformed.” Tomorrow, though, Perry will be holding a “pro-Israel” press conference with none other tha…
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…mind, heart, and spirit have all reconciled themselves to the reality of sexual expression, and of love. Honest and nourishing sexual expression brings us to love, to truth, to holiness. Guilt knows none of this. Moreover, guilt is a conditioned phenomenon like everything else. It isn’t a still-small voice; it’s mechanistic. It’s a meme, installed by years of repetition, that has no particular value one way or the other. No Substitute for Discernm…
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